Digital Commons Network^™

On The Anguish Of Going: An Actor’S Endgame, Jennifer Cavenaugh

Faculty Publications

Sometimes a theatrical production comes along that illuminates a familiar text, bringing parts of the story into a new focus or revealing other parts hitherto unseen. The Endgame Project, conceived by veteran New York actors Dan Moran and John Christopher Jones, is one of these productions. In this conception of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame, Clov and Hamm, two characters with diminishing physical abilities, are played by Jones and Moran, two seasoned actors who are both living with Parkinson’s disease. The Endgame Project creates a powerful joining of Beckett’s script and the Parkinson’s disease that holds the principal actors in its …

You Can Call Me Al: Regulating How Candidates' Names Appear On Ballots, Peter Nemerovski

Faculty Publications

In electoral politics, names matter. Studies and anecdotal evidence show that candidates whose names suggest a certain ethnic heritage— for example, an Irish-sounding surname in Chicago, or a Hispanic name in South Florida—outperform candidates without such names, and that “American-sounding” names and names with positive connotations can give candidates a leg up. Therefore, candidates for public office often seek to run under the name they regard as most electorally advantageous. Election boards, secretaries of state, and ultimately courts are often called upon to decide whether a particular candidate can run for office under a particular name.

This Article looks at …

Pittsburgh, The Realest City: Shit Talk’N, Storytell’N, Social Liv’N, Jacqueline Roebuck Sakho

Faculty Publications

This article documents my lived experience as a participant observer in a writing/performance course that brought together returning citizens, police officers, community activists, university students and faculty. I am utilizing Hoffman’s (2004) “Living Stories” framework and Cutts’ (2016) expansion of Poetic Inquiry to present “Ars Spirituality” as the lens to frame the discussion of my storytelling and storiography experience. Curated by Duquesne University sociologist Norman Conti, with theoretical justification from C. Wright Mills and Erving Goffman, the course was co-facilitated by award-winning actor/writer Roger Guenveur Smith and world-renowned writing coach and performer Susan Stein over Zoom video conferencing …

Trauma And Memory In The Prosecution Of Sexual Assault, Cynthia V. Ward

Faculty Publications

Part I of this article traces the history of the recovered memory movement in the criminal prosecution of sexual assault, discussing some prominent cases and their consequences for wrongly convicted defendants. Part II asks why the criminal law was so vulnerable to claims of sexual assault, and other violent crimes, that were often wildly improbable on their face. The article concludes that the structure of recovered memory theory had the effect of disabling checks in the criminal process which are designed to prevent unjust convictions. Part III applies that conclusion to the theory of Trauma-informed Investigation (TII) and the "Neurobiology …

Free Speech & Abortion: The First Amendment Case Against Compelled Motherhood, Raymond Shih Ray Ku

Faculty Publications

The most important lessons are taught by example. Children learn the fundamental values that guide them throughout their lives from the examples set by their parents, especially their mothers. Even before they understand a language, they learn by observing and imitating the actions of their parents. For almost fifty years Roe v Wade guaranteed pregnant women the freedom to determine whether to carry their pregnancy to term. The right to obtain a safe abortion prior to viability is the most significant and controversial aspect of this freedom. The Supreme Court is now poised to overturn what it previously described as …