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Turning Seventy, Rowan Cahill Nov 2015

Turning Seventy, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

The author's ruminations on the occasion of him reaching the age of 70 years old.


Live Music Performance In Virtual Worlds: Six Musicians' Experiences, Matthew Hill, Sarah Hartshorne, Lisa Jacka Oct 2015

Live Music Performance In Virtual Worlds: Six Musicians' Experiences, Matthew Hill, Sarah Hartshorne, Lisa Jacka

Dr Lisa Jacka

No abstract provided.


Owning A Virus: The Rhetoric Of Scientific Discovery Accounts, Carol Reeves Aug 2015

Owning A Virus: The Rhetoric Of Scientific Discovery Accounts, Carol Reeves

Carol Reeves

No Abstract Available


"I Knew There Was Something Wrong With That Paper": Scientific Rhetorical Styles And Scientific Misunderstandings, Carol Reeves Aug 2015

"I Knew There Was Something Wrong With That Paper": Scientific Rhetorical Styles And Scientific Misunderstandings, Carol Reeves

Carol Reeves

This selection unpacks scientific prose and claim substantiation for Nobel Prize winner, Stan Prusiner, in the transmissible spongiform encephlopathies field (i.e., mad cow disease). Applying linguistic strategies such as M. A. K. Halliday's "favorite clause type," the author examines argumentative strategies in dense scientific prose both in bold and cautious rhetorical styles and invented lexical changes in new scientific development.


Visual Rhetoric And The Promotion Of Scientific Ideas: The Strange Case Of The Prion, Carol Reeves Aug 2015

Visual Rhetoric And The Promotion Of Scientific Ideas: The Strange Case Of The Prion, Carol Reeves

Carol Reeves

In the field that investigates infectious brain diseases such as mad cow disease, the verbal and visual packaging of scientific visuals associated with identifying the agent, prion, its processes, and structure served the community ritual of establishing belief in a highly unorthodox phenomenon. Visual promotion fed into cultural expectations of single agents and simple processes, even though the actual agency and disease process have proven highly complex and perhaps unknowable.


An Orthodox Heresy: Scientific Rhetoric And The Science Of Prions., Carol Reeves Aug 2015

An Orthodox Heresy: Scientific Rhetoric And The Science Of Prions., Carol Reeves

Carol Reeves

A significant theoretical shift in the research community examining a class of terminal, infectious neurological disorders that includes Mad Cow Disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and Kuru was assisted by rhetorical production. The local rhetoric of one laboratory, that of Professor Stanley B. Prusiner, involved first situating an heretical hypothesis within the framework of the orthodox narrative and then audaciously promoting that heresy. Another aspect of rhetorical production in this case involved situating a new language associated with the heretical hypothesis. To promote their new lexicon, the Prusiner team evoked orthodox values of consistency, efficiency, and collective ratification. Eventually, what was once …


Rhetoric And The Aids Virus Hunt, Carol Reeves Aug 2015

Rhetoric And The Aids Virus Hunt, Carol Reeves

Carol Reeves

By comparing the papers produced by the laboratory teams of Robert Gallo and Jean Luc Montagnier during the AIDS virus hunt, we have an opportunity to discern the fine line between a bold, explicit rhetoric that may convince as well as offend and a bald, reserved rhetoric that may actually conceal important implications. Going too far in either direction may create misunderstandings and ethical dilemmas as will be demonstrated in a textual analysis deepened by an exploration of historical context and interviews with key participants. Since a public health crisis calls upon communication that thwarts misunderstandings, scientists should understand the …


Establishing The Phenomenon: The Rhetoric Of Early Research Reports On Aids, Carol Reeves Aug 2015

Establishing The Phenomenon: The Rhetoric Of Early Research Reports On Aids, Carol Reeves

Carol Reeves

In the first three medical reports on AIDS which were published in 1981 in the New England Journal of Medicine, the writers' primary rhetorical agenda was to argue that a new medical discovery had been made. A secondary agenda was to offer etiological explanations for the new problem. To establish the new disease entity as deserving serious attention, the writers built a sense of mystery by confronting established medical knowledge about immunodeficiency and emphasizing the inability of modern medicine to diagnose and treat the problem. When they explained the phenomenon in etiological terms, rather than confronting the disciplinary matrix, the …


Political And Theoretical Feminisms In American Folkloristics: Definition Debates, Publication Histories, And The Folklore Feminists Communication, Jeana Jorgensen Jul 2015

Political And Theoretical Feminisms In American Folkloristics: Definition Debates, Publication Histories, And The Folklore Feminists Communication, Jeana Jorgensen

Jeana Jorgensen

What role does feminist theory play in American folkloristics, and which versions of feminism have become mainstreamed in the nearly forty years since folklorists first became attuned to the promises and premises of feminism? By attending to these issues, I hope to at least partially answer the question Alan Dundes asked in his 2004 Invited Presidential Plenary Address to the American Folklore Society: "What precisely is the 'theory' in feminist theory?" (2005, 388). In lamenting the lack of grand theory in folkloristics, Dundes remarks, ''Despite the existence of books and articles with 'feminist theory' in their titles, one looks in …


The Black And The White Bride: Dualism, Gender, And Bodies In European Fairy Tales, Jeana Jorgensen Jul 2015

The Black And The White Bride: Dualism, Gender, And Bodies In European Fairy Tales, Jeana Jorgensen

Jeana Jorgensen

Fairy tales are one of the most important folklore genres in Western culture, spanning literary and oral cultures, folk and elite cultures, and print and mass media forms. As Jack Zipes observes: ‘The cultural evolution of the fairy tale is closely bound historically to all kinds of storytelling and different civilizing processes that have undergirded the formation of nation-states.’143 Studying fairy tales thus opens a window onto European history and cultures, ideologies, and aesthetics.


Sorting Out Donkey Skin (Atu 510b): Toward An Integrative Literal-Symbolic Analysis Of Fairy Tales, Jeana Jorgensen Jul 2015

Sorting Out Donkey Skin (Atu 510b): Toward An Integrative Literal-Symbolic Analysis Of Fairy Tales, Jeana Jorgensen

Jeana Jorgensen

This article debates the merits of fairy tale interpretive frameworks that privilege the psychological and symbolic, versus those that utilize a literal and feminist orientation. Using ATU 510B as a test case, for its intriguing blend of real-world elements and the fantastic, the author suggests that a synthesis of literal and symbolic theories allows for the fullest understanding of the polyvalent meanings of tale, which is particularly problematic due to its depictions of incest. Drawing examples from canonical as well as contemporary versions of ATU 510B, various psychoanalytic and feminist interpretations of the tale type are put to the test, …


Dancing The Numinous: Sacred And Spiritual Techniques Of Contemporary American Belly Dancers, Jeana Jorgensen Jul 2015

Dancing The Numinous: Sacred And Spiritual Techniques Of Contemporary American Belly Dancers, Jeana Jorgensen

Jeana Jorgensen

In this paper, I explore how contemporary American practitioners of belly dance (as Middle Eastern dance and its many varieties are often called in the English-speaking world) conceptualize not only the spiritual dimensions of their dance, but also how the very notion of performance affects sacred and spiritual dance practices. Drawing on interviews with this community, I describe the techniques of sacred and spiritual belly dancers, how these dancers theorize performance, and how the conflicts inherent to patriarchal mind-body dualism are resolved in these practices. My purpose here is twofold: to document an emergent dance tradition and to analyze its …


Made In Germany: Integration As Inside Joke In The Ethno-Comedy Of Kaya Yanar And Bülent Ceylan, Kathrin M. Bower Apr 2015

Made In Germany: Integration As Inside Joke In The Ethno-Comedy Of Kaya Yanar And Bülent Ceylan, Kathrin M. Bower

Kathrin M. Bower

As the largest “foreign” population in Germany, Turkish immigrants have been the primary target for concerns about integration and the impact of immigration on German culture. Since the founding of the first Turkish German cabaret in 1985 by Şinasi Dikmen and Muhsin Omurca, the misconceptions and one-sided expectations associated with integration have been played, parodied, and satirized by Turkish German performers. As producers of contemporary ethno-comedy, Kaya Yanar and Bülent Ceylan appeal to mass audiences with a new approach, inverting questions of integration by creating communities through laughter in which audiences are at once in on the joke and its …


Serdar Somuncu: Turkish German Comedy As Transnational Intervention, Kathrin M. Bower Apr 2015

Serdar Somuncu: Turkish German Comedy As Transnational Intervention, Kathrin M. Bower

Kathrin M. Bower

A reconceptualization of Germanness, combined with a reconsideration of what constitutes “Germanness” and “Turkishness” and how they are linked, is a central theme in the programs of a younger generation of Turkish German cabaret artists and comedians. As a member of the new generation of performers, Serdar Somuncu stands out, not only for his unapologetic embrace of political theater critical of both German and Turkish social politics, but also for his assertion of a right and responsibility to engage with Germany’s past, coupled with an insistence on differentiation and balanced comparison when discussing integration. After gaining notoriety through his Mein …


Serdar Somuncu: Reframing Integration Through A Transnational Politics Of Satire, Kathrin M. Bower Apr 2015

Serdar Somuncu: Reframing Integration Through A Transnational Politics Of Satire, Kathrin M. Bower

Kathrin M. Bower

Founded by Şinasi Dikmen and Muhsin Omurcu in Ulm in 1985, Knobi-Bonbon is widely recognized as the first Turkish German cabaret in the Federal Republic. Dikmen and Omurcu focused on ethnic stereotypes, integration, and coexistence in their early programs, with an emphasis on the German misunderstanding of integration as cultural assimilation (Boran 202, 219). With a run of successful performances, Knobi-Bonbon established a momentum that has carried through to the present day, making Turkish German comedy a fixture on the German stage. Responding to the wave of nationalism and xenophobia that followed in the wake of unification, Knobi-Bonbon’s shows became …


Minority Identity As German Identity In Conscious Rap And Gangsta Rap: Pushing The Margins, Redefining The Center, Kathrin M. Bower Apr 2015

Minority Identity As German Identity In Conscious Rap And Gangsta Rap: Pushing The Margins, Redefining The Center, Kathrin M. Bower

Kathrin M. Bower

After rap entered the German music scene in the 1980s, it developed into a variety of styles that reflect Germany's increasingly multiethnic social fabric. Politically conscious rap assumed greater relevance after unification, focusing on issues of discrimination, integration, and xenophobia. Gangsta rap, with its emphasis on street conflict and violence, brought the ghetto to Germany and sparked debates about the condition of German cities and the erosion of civic consciousness. Alternately celebrated and reviled by the media, both styles utilize rap's synthesis of authenticity and performance to redefine the relationship between minority identity and German identity and debunk Leitkultur.


Volunteering For Development: Tensions Around Conducting Multi-Sited Ethnography With Volunteers, Nichole Georgeou Jan 2015

Volunteering For Development: Tensions Around Conducting Multi-Sited Ethnography With Volunteers, Nichole Georgeou

Nichole Georgeou

A scholarly and personal account of the ethical, and human issues and values involved in a specific example of ethnographic research and field-work, with wider research implications and relevance.


Food Sovereignty As Decolonization: Some Contributions From Indigenous Movements To Food System And Development Politics, Sam Grey, Raj Patel Dec 2014

Food Sovereignty As Decolonization: Some Contributions From Indigenous Movements To Food System And Development Politics, Sam Grey, Raj Patel

Sam Grey

The popularity of ‘food sovereignty’ to cover a range of positions, interventions, and struggles within the food system is testament, above all, to the term’s adaptability. Food sovereignty is centrally, though not exclusively, about groups of people making their own decisions about the food system—it is a way of talking about a theoretically-informed food systems practice. Since people are different, we should expect decisions about food sovereignty to be different in different contexts, albeit consonant with a core set of principles (including women’s rights, a shared opposition to genetically modified crops, and a demand for agriculture to be removed from …


Navigating Uncertainty: The Survival Strategies Of Religious Ngos In China, Jonathan Tam, Reza Hasmath Dec 2014

Navigating Uncertainty: The Survival Strategies Of Religious Ngos In China, Jonathan Tam, Reza Hasmath

Reza Hasmath

This article looks at the strategies religious non-governmental organizations (RNGOs) with strong transnational linkages use to maintain a continued presence in mainland China. It does so by utilizing neo-institutional theory as an instrument for analysis, with an emphasis on outlining the coercive, mimetic, and normative pressures RNGOs face. One of the key findings of the study is that there is creative circumvention of isomorphic pressures by working with local agents, fostering trust with the local government, and keeping a low profile. Moreover, RNGOs dealt with the uncertain institutional environment in China through staff exchanges, denominational supervision, tapping into global platforms, …


The Contemporary Ethnic Minority In China: An Introduction, Margaret Maurer-Fazio, Reza Hasmath Dec 2014

The Contemporary Ethnic Minority In China: An Introduction, Margaret Maurer-Fazio, Reza Hasmath

Reza Hasmath

This article introduces the historical context behind the practice of fixed ethnic identification currently employed in the People’s Republic of China. Notwithstanding the major problems to clearly delineate the boundaries of many ethnic groups in the Chinese context, the article contends there was a strong pragmatism for officially classifying ethnic minority groups rather than adopting the self-identification method used in many Western nations. Finally, the article poses the query whether ethnic minority status continues to hold a meaningful category of analysis in contemporary China.


Job Acquisition, Retention, And Outcomes For Ethnic Minorities In Urban China, Reza Hasmath, Benjamin Ho Dec 2014

Job Acquisition, Retention, And Outcomes For Ethnic Minorities In Urban China, Reza Hasmath, Benjamin Ho

Reza Hasmath

This article estimates wage differentials between ethnic minorities and the Han majority in China. While Han-minority wage differentials estimated with regression analysis demonstrate little evidence for ethnic minority disadvantages, evidence looking at the process of ethnic minority job acquisition and retention suggests that minorities perceive they are at a disadvantage in the job search process. The article assesses potential factors for perceived disadvantages in China’s labor market such as discrimination, social network capital, and working culture.


A Flag Is Flipped And A Nation Flaps: The Politics And Patriotism Of The First International World Series, Todd J. Wiebe Dec 2014

A Flag Is Flipped And A Nation Flaps: The Politics And Patriotism Of The First International World Series, Todd J. Wiebe

Todd J Wiebe

No abstract provided.


History: The Birth Of "America" In 1882, Robert H.I. Dale Jun 2014

History: The Birth Of "America" In 1882, Robert H.I. Dale

Robert H. I. Dale

This article concerns a New York Times story about the birth of the female Asian elephant calf, named America, at the winter headquarters of the "Greatest Show on Earth" in Bridgeport, Connecticut on February 2, 1882. Phineas T. Barnum, one of the owners of the show, and one prone to self-aggrandizing bluster, claimed that America was the second elephant ever born in captivity. America was born only to months before the arrival in New York of the most famous circus elephant of all time, Jumbo, on Easter Sunday, 1882, and only two years before the origin of a small wagon …


Self-Determination, Subordination, And Semantics: Rhetorical And Real-World Conflicts Over The Human Rights Of Indigenous Women, Sam Grey Jan 2014

Self-Determination, Subordination, And Semantics: Rhetorical And Real-World Conflicts Over The Human Rights Of Indigenous Women, Sam Grey

Sam Grey

Indigenous women have long been engaged in unambiguous advocacy for a human rights-based approach to gender injustice in their communities and nations. Indigenous nations, for their part, have repeatedly and passionately posited collective human rights as necessary for the protection of cultural distinction. These projects should be reconcilable – but this reconciliation requires the political will to critically engage with historical and contemporary colonialism, and to address the internalization of patriarchy and sexism in Indigenous societies today. With such a will in place, it becomes possible to operationalize a single Indigenous ‘self-determination’ project grounded in human rights, one that sees …


Trolling Spoons & Baseball: The Life, Lures, And Legacy Of Charles H. Morse, William B. Krohn Dec 2013

Trolling Spoons & Baseball: The Life, Lures, And Legacy Of Charles H. Morse, William B. Krohn

William B. Krohn

“Pop” Morse was a minor league baseball and a fishing-hunting guide. He was also one of Maine’s earliest fishing lure makers, living his adult life in Auburn-Lewiston. In addition to documenting Morse's fishing lures and life, this article discusses the evolution of early trolling spoons in Maine by comparing Morse's spoons to those made by Bill Burgess (Minot, Maine), and the Murray brothers (Auburn, Maine). [An editor’s correction for an omission in the first paragraph of this piece was published on page 3 of the 2014 Winter Issue of the NFLCC Magazine.]


100 Years And Still Counting: Maple Hall Comes Alive Through Student-Faculty Collaborative Research, Erin Passehl-Stoddart Dec 2013

100 Years And Still Counting: Maple Hall Comes Alive Through Student-Faculty Collaborative Research, Erin Passehl-Stoddart

Erin Passehl Stoddart

How will Western Oregon University celebrate the 100th anniversary of Maple Hall, the first gymnasium on campus, this spring? Just ask the WOU Dance Department and Western Oregon University Archives, who are collaborating to re-create dances from the May Day celebrations that once graced this campus as early as 1902 and were considered one of the most anticipated events of the year.


同构压力,认知群体,政府-Ngo 合作在中国, Reza Hasmath, Jennifer Yj Hsu Dec 2013

同构压力,认知群体,政府-Ngo 合作在中国, Reza Hasmath, Jennifer Yj Hsu

Reza Hasmath

该论文指出,中国政府与非政府组织(NGO)之间合作的缺乏并不能完全归咎于政府对该领域发展的限制,或是出于对一个潜在的政府反对者的害怕。与北京和上海的NGO 访谈显示, 政府与NGO 之间缺乏有意义的合作的部分原因是同构压力,以及政府对于NGO 活动认知的缺乏。事实上,证据显示,一旦政府获得了对NGO 工作的认知,它将会更加愿意与NGO 建立联系。当然必须说明的是,政府想要利用的是NGO 的物质资源,而非他们的象征性,阐释性,或是地理上的资本。


Isomorphic Pressures, Epistemic Communities And State-Ngo Collaboration In China, Reza Hasmath, Jennifer Yj Hsu Dec 2013

Isomorphic Pressures, Epistemic Communities And State-Ngo Collaboration In China, Reza Hasmath, Jennifer Yj Hsu

Reza Hasmath

This article suggests that a lack of meaningful collaboration between the state and NGOs in China is not solely a result of the state seeking to restrict the development of the sector, or fear of a potential opposing actor to the state. Instead, interviews with NGOs in Beijing and Shanghai suggests that a lack of meaningful engagement between the state and NGOs can be partially attributed to isomorphic pressures within state-NGO relations, and insufficient epistemic awareness of NGO activities on the part of the state. In fact, the evidence suggests that once epistemic awareness is achieved by the state, they …


The Local Corporatist State And Ngo Relations In China, Jennifer Yj Hsu, Reza Hasmath Dec 2013

The Local Corporatist State And Ngo Relations In China, Jennifer Yj Hsu, Reza Hasmath

Reza Hasmath

This article examines the Chinese state’s interactions and influences on the development of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) through a corporatist framework. It suggests that not only is the central state actively involved in the development of NGOs, but increasingly the successes of NGOs are determined by their interactions with the local state. We profile NGOs in Shanghai, of varying sizes, budgets, and issue-areas, as a case study to understand the interplay between NGOs and the local state. The article further discusses reasons behind the growing shift from central to local state influences, and the potential future implications for state-NGO relations in …


中国统和主义地方政府与非政府组织关系, Jennifer Yj Hsu, Reza Hasmath Dec 2013

中国统和主义地方政府与非政府组织关系, Jennifer Yj Hsu, Reza Hasmath

Reza Hasmath

该论文利用统和主义的理论框架来研究中国政府对非政府组织(NGOs)发展的影响及两者的互动。文章指出,中国中央政府积极参与非政府组织的发展之余,地方政府与NGO之间的互动越来越成为决定非政府组织成功与否的关键因素。我们以上海的众多规模、预算、活动范围各不相同的非政府组织为案例,试图理解NGO与地方政府的相互联系。该论文进一步讨论了政府影响力不断从中央向地方转移这一趋势的原因及后果。