Digital Commons Network^™

Fall/Winter 2015, Full Issue

The Confluence (2009-2020)

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Relationship Between Attachment Style, Stress Perception, And Religious Coping In The Evangelical Missionary Population, Laurie Tone

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This cross-sectional survey design study examined the relationships between attachment style, stress perception and religious coping in a sample of 267 cross-cultural, evangelical missionaries. No significance for effect for attachment style on perceived stress was found. However, both age and gender demonstrated significant effects on perceived stress. There was also a significant association between perception of stress and religious coping, independent of attachment style. Religious coping accounted for a small amount of the variance in perception of stress. The vast majority of the sample reported patterns of positive religious coping, which was not influenced by attachment style. A new tool …

Islamism And Islam, Dale Stover

International Dialogue

This book offers a concerted effort to provide a comprehensive and unmistakable definition for Islamism, whereas the other term in the title, Islam, is simply what is traditional or classical or taken for granted since little attention is given to defining it. The author lays out six features he considers to be characteristic elements of those contemporary Muslim movements associated with extremist beliefs and behaviors. A separate chapter is devoted to each of these six features of Islamism. They are described by the author in the preface as “its deeply reactionary vision of the world political order, its embrace of …

Residual Impact Of Previous Injury On Musculoskeletal Characteristics In Special Forces Operators, Jeffrey J. Parr, Nicholas C. Clark, John P. Abt, Julie Y. Kresta, Karen A. Keenan, Shawn F Kane, Scott M. Lephart

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

Background: Musculoskeletal injuries are a significant burden to United States Army Special Operations Forces. The advanced tactical skill level and physical training required of Army Special Operators highlights the need to optimize musculoskeletal characteristics to reduce the likelihood of suffering a recurrent injury.

Purpose: To identify the residual impact of previous injury on musculoskeletal characteristics.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study; Level of evidence, 3.

Methods: Isokinetic strength of the knee, shoulder, and back and flexibility of the shoulder and hamstrings were assessed as part of a comprehensive human performance protocol, and self-reported musculoskeletal injury history was obtained. Subjects were stratified based …

Individual, Family, And Culture Level Contributions To Child Physical Abuse And Neglect: A Longitudinal Study In Nine Countries, Jennifer E. Lansford, Jennifer Godwin, Liliana Maria Uribe Tirado, Arnaldo Zelli, Suha M. Al-Hassan, Dario Bacchini, Anna Silvia Bombi, Marc H. Bornstein, Lei Chang, Kirby Deater-Deckard, Laura Di Giunta, Kenneth A. Dodge, Patrick S. Malone, Paul Oburu, Concetta Pastorelli, Ann T. Skinner, Emma Sorbring, Sombat Tapanya, Liane Peña Alampay

Psychology Department Faculty Publications

This study advances understanding of predictors of child abuse and neglect at multiple levels of influence. Mothers, fathers, and children (N = 1,432 families, M age of children = 8.29 years) were interviewed annually in three waves in 13 cultural groups in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Philippines, Sweden, Thailand, and the United States). Multilevel models were estimated to examine predictors of (a) within-family differences across the three time points, (b) between-family within-culture differences, and (c) between-cultural group differences in mothers’ and fathers’ reports of corporal punishment and children’s reports of their parents’ neglect. These analyses addressed …

Pelikan's Antidisambiguation--World War Iii, Or Simply War, Ver. 3.0--A Soft Rollout?, Michael P. Pelikan

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Contemporary Daoist Tangki Practice, Margaret Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Since 1979, China has seen a renaissance of indigenous belief systems, including Daoist tangki spirit-medium practice. Tangki traditions have Neolithic roots. The founding myth is of a man who magically battled flood demons to save China. In imperial times, ordinary people, disenfranchised by the state religion and pawns of dynastic wars, created a soteriology of self-empowerment. Ordinary people would transform through spirit pos-session into warrior gods who would save the community. Millennia-old tangki traditions have diffused into the modern Chinese quotidian. With a remote Central Committee of the Communist Party recalling distant emperors, village temples, many led by tangkis, have …

The Vikings: History Channel's Fact Or Fictionalized View Of The Norse Expansion, Gypsey Teague

Presentations

The History Channel’s The Vikings is a fictionalized history of Ragnar Lothbrok who during the 8th and 9th Century traveled and raided the British Isles and all the way to Paris. This paper will look at the factual Ragnar and the fictionalized character as presented to the general viewing public.

Waging War On The Citizen: State Sovereignty, Citizen Death And The War On Terror, Lina Nasr El Hag Ali

The Journal of International Relations, Peace Studies, and Development

One of the defining features of the contemporary era is the occurrence of non-localized warfare, in which the enemy can be considered fluid and always changing. The above quote reminds us that history has provided multiple examples of how wars are apt to change and shift the foundations of states; but there is something unique to be said about the qualities of modern war and the change it has prompted. A military technological revolution has culminated in the unprecedented use of drones as primary agents of war (specifically in the “War on Terror”), which has in turn shifted the traditional …

Overview Of The Diplomatic Landscape, Patrick Bratton

The Journal of International Relations, Peace Studies, and Development

This essay outlines a so-called paradigm shift that is occurring in regard to diplomacy and global politics in general. This is a paradigm shift away from the nation-state towards both non-state actors and individuals, and towards regional and global movements and organizations. In terms of diplomacy, this is seen as moving away from the images of old men in striped pants at formal summits to social movements uniting through social media, sometimes called “citizen diplomacy” or “digital diplomacy”. This inaugural issue, with contributions from AGS students and faculty, will explore and problematize many of these issues. To put the issues …

Inaugural Issue Introduction, Eileen Servidio

The Journal of International Relations, Peace Studies, and Development

The American Graduate School in Paris is introducing its inaugural issue of the Journal of International Relations, Peace & Development Studies.

Associated with Arcadia University’s M.A. program in Peace and Conflict Resolution, this journal aspires to encourage discourses that promote non-violence in all aspects of international affairs. Nevertheless, keeping with AGS’s standard of respecting and listening to “the other”, all articles that meet AGS’s high standards of research will be considered for publication, no matter the opinion.

Situational Prevention And Public Transport Crime In El Salvador, Mangai Natarajan, Ronald Clarke, Carlos Carcach, Carlos Ponce, Margarita Beneke De Sanfeliú, Dolores Escobar Polanco, Mario Chávez, Mauricio Shi

Publications and Research

By any standard, there is a serious problem of crime on the public transport system in El Salvador. Guided by crime opportunity theory, this study undertook a rapid assessment of the problem consisting of a systematic observation of public transport in El Salvador and focus group discussions with passengers, bus operators, police and bus company owners/managers. The purposes were (1) to describe the main forms of crime and disorder afflicting the system, (2) to identify features of the system that contribute to the high levels of crime and disorder, and (3) to identify preventive measures, consistent with international experience. A …

Framing The Mh17 Disaster – More Heat Than Light?, Simon A. Bennett

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Despite the reductionist analyses produced by politicians and the Fourth Estate, the loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was a systems accident – a product of the interactions between the actants that compose the commercial aviation system network-space. As an antidote to reductionism’s ‘fundamental attribution error’, this paper presents a systems-thinking-informed analysis of the MH17 disaster. To this end it draws on Actor-Network Theory and the work of Reason, Toft, Dekker, Hollnagel and other systems-thinking advocates. Whether intentional or not, politicians’ reductionist analyses generated political capital. European Union and American finger-pointing distracted from aviation authorities’ and airlines’ ill-advised routing policies. …

Music And Social Justice, Jennifer Thomson

Bucknell: Occupied

Jennifer Thomson, assistant professor of History at Bucknell University, interviews students in the Bucknell course Music 322: Music and Social Justice. Students describe the goals of the course and discuss the resources used to exchange knowledge about social justice issues including race, inequity, prison abolition, and sentence disparity.

The Liberal As An Enemy Of Queer Justice, Craig Schamel

Catalyst: A Social Justice Forum

Abstract

Liberalism as a historical mode of the political is the context in which the movement and ensuing struggle for queer justice emerged in most Western countries. The terminology, practices, tendencies, beliefs, ethics, laws, and patterns of political and social life which have been determined by this mode of the political, it is argued, are inimical to queer justice and render its achievement impossible. Liberalism as a mode of the political is approached from below, from knowledge gained in practical experience in queer groups which considered themselves revolutionary at least to some degree, and from the effects on such groups …

Ideographs And American Mass Media: Understanding The Narrative On The Israel-Palestine Conflict And Its Influence On Publics, Savanna Lynn Fowler

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the American mass media's narrative on the Israel-Palestine conflict to understand the power of ideographs and their influence on specific publics. I focus on two popular ideographs in mass media reporting,and, in order to examine how these ideographs are utilized to construct a narrative for the media's publics, the political ideologies they represent, the agendas they further, and the consequences their narrow use has on developing counterpublics and emerging alternative narratives around the conflict. I focus my attention on the mass media's coverage of a sixteen day Israeli shelling in Gaza and how public consent is acquired …

Chimes: October 9, 2015, Calvin College

Chimes

Accredited film alumna returns to Calvin by Jack Van Allsburg & Juliana Ludenma

Student organization hosts talk about animal ethics by Alicia Dejong

Calvin hosts an Amazing Race-esque Art Prize scavenger hunt by Marisa Huele

New virtual reality technology signals bright future for video gaming by Nate Hunt

Hockey off to quick start of the season behind solid team work by Anna Gernant

Paid college athletes ruling overturned by Mark Peless

Prioritization, the new barbarianism by Frans Van Lier

Human Rights In Russian-Occupied Crimea (Abstract), Jaroslaw Bilocerkowycz

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Russia’s use of hybrid warfare to occupy and annex Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014 drew intense international coverage. This effort to change borders in Europe by force was broadly condemned by the international community as an illegal violation of international law and Ukrainian law. In response, various economic sanctions were leveled against Russia and Crimean leaders and companies. Since Crimea has been occupied by Russia and de facto annexed into the Russian Federation, there has been only modest international coverage of internal developments within Crimea.

What is the human rights situation for the Crimean population since Russian occupation of the …

The Art Of Passing: What Transgender People Can Teach Us About Gender, Jennifer Clark-Grainger

Anthropology Undergraduate Senior Theses

In this thesis I explore several published articles as well as the life-stories of five Caucasian, transgender informants from the Southeastern United States (specifically, long-term residents of Alabama). This research examines the role "passing" within the transgender community and contains information from interviewees who successfully passed as the opposite gender from the gender they were assigned at birth. These interviews helped me gain understanding, not only about the colorful lives of both those who are transgender and their partners, but also about patriarchy and the gender-binary system we, as Americans, are adhering to. It was my desire to learn from …

Remnants Of The American War: An Interactive Documentary, Jacob Sussman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Remnants of the American War is an interactive documentary exploring the legacy of the American War in Vietnam. The project tells the stories of individuals who were affected by or are involved with the conflict’s legacy within an interactive web interface. Envisioned as the counter-narrative to existing American portrayals of the conflict, the project seeks to illuminate Vietnamese perspectives that are often unheard within Western culture.

Featuring interviews with veterans, social workers, and artists whom I encountered during a month long journey from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, the project highlights ongoing issues such as Agent Orange and Vietnam’s …

The Flaws And Human Harms Of Animal Experimentation, Aysha Akhtar

Experimentation Collection

Nonhuman animal (“animal”) experimentation is typically defended by arguments that it is reliable, that animals provide sufficiently good models of human biology and diseases to yield relevant information, and that, consequently, its use provides major human health benefits. I demonstrate that a growing body of scientific literature critically assessing the validity of animal experimentation generally (and animal modeling specifically) raises important concerns about its reliability and predictive value for human outcomes and for understanding human physiology. The unreliability of animal experimentation across a wide range of areas undermines scientific arguments in favor of the practice. Additionally, I show how animal …

The Flaws And Human Harms Of Animal Experimentation, Aysha Akhtar

Morality and Ethics of Animal Experimentation Collection

Nonhuman animal (“animal”) experimentation is typically defended by arguments that it is reliable, that animals provide sufficiently good models of human biology and diseases to yield relevant information, and that, consequently, its use provides major human health benefits. I demonstrate that a growing body of scientific literature critically assessing the validity of animal experimentation generally (and animal modeling specifically) raises important concerns about its reliability and predictive value for human outcomes and for understanding human physiology. The unreliability of animal experimentation across a wide range of areas undermines scientific arguments in favor of the practice. Additionally, I show how animal …

Western Promises: Sustainability And Consequence For Baltic Security, Clay Moore

Ex-Patt Magazine

Renewed Russian expansion is raising concerns about security of its neighbors. The Baltic States seem unnervingly close to Russia, but how vulnerable are they to Russian influence?

Advocate, Fall 2015, Vol. 27, No. 2, Advocate

The Advocate

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

EDITOR'S NOTE (p. 3)

CUNY NEWS:

- PSC calls for Disruptive Action and Strike Authorization Vote (p. 5)

- Wake Up Chancellor Milliken!: Photos from the PSC’s October Protest (p. 6)

- What the Union Wants: PSC CUNY’s Contract Demands (p. 8)

DEBATE: Not a Woman’s Issue: Gender Parity in the Workplace (p. 12)

CONVERSATIONS: Two Letters to Chancellor Milliken (p. 15)

FEATURES:

- Raising the Flag of Palestine (p. 17)

- How to Fly High Without Moving Forward: The Continued Drug War Waged by Prohibitionists (p. 20)

- A Genealogy of Violence: Understanding the Massacre in …

Hospitalitas, Andrew T. Young

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Good government requires a constitution that demarcates what political agents can and cannot do, and such a constitution must be self-enforcing. The medieval West was characterized by the estates system, where the political power of monarchs was roughly balanced by that of a landed and militarized nobility. This rough balance of power contributed to a Western tradition of limited government and constitutional bargaining. I argue that this balance has important roots in the fifth and sixth century barbarian settlements that occurred within the frontiers of the declining Western Roman Empire. These settlements provided barbarians with allotments consisting of lands or …

Fall 2015, Department Of Conflict Analysis And Resolution

DCRS on the Move

No abstract provided.

The Language Ecology Of Sierra Leone, George Tucker Childs

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many of Sierra Leone’s indigenous languages are robust and enjoy some support on the national level. Mende and Temne, for example, receive government support in terms of materials having been created for developing literacy in those languages. Other Sierra Leone languages receive support in nearby countries, e.g., Mandingo (Malinké) and Kisi in Guinea. Three languages in Sierra Leone, however, receive no such support and will likely disappear in a generation, namely, the three South Atlantic languages Mani (Bullom So), Kim (Krim) and Bom (Bum). A fourth language belonging to the same group, Sherbro, the subject of an upcoming investigation, has …

Book Review: Native America And The Question Of Genocide, Amy Fagin

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Exploring Deployment And Resilience Through The Experiences Of Army National Guard Youth, Kerrie Joy Rosheim

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Global War on Terror utilized Army National Guard soldiers at unprecedented rates, drastically changing their reserve role and the lifestyle of their families. This qualitative study explored what the adolescent children of Army National Guard soldiers experienced during the deployment of a parent and how they conceptualized and demonstrated resilience. Through individual interviews with nine participants, who collectively have experienced over 17 years of deployment during adolescence, and email survey results of their primary caregivers, the following three themes emerged to capture the essence of deployment for Army National Guard youth. Deployment can be viewed as “a mixed bag” …

Flight From The Fight? Civil War And Its Effects On Refugees, Paul D. Lowry

Student Publications

Civil war dominates conflict in the modern era. An effect of this is a large number of refugees, who flee from war-torn countries in favor of lands where they can live in safety. This paper examines the extent to which the number of these refugees is affected by the number of civil wars a country has had in a year. Previous literature suggests that civil wars increase destruction in a state and threaten people’s lives, which encourages migration out of a warring country. Based on this, this paper hypothesizes that increasing the number of civil wars in a country will …