Digital Commons Network^™

Learning To Disclose: A Post Colonial Autoethnography Of Transracial Adoption, Joni Schwartz, Rebecca Schwartz

Publications and Research

This autoethnographic research project examines the transformational learning of a transracial adoptive adult mother and daughter through the lens of postcolonialism. As collaborative researchers, adult adoptee and adoptive mother, examine this lifelong learning experience through critical self-reflection, qualitative meta-analysis, and autoethnographic research methods within the overarching historical and sociopolitical context of Haiti. The findings address the lived complexities of increasingly hybrid families, particularly around the contentious boundaries of race, nationality, and colonial history, as they impact transformational learning. Color blindness and racial identity development for both mother and daughter within their relationship are explored. Implications for adult educators around the …

Dalgish Studies, Teaches The Complexities Of Languages., Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

“I tell my students that if they want to see the world, they might consider studying linguistics, because that is how I got my start,” says Dr. Gerard Dalgish, a professor of English at Baruch College. “I went to many different countries, and if you have that sort of background, you can live for a while working part-time or something like that if you like the particular place you’re visiting.”

These compelling words come from someone who has specialized in teaching English as a second language or ESL, as it is also known.

Knowledge Systems And The Colonial Legacies In African Science Education, Edward Lehner, John R. Ziegler

Publications and Research

This review surveys Femi Otulaja and Meshach Ogunniyi’s (2015) Handbook of Research in Science Education in Sub-Saharan Africa, noting the significance of the theoretically rich content and how this book contributes to the field of education as well as to the humanities more broadly. The volume usefully outlines the ways in which science education and scholarship in sub-Saharan Africa continue to be impacted by the region’s colonial history. Several of the chapters also enumerate proposals for teaching and learning science and strengthening academic exchange. Concerns that recur across many of the chapters include inadequate implementation of reforms; a lack …

First 100 Days: Two Trump Heads Are Better Than One?, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This is a satirical short story about Trump.

Dominican Migrants, Plural Identities, And Popular Music, Angelina Tallaj

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Sibling Affection And Domestic Heterosexuality In Lodovick Carlell’S The Deserving Favorite, Mario Digangi

Publications and Research

Lodowick Carlell’s play The Deserving Favorite (1629) deploys the ideological strategy of using erotic “likeness” to validate marital unions as consensual and erotically compatible. In an era before the normalization of heterosexuality, the play suggests that sexually passionate marital relations earn legitimacy to the degree that they emulate the affectionate relations between women and between siblings. Although eroticized female friendship approaches the ideal of a consensual and sensual partnership, intimate relations between women seem best to thrive in a separatist environment removed from courtly social and economic exchanges, including the marital negotiations crucial to cementing dynastic and political alliances. Brothers …

Into The Chappaqua Woods: Or A Spaceship From A Feminist Planet Lands On Trump's White House Lawn, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This is a science fiction story about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

What It Means To Be Special: Two Sisters Discuss Their Experiences, Gene Fellner, Mark Comesanas, Laritza Duperoy, Yaritza Duperoy

Publications and Research

In this article, two adolescent sisters discuss and reflect upon the impact that the special education classification of one of them has had on their lives. The sisters, co-authors of this text, participated in designing the study and analyzing the data we produced; their voices are the core of this article. Issues about inclusion, the harms and benefits of special education classification, stigma, the multi-edged meanings of what it means to be “special,” and the often complicit roles of educators in perpetuating exclusionary policies all arise in the sisters’ discussions with each other, with their co-authors, and with pre-service teachers.

Feminist Extraterrestrials Establish Economic Utopia On Earth, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This is flash fiction about a feminist monetary strategy.

Beyond Inclusion: Critical Race Theory And Participatory Budgeting, Celina Su

Publications and Research

Critical Race Theory (CRT) researchers maintain that mainstream liberal discourses of neutrality and colorblindness inherently reify existing patterns of inequality, and that privileging the voices of people of color and the marginalized is essential to addressing issues of equity and equality. Participatory budgeting (PB) aims, too, to include the voices of the marginalized in substantive policy-making. Through a CRT lens, I examine the ways in which the New York City PB process has thus far worked to simultaneously disrupt and maintain racial hierarchies. I pay particular attention to how social constructions of the “good project” shape the discourses around community …

Looking Forward, Looking Back: Collective Memory And Neighborhood Identity In Two Urban Parks, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

Collective memory and narratives of local history shape the ways people imagine a neighborhood’s present situation and future development, processes that reflect tensions related to identity and struggles over resources. Using an urban culturalist lens and a focus on collective representations of place, I compare two nearby New York parks to uncover why, despite many similarities, they support different patterns of meaning making and use. Drawing on ethnographic observation, interviews, and secondary analysis, I show that multi-vocal and fragmented contexts of collective memory help explain the uneven nature of gentrification processes, with one park serving as its cultural fulcrum while …

The Spy Who Came In From The Heat Or Why The Neighbors Would Rather Fight Than Schwitz, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This is a humorous short story about Manhattan by Marleen S. Barr.

Mediating The Tourist Experience: From Brochures To Virtual Encounters, Gordon Alley-Young

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Choose Your Own Adventure: The Hero's Journey And The Research Process, Mariana Regalado, Helen Georgas, Matthew J. Burgess

Publications and Research

In Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, the hero of the story embarks on an adventure and returns transformed, empowered, and enlightened. Two academic librarians and the research process itself were incorporated into the curriculum of an undergraduate composition course that was structured around the research and writing process as a hero’s journey. The experience, which was student/hero-centered, self-directed, self-defined, investigative, and exploratory, was transformative for the students and the librarians as well.

Affect Bleeds In Feminist Networks: An "Essay" In Six Parts, Alexandra Juhasz

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Limits Of Transparency: Data Brokers And Commodification, Matthew Crain

Publications and Research

In the United States the prevailing public policy approach to mitigating the harms of internet surveillance is grounded in the liberal democratic value of transparency. While a laudable goal, transparency runs up against insurmountable structural constraints within the political economy of commercial surveillance. A case study of the data broker industry reveals the limits of transparency and shows that commodification of personal information is at the root of the power imbalances that transparency-based strategies of consumer empowerment seek to rectify. Despite significant challenges, privacy policy must be more centrally informed by a critical political economy of commercial surveillance.

Literatura Heterónoma A La Salida Del Franquismo: El Caso Del Primer Nacionalismo Marxista Gallego, Pablo García Martínez

Publications and Research

Centrándose en el final del franquismo y el primer post-franquismo, este artículo estudia la teoría literaria articulada en un momento de inflexión, también para Galicia, como fue la consolidación de lo que se hizo llamar el “Nacionalismo Popular” gallego. El estudio se centrará en los años inmediatamente posteriores al cambio en la dirección del partido Unión do Povo Galego (UPG) producido en noviembre de 1976, momento desde el cual la cultura pasa a convertirse en piedra angular del discurso de esta organización. Se trata de un proceso resultado de dos dinámicas entrecruzadas, como son la utilización de herramientas de la …

Gender, Everyday Mobility, And Mass Transit In Urban Asia, Anru Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Many Hats, One Head: Considering Professional Identity In Academic Library Directorship, Maura A. Smale

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Mandates Of Maternity At A Science Museum, From Should To Must, David H. Lee

Publications and Research

A pregnancy exhibit at a science museum is an opportunity to research how medical advice is communicated and interpreted. This paper is about the Beginning of Life area of an exhibition called The Amazing You at the Tampa Museum of Science and Industry, where exhibits are prescriptive as well as descriptive. Expectant women are urged to deliver full-term, normal birthweight babies, by behaving according to prescribed medical norms. This study provides ethnographic descriptions of the exhibits, as well as insights from museum visitors who were interviewed. The exhibits, which emphasize fetal rights and maternal duties, are interpreted and critiqued by …

Critical Agrarian Studies In Theory And Practice, Marc Edelman, Wendy Wolford

Publications and Research

Abstract: In this introductory article we argue for renewed attention to life and labor on and of the land—or what we call the field of Critical Agrarian Studies. Empirically rich and theoretically rigorous studies of humanity’s relationship to “soil” remain essential not just for historical analysis but for understanding urgent contemporary crises, including widespread food insecurity, climate change, the proliferation of environmental refugees, growing corporate power and threats to biodiversity. The article introduces an innovative and varied collection of works in Critical Agrarian Studies and also examines the intellectual and political history of this broader field.

Resumen: En este artículo …

Emancipatory Rural Politics: Confronting Authoritarian Populism, Ian Scooner, Marc Edelman, Saturnino M. Borras Jr., Ruth Hall, Wendy Wolford, Ben White

Publications and Research

A new political moment is underway. Although there are significant differences in how this is constituted in different places, one manifestation of the new moment is the rise of distinct forms of authoritarian populism. In this opening paper of the JPS Forum series on ‘Authoritarian Populism and the Rural World’, we explore the relationship between these new forms of politics and rural areas around the world. We ask how rural transformations have contributed to deepening regressive national politics, and how rural areas shape and are shaped by these politics. We propose a global agenda for research, debate and action, which …

Trump Dreams Of Jeannie, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This is a short story by Marleen S. Barr which describes how Trump encounters a genie, appoints Genghis Khan and Jack the Ripper to his Cabinet, and ends up corked in a bottle.

Sexual Violence As The Language Of Border Control: Protecting Exceptional Difference, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

When I first arrived in the Paris region in 1999 to do research on the struggle by undocumented immigrants (les sans papiers) for basic human rights, discussions of violence against women were remarkably absent from the public arena. Nongovernmental organizations and researchers had begun to broach the topic, but with little public visibility. However, this changed in late 2000, with a media explosion on the issue of les tournantes, or the gang rapes committed in the banlieues of Paris. Such tournantes involve boys »taking turns« with their friends’ girlfriends, both parties usually being of Maghrebian or North …

Grace Paley, Octavia E. Butler, And Wendy Wasserstein In The Cuny Graduate Center Bathroom, Marleen S. Barr

Publications and Research

This creative piece about book promotion describes how Grace Paley, Octavia E. Butler, Wendy Wasserstein, and the CUNY Graduate Center bathroom figure in Marleen S. Barr's efforts to draw attention to her novels OY PIONEER! and OY FEMINIST PLANETS: A FAKE MEMOIR.

On The Hispanophone Caribbean Question, Vanessa Pérez-Rosario

Publications and Research

This essay introduces the special section “The Idea of Hispanophone Caribbean Studies” with a focus on hispanopone Caribbean literature and how it is situated in the region and in the diaspora. The essay suggests the need for creating spaces of dialogue and communication, translation and multilingualism, that are interdisciplinary and intertextual, if we are to deepen our critical frames of reference and complicate and invigorate new creative and analytic discourses.

Perceived Body Image, Eating Behavior, And Sedentary Activities And Body Mass Index Categories In Kuwaiti Female Adolescents, Lemia H. Shaban, Joan A. Vaccaro, Shiryn D. Sukhram, Fatma G. Huffman

Publications and Research

Background. The State of Kuwait has a growing obesity epidemic in both genders and all age groups; however, obesity rates in the young seem to be rising. Methods.We conducted a cross-sectional survey in 169 Kuwaiti female adolescents attending both private and public schools spanning the six governorates in the State of Kuwait in order to explore female adolescents’ self-image, body dissatisfaction, type of school (private versus public), TV viewing, and computer games and their relationship to body mass index.

Results. Approximately half the students classified as obese perceived their body image to lie in the normal range. Females in the …

The Uprising Of The Anecdotes: Women’S Letters And Mass-Produced News In Jacob’S Room And Three Guineas, Ria Banerjee

Publications and Research

This short article explores the similarities between Walter Benjamin's theory about the disruptive potential of an anecdote vis-a-vis the conventional narrative and Virginia Woolf's use of anecdotes in her novel, Jacob's Room and her anti-war treatise, Three Guineas.

“Straight” Acting: Changing Image Of Queer-Masculinity In Media Representation, Zheng Zhu

Publications and Research

In this essay, I critically examine media representation of Welsh rugby legend Gareth Thomas, with a specific focus on the construction of his masculinity as an outing gay celebrity. The existing critical scholarship has studied various forms of media representation of queer images. But they did not examine how unconventional queer representation interacts with the normative gender performance. This paper investigates mainstream media’s discursive construction of masculine gay male. The findings call our attention to the emergence of macho gay characterization, which supports the hegemonic domination of heterosexual normativity. The stigmatization of gay-ness as the deviated other is rationalized through …

Should The New England Education Research Organization Start A Journal In The Age Of Audit Culture? Reflections On Academic Publishing, Metrics, And The New Academy, Edward Lehner, Kate Finley

Publications and Research

A large regional educational research association can straightforwardly establish a scholarly journal associated with its annual meeting. However, this work underscores the complicated scholarly ecosystem that an association enters when publishing a journal. The social sciences’ scholarly literature exists in a related series of networks that could be described as a type of “audit culture.” Within audit culture, two major academic publishers, Elsevier and Thomson Reuters, have established competing, yet strikingly collinear, journal metrics systems: Scopus and Web of Science, respectively. These and other bibliometrics systems are used to assess, order, and rank the supposed value of a researcher’s work. …