Digital Commons Network^™

Activism And Pedagogies: Feminist Reflections, Patricia Ticineto Clough, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

Together our two essays move between scenes of teaching and researching with women and men who are or have been in prison. Having written on ethnography, autoethnography, and participatory research, we both have sought a method that would allow us to abandon superficial identifications, mistaken for deep connection, with those who are or have been incarcerated. While we are conscious of the failures and successes of our attempts, we nonetheless write because what we have learned about the state's support for mass incarceration and the state's retreat from public higher education—particularly for persons of color—more than warrants it. With this …

To Cite Or Not To Cite? Confronting The Legacy Of (European) Writing On African Music, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

English Abstract:

The current citational practice in Western scholarship is ideologically loaded, being far more suited to a written economy than a primarily oral culture in which knowledge is preserved in memory and disseminated through repeated performance. The impact of orality on musical scholarship should be more closely investigated; African scholars have all too often become informants rather than theorists of their own traditions. It is therefore proposed that the routine citation of a body of scholarship developed without Africa's historically-specific intellectual needs and ambitions in mind should in fact be discouraged.

German Abstract:

Die heutige Zitierpraxis der westlichen Wissenschaft …

Edward Said And The Study Of Music, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

My first encounter with Edward Said’s work was in the 1980s with the book, Beginnings: Intention and Method (1975). I was exploring a semiotic approach to late 18^th-century music, specifically, a beginning-middle-ending paradigm (an Aristotelian paradigm) that seemed to me to capture the rhetorical intentions of Classic composers. Said’s wide-ranging reflections and ruminations on beginnings – as inaugural moments, as sites for the establishment of difference, as authorially privileged moments, and as "first steps in the intentional production of meaning" – proved inspiring. My enduring impression of him at the time was that he was a very good …

The Sacred Performative: Holy Wednesday And Colonial Ritual/Theatre, Christopher B. Swift

Publications and Research

"Holy Wednesday" is a late sixteenth century adaptation of a Spanish auto sacramental (sacred play) written in alphabetized Nahuatl, the predominant pre-Columbian language spoken on the High Central Plateau of Mexico. The author remains unknown, however he was likely a Nahua amanuensis educated by Franciscans at Colegio de Santa Cruz in Tlatelolco. Religious drama was one of the important evangelizing tools of the Catholic brotherhoods in colonial Mexico and although a record of performance of Holy Wednesday does not exist, this dramatic depiction of the final meeting of Christ and Mary prior to the crucifixion was almost certainly performed as …

Abroad At Home: Xenomania And Voluntary Exile In The Middle Passage, Salt, And Tide Running, Kevin Frank

Publications and Research

This essay re-examines the causes and consequences of Caribbean alienation, with implications for understanding alienation in other postcolonial societies. The author argues that while externalization does follow colonial incursions or international travel by the colonized, exile and alienation also result from emotional or psychological migrations within the mind, a consequence of neocolonial mechanisms tied to globalization.

Constructing Whiteness In Health Disparities Research, Jessie Daniels, Amy J. Schulz

Publications and Research

There is a long tradition within the United States of constructing whiteness (the racial subject) against racialized others (the racial object) and in the process displacing the focus of critical analysis. Here we turn our lens to the often invisible--or at least underinterrogated--concept of whiteness within the context of the literature on racial disparities in health. Specifically, we examine how whiteness is constructed in the active literature documenting and interpreting racial disparities in health and the implications of these constructions for efforts to eradicate inequalities in health. We draw on the concepts of racial formation and "racial projects" that emphasize …

Spanish In Brazil: Language Policy, Business, And Cultural Propaganda, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze the language policies designed and implemented since the early nineties by Spanish government agencies in order to promote Spanish as a valuable international language. In particular, we focus on its promotion in Brazil and on the strategies used to legitimize not only the presence of the language in various domains (e.g. the educational system) but also the active participation of Spanish institutions in its spread. Through a detailed analysis of a corpus of relevant texts, (a) we critically examine the cultural, economic, and political roots of these policies, as well …

Normalizing The Abnormal: Disability In Music And Music Theory, Joseph N. Straus

Publications and Research

The emerging interdisciplinary field of disability studies takes as its subject matter the historical, social, and cultural construction of disability. After a brief introduction to disability studies, this article explores the interconnected histories of disability and music as they are manifested in three theoretical approaches to late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Western art music (the musical Formenlehre and the tonal theories of Schoenberg and Schenker) and in three works by Beethoven and Schubert. Around the turn of the nineteenth century in Western Europe, disability began to be understood not as something natural and permanent but rather as a deviation from …

Worlds Together . . . Words Apart: An Assessment Of The Effectiveness Of Arts-Based Curriculum For Second Language Learners, Stephanie Urso Spina

Publications and Research

The objective of this study is to assess whether authentic arts-based1 curricula facilitate the acquisition of English as a second language (ESL) without sacrificing proficiency in the first language (Spanish). This question is examined theoretically and empirically. First, the use of an arts-based curriculum is positioned within a Vygotskiian framework of learning as reflected in current research. This overview is organized by two themes: 1) the authenticity of the art experience and 2) the emphasis on social interaction and the cognitive mediation among sign systems. Applicable findings from related literature are reviewed and synthesized within each of these themes. Secondly, …

Two Kinds Of Utility: England’S ‘Supremacy’ And The Quest For Completion In David Dabydeen’S The Intended, Kevin Frank

Publications and Research

This essay concerns the Caribbean writer’s crucial confrontation with colonial literary models. In it, Kevin Frank argues that the central protagonist of David Dabydeen’s The Intended, the unnamed narrator, resembles the author in that he is torn between cultures (English, East Indian, and West Indian), and torn between two kinds of utility: one base, mechanical, and calculating, and the other, romantic. The latter predicament, Frank demonstrates, is a natural consequence of the convergence of romantic and utilitarian ideology underpinning British colonialism. Moreover, Dabydeen’s ambivalence about his allegiances and literary heritage is similar to that of one of his literary …

Creating An Intimate Partner Violence Against Women Legal Theory, Jenny Rivera

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

In A Creative Voice: Talking Back To Lawyers' Texts, In Notes From A Difficult Case, Andrea Mcardle

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Lenguas, Naciones Y Multinacionales: Las Políticas De Promoción Del Español En Brasil, José Del Valle, Laura Villa

Publications and Research

Este artigo descreve as políticas espanholas para promover o status do espanhol como uma língua valiosa, com especial atenção à sua promoção no Brasil. Salienta-se a conexão entre essas políticas lingüísticas e os interesses geoestratégicos da Espanha, e analisam-se algumas das falhas nos argumentos que legitimam o valor do espanhol.

This article describes Spain's policies designed to promote the status of Spanish as a valuable language with special attention to its promotion in Brazil. The connection between these language policies and Spain's geostrategic interests is highlighted and some of the inconsistencies in the arguments that legitimize the value of Spanish …

Rewriting The Holocaust Online: A Discourse Analysis Of Holocaust Denial Web Sites, Mark Aaron Polger

Publications and Research

This study is undertaken to learn how Holocaust deniers use Internet websites to attain legitimacy and credibility. I attempt to show that this sort of “historical revision” is actually blanketed anti-Semitism. I examine Holocaust denial as it is viewed by different disciplines. I investigate the main figures of Holocaust denial. As well, I analyze Jewish race theories of the past two hundred years to demonstrate how Jews have been perceived as aliens and as outsiders. The construction of the “Jew as outsider” sets the stage for how Holocaust deniers frame their discourse on their web pages. My research investigates a …

Law Students As Legal Scholars, Ruthann Robson

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Cultivating Ethical, Socially Responsible Lawyer Judgment: Introducing The Multiple Lawyering Intelligences Paradigm Into The Clinical Setting, Angela Burton

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Reparations For Apartheid's Victims: The Path To Reconciliation?, Penelope Andrews

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Re-Inventing Sicily In Italian-American Writing And Film, Fred L. Gardaphé

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Race For Globalization: Modernity, Resistance And The Unspeakable In Three African Francophone Texts, Francesca Sautman

Publications and Research

The "global village" that media pundits and politicians evoke as general currency might well be visualized, in this onset of the twenty-first century, as a village beset by fires, riot, and rampage, where hunger reigns unopposed. The paradox of the term poorly conceals the untold violence that the violence of rhetoric seeks to erase. Yet, contemporary African Francophone texts have been tearing off this mask for decades, locating themselves less often in idyllic villages, and more frequently, on the cable lines of suffering between dying villages and indigent cities. In the literature of the 1980s, the focus of this essay, …

The Face Of The Future: Engaging In Diversity At Laguardia Community College, Gail O. Mellow, Phyllis E. Vanslyck, Bret Eynon

Publications and Research

Non-traditional, first generation, college students are changing the face of higher education in the United States. More than one third of today's students are minorities, eighty percent of those are employed and attending school part-time and more than one quarter are single parents. Diversity at LaGuardia means many things besides culture, ethnicity or nationality.It also refers to age, social background, fluency in English, academic expectations, learning styles and academic preparation. We argue here that we need to rethink curriculum in relation to this new understanding of diversity.

Critical Challenges: A Conversation On Complicity And Civility In Legal Education, Penelope Andrews, Sharon Hom, Ruthann Robson

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Into The Abyss: How Party Autonomy Supports Overreaching Through The Exercise Of Unequal Bargaining Power, Pamela Edwards

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Availability Of Domestic Violence Services For Latinas In New York State: Phase Ii Investigation, Jenny Rivera

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Zen Of Grading, Ruthann Robson

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Flamenco Guitar: History, Style, And Context, Peter L. Manuel

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Broadway And The Paycock: The Broadway Musical Adaptation Of Sean O'Casey's Juno And The Paycock, Julia M. Furay

Publications and Research

The 1959 Broadway musical Juno, based on Sean O'Casey's 1924 classic Juno and the Paycock, is notable despite its ultimate artistic and financial failure. Musical adaptors Joseph Stein and Marc Blitzstein were inspired by the inherent musicality of O'Casey's play. However, O'Casey's linguistic complexity, profound characterization and political commentary were impossible to translate onto the Broadway stage. Instead, Stein, Blitzstein and de Mille emphasized ritualism and psychology within the story of the Boyle family, and were careful to conform O'Casey's world to that of 1950s Broadway. In doing so, however, the adaptation became different thematically from its predecessor. …

First Recipients Of Anthropological Doctorates In The United States, 1891-1930, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

This article seeks to show the origins of the professionalization of anthropology by examining early doctoral dissertations in this field and their authors. The bibliography consists of citations with biographical details of the authors, when known, of doctoral dissertations in anthropology from United States educational institutions up to 1930. One hundred twenty-four citations are given in all, representing 18 institutions. Forty-one of the dissertations were not written for degrees in anthropology. Besides documenting the existence of anthropological work outside recognized graduate programs of anthropology, the bibliography provides a demographic profile of anthropology and shows the distribution of subdiscipline concentrations and …

Nature And Nurture In Cognition, Muhammad Ali Khalidi

Publications and Research

This paper advocates a dispositional account of innate cognitive capacities, which has an illustrious history from Plato to Chomsky. The ‘triggering model’ of innateness, first made explicit by Stich ([1975]), explicates the notion in terms of the relative informational content of the stimulus (input) and the competence (output). The advantage of this model of innateness is that it does not make a problematic reference to normal conditions and avoids relativizing innate traits to specific populations, as biological models of innateness are forced to do. Relativization can be avoided in the case of cognitive capacities precisely because informational content is involved. …

Rio+10: Indigenous Peoples, Transnational Corporations, And Sustainable Development In Amazonia, Judith Kimerling

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Writing An Important Body Of Scholarship: A Proposal For An Embodied Rhetoric Of Professional Practice, Jane Hindman

Publications and Research

Identifies a set of professional discursive practices of rhetoric teachers that reveal gendered power relations. Proposes an "embodied rhetoric" characterized and authorized in part by specific sorts of personal author- and context-saturated gestures. Concludes that an embodied rhetoric regenders academic discourse, assures agency and power to feminist theory and praxis, and facilitates efforts to effect change in teachers and students' lives.