Digital Commons Network^™

Bortolini's Bellah And Bellah's Bortolini: A Reading Of An Ethical Biography, Harlan Stelmach

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

An ethical biography entails assessing four major elements, the narrated author, the narrating author, the text and the reader. In each instance of engagement, fidelity to the truth of the other is essential. It is at these interpretive moments that ethics becomes an issue in terms of interpretative awareness, faithfulness and the impact on the interpreters. Is it inevitable in an ethical biography that personal transformations will occur? Using theoretical work on the genre of biography by Frédéric Regard, the author illustrates Regard’s theories by applying Bortolini’s A Joyfully Serious Man (AJSM). To accomplish this, he takes a personal approach. …

Dark Of The World, Shine On Us: The Redemption Of Blackness In Ryan Coogler’S Black Panther, George Faithful

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Directed by Ryan Coogler, the film Black Panther portrays the heroes of the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda as godlike. They possess otherworldly sophistication by virtue of their blackness, in contrast to longstanding tendencies in mainstream film toward tokenism, stereotyping, and victimhood in depictions of people of African descent. The superhero the Black Panther, a.k.a. King T’Challa, learns to stand in solidarity with the oppressed, even those in whose oppression he has been unwittingly complicit, such as the children of the African diaspora. As a result, the film can function as catalyst for reflection on the part of viewers in …

The Prospect Of Human Spiritual Unity Through The Cosmic Story, Philip Novak

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Thomas Berry and Brian Swimme have noted that, “we seem to be moving beyond any religious expression so far known to the human into a meta-religious age that seems to be a new comprehensive context for all religions.” That “new comprehensive context” is of course now known as Big History -- a.k.a. the Evolutionary Epic, Universe Story, or New Cosmic Story—the astonishing contemporary synthesis of modern sciences that tells a coherent story of the evolution of the universe from the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago to the present.

Yet with the notable exception of the writings of Berry and …

Inside Out [Published Under The Title "Sam Shepard Is A Place"], Marianne Rogoff

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

"Sam Shepard is a place, and in The One Inside (Knopf 2017) you’re there with him on the ground in the American desert. Shepard doesn’t like to fly so maybe this gives him a different point of view from the rest of us who are always taking off, in the air, and landing. His characters are found in motel rooms on empty highways, on porches, wandering open space, asleep under overpasses, walking next to the interstate as cars fly by so fast they never stop to notice anyone’s there."

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Giving Poems: Motivation And Personality In The Reading And Sharing Of Poetry, Leeann Bartolini

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Most of the psychological work on poetry has investigated the poet (Mason, Mort, Woo, 2015; Jamison, 1989) or the expressive act of writing poetry (Fink & Drake, 2016, Coulehan & Clary, 2005). The National Poetry Foundation commissioned a study in 2006 that examined the general habits of the American public in terms of reading and sharing poetry. This survey found:14% of American population reads poetry.Readers in general and poetry readers in particular tend to be women with higher level of education.Poetry readers are not loners – high amounts of leisure activity and high sociability.Poetry readers tend to have read poetry …

Building A Bridge Between Theravada Buddhism And Islam, Philip Novak

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

In a world riven by national egoisms and intercultural tensions, it is perhaps more important than ever for us to try to see what is noble and universal in the varied religious symbol systems of the world’s cultures.

Our long journey towards a global spirituality requires us to constantly translate the insights of particular faiths into universally intelligible concepts and images drawn from our common human experience and, thus equipped, to boldly encourage the world’s religions to recognize their deep family resemblances.

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Review: The Gene: An Intimate History. By Siddartha Mukherjee, Jordan Lieser

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of the highly regarded and Pulitzer Prize winning The Emperor of All Maladies, has undertaken what he terms as an “intimate history” of the gene. Mukherjee’s medical credentials are impressive, yet they are also atypical for research and writing on the history of science. The Gene is impeccably written and expands our understanding of a well-known history through his unique viewpoint. In fact, Mukherjee’s work is reminiscent of another Pulitzer Prize winner, Jared Diamond. Originally a physiologist, Diamond, is best known for applying his scientific viewpoint to the Spanish Conquest in his 1997 Pulitzer Prize winning …

Town-Talk And The Cause Célèbre Of Robert Browning’S The Ring And The Book, Amy R. Wong

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This essay examines Browning’s relentless preoccupation with generating such forms of “idle talk” in The Ring and the Book.³ For the most part, critics from the time of the poem’s initial publication to the present day have focused their energies on speakers directly involved in the case— Pompilia (on her deathbed), Guido, Caponsacchi—or the Pope, as he crafts his learned pronouncement^.4 Those who have devoted attention to the first three town talkers, including scholars such as Mary Rose Sullivan and William E. Buckler, give accounts that tend to individualize these personae in ways that obscure the significance of …

Global Medievalism: From Model Books To Manga, Leslie D. Ross

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract available

Translations And Migrations Of The Poetic Diary: Roy Kiyooka’S Wheels, Judy Halebsky

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Formal aspects of haiku inform Roy Kiyooka’s 1969 travel journal Wheels. In contrast to earlier scholarship, this study differentiates haiku traditions in Japan from English language haiku in North America. This framework reveals how Kiyooka employs select aspects of haiku practice to voice his othered cultural location.

Haiku's Reception And Practice In Contemporary North American Poetry, Judy Halebsky, Ayako Takahashi

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This article traces the chronological development of haiku translation, which includes Imagism and haiku, the transitional period around the 1950's, the emergence of English Haiku and contemporary haiku practice. To examine the influence of haiku in contemporary American poetry, the discussion includes west coast fi-ee verse poets whose work draws from Basho's haiku in different ways.

Article excerpt

A Critical Hermeneutic Analysis Of Presence In Nursing Practice, Alicia L. Bright

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Nursing presence, although it involves action at times, is a humanitarian quality of relating to a patient that is known to have powerful and positive implications for both nurse and patient. However, this phenomenon has not been well understood. Three theories, drawn from the work of Paul Ricoeur and Hans-Georg Gadamer, served as the boundaries for both data collection and analysis. The theories were narrative identity, play and solicitude. This study follows a critical hermeneutic approach to field research and data analysis. Literature regarding nursing presence is reviewed and discussed, and in-depth conversations with eleven participants are recorded. Examining the …

Place Matters: Mount Tamalpais In Marin County, California As Site And Insight, Leslie D. Ross

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract available

The Labyrinth As Heart And Holder Of Personal Pilgrimage, Cindy Pavlinac

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Labyrinths have woven a meandering path through the human psyche for thousands of years. From ancient Ariadne and Medieval cathedral pilgrimage floors to modern movies and computer games, labyrinths are often at the heart of the quest for self-knowledge, creative awakening, personal integration, community building and transcendence. The labyrinth as a metaphor for the journey of life could be considered a localized concentrated pilgrimage and alternative exploration to exotic travel and the physical challenge usually required for breakdown/breakthrough growth. Unicursal, single pathway designs, like the seven-circuit Classical Cretan and the eleven-circuit Chartres, engage the body while freeing the mind. The …

Arthur Conan Doyle's "Great New Adventure Story": Journalism In The Lost World, Amy Wong

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This essay discusses the critical engagements of Arthur Doyle’s The Lost World (1912) with the rise of journalistic professionalism at the turn of the century. With a focus on features from the novel’s serial publication in George Newnes’s illustrated periodical, the Strand Magazine, this essay argues that this popular work of fiction self-consciously positions itself against what had become a fairly mainstream ideological and generic split between literature and journalism. Through its masquerade as a first-person account mediated by a professional network of journalists and editors, The Lost World integrates conventions of literary romance and objective journalism to combat …

The Poetics Of Talk In Robert Louis Stevenson’S Treasure Island, Amy Wong

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This essay considers the relationship between Robert Louis Stevenson’s well-loved adventure classic Treasure Island and his philosophical commitments to talk. For Stevenson, talking and adventuring share an experiential poetics that emphasizes responsiveness to unpredictable interactions. By examining several of Stevenson’s prose pieces, including “Talk and Talkers” and “My First Book” as well as Treasure Island, this essay argues that the novel aspires to translate the poetics of talk into a print medium. Treasure Island imagines itself as a form of “living print,” a work that, like Long John Silver’s parrot, seems more dynamic than print typically is, yet is …

Review Of "Dramatic Action In Greek Tragedy And Noh: Reading With And Beyond Aristotle" By Mae J. Smethurst, Judy Halebsky

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Mae J. Smethurst’s scholarship offers an illuminating examination of aspects of Japanese nō through Aristotle’s Poetics. Smethurst focuses on genzai or realistic nō alongside tragedies by Sophocles and Euripides that Aristotle favored. Published by Lexington Books, this text is part of the series Greek Studies: Interdisciplinary Approaches curated in partnership with Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies.

Remembering Gina Berriault, Marianne Rogoff

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

"Near Sequoia movie theatre in downtown Mill Valley, in the space now occupied by Champagne French Bakery, I shared many lunches with the late, great Marin County writer Gina Berriault. I was her student then (MA in English: Creative Writing, SF State, 1983) and she was my thesis advisor, a one-to-one mentor relationship that did not involve a classroom full of other needy writing students. I cherished this focused attention: all about me. The professor’s long fingers often reached up to move her straight, dark hair away from her face so she could emphasize a point with serious eye contact; …

Teaching Asian Religions From Within Asian American Community, Emily Wu

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Article Excerpt:

Our 87 year-old Elder, a third-generation descendent of a Chinese American fishing village in Northern California, gives us a timid smile from behind the bar of the small diner that he and his family have operated since the 1940s. My students and I have just set up a laptop and microphone for recording a first-person account of his life story. The Elder looks over our shoulders, where a man stands with a stern face and his arms crossed—this is a member of the non-profit organization that now operates the village as a park. The twinkles in the eyes …

Innovation In Nō: Matsui Akira Continues A Tradition Of Change, Mariko Anno, Judy Halebsky

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Within the practice of Japanese nō theatre, there are tensions between preserving the art and allowing change. However, innovation through performance has been central to nō throughout its long history, from the variant nō of the Edo era (1603–1868) to the more recent emergence of revival nō and new nō. The long career of nō master Matsui Akira (1946–) offers an individual perspective on the history of change in the tradition of nō. Based on a series of interviews with Matsui and research conducted at the Kita School of Nō and the Hōsei Nō Research Institute, this article examines Matsui’s …

Savage Messiah: Ken Russell's Forgotten Masterpiece, John A. Duvall

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This paper presents an analysis of Savage Messiah, Ken Russell’s filmic biography of WWI-era artist and sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, evaluating its various aesthetic codes of meaning, and demonstrating how these codes contribute to a unified narrative structure. Particular attention is paid to the phenomenological elements of the cinematic narrative – image composition, art direction, color, motion, editing and sound – in order to reveal the sensuous core of the film as its method of thematic expression. We offer observations on the narrative’s deep structure in terms of symbolic references, on Russell’s visual techniques of characterization, and on how these elements …

Voces Del Canal: Building Safe Communities Through Strong Partnerships In The Canal, Julia Van Der Ryn, Jennifer Lucko, Tom Wilson, Omar Carrera, Miho Kim, Reem Assil, Saba Waheed, Jennifer Lee, Diego Garcia, Bill Hogan, Voces Del Canal

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The Canal, a vibrant community of Latino immigrant families, is rich in diversity and cultural traditions, strong family networks, and a determination towards economic selfsufficiency. Latino immigrants in Marin County are heavily concentrated in the Canal and have the highest labor force participation rates in the County.i Despite being a vital part of Marin’s social, economic, and cultural society, Canal residents continue to struggle to meet basic necessities for their families.

To this end, a coalition of resident leaders from the community came together to form Voces del Canal to lead an unprecedented community-driven research project. Residents wanted to affirm …

Slimmer, Brighter, And Nearly Perfect: The New Big History Textbook Is Here, Mojgan Behmand

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Rarely has the appearance of a new textbook been the cause of such delight as broke out amongst the First Year Experience faculty at Dominican University of California in August 2013. The book that triggered such reaction is a seemingly unassuming volume, Big History: Between Nothing and Everything (2013), written by historians David Christian, Cynthia Stokes Brown, and Craig Benjamin, and published by McGraw-Hill. Why was the book greeted with such enthusiasm, you might ask? Was it that the world needed another textbook on history? That the Dominican faculty felt a special bond with one of the authors, Dominican professor …

Gelang: A Photography Of Belonging, Chase Clow

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Gelang: A Photography of Belonging proposes a new category of landscape photography, one that moves away from emphasis upon imagery of particular kinds of landscape (such as wilderness, topographical, or wastelandscape) and also away from genres of photography (art, documentary, or scientific) and instead investigates the shared values and ethics among landscape and nature photographers and the kinds of awareness and knowledge that arise through outdoor, field-based photographic practice. An analysis of the writings of photographers and their published interviews, as well as the author's own photographic experiences in the field, reveals a common core of life-affirming values predicated on …

Hospitality As Companionship And Justice, Laura Stivers

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

My work has not been in direct ministry to people who are homeless but instead I have been involved in writing, teaching, and organizing to do the work of justice. . .to end homelessness as this homeless poet asks us to do. Organizing for justice through structural change (e.g. affordable housing, good work for all, universal healthcare, no wars, etc.) is of paramount importance. It is our fight. The problem of homelessness is less about the individuals who find themselves without a place to sleep and more about our collective identity as a people and a society. Organizing for justice, …

Atoning For The Sins Of The Fatherland: The Gendered Nationalism Of The Ecumenical Sisterhood Of Mary, George Faithful

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

In my book, Mothering the Fatherland, forthcoming from Oxford University Press, I analyze how the penitential practices of a group of Protestant nuns in Germany were rooted in their understanding of collective German national guilt in the aftermath of the Third Reich. Those with some prior familiarity with the group may know them as the Evangelical or Evangelische Sisterhood of Mary. I will refer to them throughout by their original name, the Ecumenical Sisterhood of Mary. While the book discusses the sisters’ gender and nationalism separately in the context of the sisters’ repentance and theology of collective national guilt, I …

Salvation From Illusion, Salvation By Illusion: The Gospel According To Christopher Nolan, George Faithful

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

You are not really paying attention to reality. Nor should you, according to screenwriter and director Christopher Nolan. You do not need to know the truth. What you need is the perfect lie. Therein lies your hope of salvation. The perfect lie will save you from lesser lies but will also protect you from the destructive austerity of the truth. That has been a consistent theme in Nolan’s cinematic corpus.

While this article will limit itself to his science fiction works – The Prestige, Inception, and his Batman trilogy – the theme of salvation from and by illusion is significant …

Stories That Shape Us, Mojgan Behmand

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

[Review] Stories From The Street: A Theology Of Homelessness. David Nixon, Laura Stivers

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

David Nixon in his book Stories from the Street: A Theology of Homelessness places stories of people who are homeless in dialogue with Christian scriptures, Church tradition, and particular theologies to construct a “theology of homelessness” (7). Drawing on liberation theology, Nixon argues that stories told by poor people can offer a deeper sense of the meaning of God and relationship, can reinvigorate the Christian story, and can in fact, change the world. Nixon shares a number of life histories of homeless people and teases out biographical and emotional themes from their stories in relation to spirituality. He also recounts …

Uprooting Where Others Sowed? Presbyterian And Moravian Missionaries In Russian Orthodox Alaska, George Faithful

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The arrival in Native Alaskan communities of Russians in the mid-18th century and Americans in the mid-19th century brought lasting change. What that change constituted is a matter of debate. This paper will attempt to look at multiple sides of the story, considering the perspectives of Russians and Americans, and, most importantly, that of the indigenous Alaskans themselves, as well as that of ethno-historians. By disentangling the layers of polemic and hagiography left by Presbyterian and Moravian missionaries, I will demonstrate their corrosive impact at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century on the cultures and …