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Power, Politics, And Domestic Desire In Octavia Butler’S Lilith’S Brood, Aparajita Nanda

English

Octavia Butler’s works, from her short stories and novellas to her science fiction novels, focus on themes of power, control, bondage, and a desired freedom from servitude. Power structures inevitably center on the master/slave or the captor/captive trope. Her handling of this issue takes on complex manifestations in her works, where enslavement and genetic evolution often form the core of the narrative. Within this framework, hostile and repressive regimes enforce a controlled society. Butler brings race, gender, and sexuality to the foreground of speculative fiction as she deals with complex social and political issues in all their ambiguity. Her handling …

In Defense Of Narcissism: Blogging As Foucauldian Technology Of The Self, Evgeniya Boklage

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

The application of the idea of narcissism stretches from a description of a narrowly conceived mental illness to a more general characterization of contemporary social condition. It has been used pejoratively to describe self-absorbed, egoistic, and uncivic attitudes and behavior. Returning to the Foucauldian technologies of the self – a philosophical account which tries to rehabilitate the love of the self and the idea of self-care as a positive social force – the present article utilizes this perspective to analyze the narcissistic, yet not uncivic, nature of blogging. It addresses a long-standing conflict between individualist and collectivist values in which …

Contributors, Kane Faucher

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Information about contributors to articles in volume 13, issue 3/4 of Reconstruction.

Veblen Does The Ipad: Ipadification And The Technologies Of Conspicuous Consumption, Tara Brabazon

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Thorstein Veblen was one of the great scholars of the twentieth century. Indeed, his most famous concept has entered the realm of cliché: conspicuous consumption. Yet the density of his prose has meant that his wider arguments about waste, class and capitalism have not travelled well into the 21st century. Therefore, this article combines the great scholar of the 20th century with one of the oddest products of the 21st century: the iPad. Exploring why the iPad emerged – in multiple versions – through the global economic crisis, Veblen’s theories of waste gain both renewed effectiveness and application.

On Agewise: Fighting The New Ageism In America, By Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Marc Ouellette

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Not since an eager, combat-booted pair of massive biceps attached to a deconstructionist waterbug with a PhD buttonholed me and shoved a Cultural Studies reader into my trembling matchstick arms has a single text caused me to enact as many multiple readings and to apply as many simultaneous readings as Margaret Morganroth Gullette’s Agewise: Fight the New Ageism in America. Honestly, I cannot offer a review of this text. It does not need one. I am only able to respond to it, and even then with the timidity, awe and respect imbued in the above-cited recollection. To …

Interpretation, 1980 And 1880, Rachel Sagner Buurma, L. Heffernan

English Literature Faculty Works

This article reviews recent methodological interventions in the field of literary study, many of which take nineteenth-century critics, readers, or writers as models for their less interpretive reading practices. In seeking out nineteenth-century models for twenty-first-century critical practice, these critics imagine a world in which English literature never became a discipline. Some see these new methods as formalist, yet we argue that they actually emerge from historicist self-critique. Specifically, these contemporary critics view the historicist projects of the 1980s as overly influenced by disciplinary models of textual interpretation models that first arose, we show through our reading of the Jolly …

Student Perspectives Of Self-Directed Language Learning: Implications For Teaching And Research, Fengning Du

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

This article presents findings from a qualitative study examining students’ perspectives of engaging in an autonomous learning project at a community college. Through the conceptual prism of self-directed learning, this study describes how students view the benefits of SDL as well as the roles of teachers. It also touches on factors contributing to the variances in students’ SDL competencies. With data collected from focus group interviews, the findings confirmed the utility of SDL as a potent learning strategy for students of foreign languages because this format could lead to improvements in knowledge domain, meta-cognitive skills, and motivation. In addition, the …

Sacred Heart University Magazine, Summer 2013, Sacred Heart University

Sacred Heart University Magazine

No abstract provided.

Review Of The Warcraft Civilization, By William Sims Bainbridge, Anthony T. Sansone

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The evolving complexity of video games in narrative, gameplay and technology has steadily pulled researchers from game studies and other disciplines into examinations of games and what they say about our culture. Some examine what games say about players and what their activity says about them as part of society. Others explore what the game itself reflects about our culture; how a specific game can, could or does affect our society.

Crosstalk Between Adipocytes And Immune Cells In Adipose Tissue In An Obese Inflammatory State: Role Of Contact-Mediated Signaling, Carolina Franco Nitta

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Obesity is defined as heightened fat accumulation leading to health impairments. It has been directly correlated to cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes mellitus, and cancer. Heightened cytokine levels are found in serum and adipose tissue of obese subjects, including TNFα (tumor necrosis factor alpha), IL-6 (interleukin-6), and MCP-1 (monocyte chemoattractant protein-1), being characterized as a chronic low-grade inflammatory disease. In this dissertation, I have generated a novel co-culture model between adipocytes and immune cells (derived from splenocytes) that mimics inflammation seen in obese adipose tissue. This co-culture model allows for distinct evaluation between secreted paracrine factors (indirect cultures) and these …

Looking Forward Rather Than Backward: Cultural Revitalization At The Poeh Cultural Center And Museum, Kaila Cogdill

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation investigates how the Pueblo of Pojoaque went from near desertion to a community that in contemporary times (and with the assistance of nearby Tewa communities) has worked to retain its culture and art, in an important example of cultural revitalization. Pojoaque Pueblos Poeh Cultural Center and Museum provides a unique perspective on cultural revitalization in the 21st century. The Poeh Center has been used by Pojoaque Pueblo to strengthen its identity and its economic and social status in the area, and as a result is considered one of the most progressive Pueblos in the Southwest. I address the …

Examining The Role Of Facilitated Conflict On Student Learning Outcomes In A Diversity Education Course, Sabrina N. Ross

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Building on the Piagetian concept of disequilibrium (i.e., cognitive conflict) and empirical research documenting relationships between cognitive conflict and transformative learning, this article explores the influence of facilitated conflict (i.e., intentional efforts by the instructor to help students reflect on and work through the intergroup conflict they experienced in the course) on the learning outcomes of female students enrolled in an exploratory diversity education course. Various forms of student writing including free-writing exercises and reflective papers were used in addition to two survey response questions to identify sources of cognitive conflict and assess student learning outcomes. Findings revealed that strategies …

A Faith Dimension On The Landscape Of Teachers: Muslim Teachers On Recruitment, Retention And Career Advancement, Imran Mogra

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

A significant area of teacher education is the increasing focus in many countries on how faith and schooling should best be understood. Yet, understanding faith perspectives in the lives and careers of teachers appears to be an under-researched area. To this end, the experiences of professional Muslim teachers in state primary schools in England were explored using semi-structured in-depth life history interviews. This paper focuses on their views regarding the recruitment, retention and career advancement of Muslim teachers in particular, as part of Black and minority ethnic teachers in Britain. Findings reveal a positive picture and their representation at various …

Peer Mentoring: A Way Forward For Supporting Preservice Efl Teachers Psychosocially During The Practicum, Hoa Thi Mai Nguyen

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

During the past several years, the importance of practicum as a vital proportion of the preservice teacher education program has been increasingly emphasized. There have been a number of initiatives for supporting preservice teachers. Among these, peer based relationship is increasingly emerged as an innovative strategy to provide additional support to preservice teachers. This paper reports on part of a larger study which investigated the impact of peer mentoring in the context of Vietnam. Using mixed methods research design, the study investigated the impact of a peer mentoring model on the preservice teachers’ perceptions of their psychosocial support from their …

A Comparative Study Of The Hr Professionals’ Effectiveness In The Banking Sector Of Pakistan, Aqeel Ahmad, Mohmad Yazam Sharif U, Abdul Rashid Kausar

Business Review

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship of human resource (HR) professionals’ competencies, HR professionals’ willingness (HRPW) and HR professionals’ effectiveness (HRPE). The Human Resource Competency Study model is used in this research, which is modified to include ‘Willingness’ as an important competency. The study is undertaken using data drawn from the line managers of two large Privatized Banks (PB1) and (PB2) of Pakistan. It is hypothesized that all HR professionals’ competencies are equally and strongly related to HR professionals’ effectiveness which is theoretically associated with organizational performance. The study finds that the HR professionals’ competencies including …

Tag, You’Re It: Enhancing Access To Graphic Novels, Wendy L. West

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

Current users of academic libraries are avid readers of graphic novels. These thought-provoking materials are used for leisure reading, in instruction, and for research purposes. Libraries need to take care in providing access to these resources. This study analyzed the cataloging practices and social tagging of a specific list of graphic novel titles in the academic libraries of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Results found that of the 668 graphic novel records 68 (10.17 percent) used the genre heading “graphic novel” and 99 (14.8 percent) were tagged. This limited access could be improved by using social tagging and genre …

Plight Of The Gameur : Inhibitors To Empathic Connection With Representation Of Suffering In Outreach Games, Kristopher John Purzycki

English Theses & Dissertations

The field of serious game studies, while growing, is still working through the variables that create the conditions for a discernible effect towards real-world player behavior. One branch of serious games I refer to as outreach games aim at informing and prompting the player to take further real-world action. However, a significant impediment to this appeal is the relationship between the player and the game. Referring to the role of the flaneur in post-colonial literature, I describe how the relationship between whom I refer to as the gameur and the outreach game is similar to the urban wanderer, eavesdropping on …

Cross-Cultural Studies, Saint Mary's College Of California

Academic Catalog

No abstract provided.

Women’S And Gender Studies, Saint Mary's College Of California

Academic Catalog

No abstract provided.

Quality Interactions And Family Storytelling, Allison R. Thorson, Christine E. Rittenour, Jody Koenig Kellas, April R. Trees

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study examined how individuals’ satisfaction with their family, as well as the ways they negotiated the telling of a family story, combined to predict their perceived quality of the storytelling interaction. Drawing from family members’ (150 individuals, 50 families) joint telling of an often told family story, multilevel modeling analyses revealed significant variance within and between families’ perceived quality of their storytelling interaction. These variances were explained by family satisfaction and family-level ratings of engagement during storytelling. These findings drive our suggestions for future assessment of multiple members’ perspectives of joint family storytelling interactions.

The Residual Resistance Of The Individual Within The Rhizomatic Hegemony Of The Internet, Emma Katherine Wolfe

English Theses & Dissertations

Networked cyborgs that exist within the non-hierarchical rhizomatic network of the Internet risk losing the concept of their individuality as our identity becomes less important than the group. However, if the rhizomatic network is thought of as a hegemony that exists on the Internet, we can resist this through the residual notion of individual identity. Since cyborgs must perform in order to exist on the rhizomatic network, they can become aware of and perform their individuality through awareness of the computer medium. There are three methods for networked cyborgs to assert their individuality discussed in this thesis.

The first is …

Contents, Saint Mary's College Of California

Academic Catalog

No abstract provided.

Section I, Saint Mary's College Of California

Academic Catalog

No abstract provided.

Complete Catalog, Saint Mary's College Of California

Academic Catalog

No abstract provided.

Art And Art History, Saint Mary's College Of California

Academic Catalog

No abstract provided.

Communication, Saint Mary's College Of California

Academic Catalog

No abstract provided.

Index, Saint Mary's College Of California

Academic Catalog

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Snai2/Slug In Diabetes-Impaired Wound Healing, Krystle K. Quan

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Impaired wound healing is a common complication of diabetes mellitus. Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) are a consequence of diabetes and are formed from non-enzymatic reactions between glucose and proteins. The accumulation of AGEs is believed to disrupt wound repair and alter protein function. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and a downstream effector, Snai2/Slug, are key regulators of reepithelialization, a vital component of wound healing. Reepithelialization requires keratinocyte proliferation and migration. Therefore, we examined the impact of AGEs on these EGF-stimulated responses. In this dissertation, I present evidence for a critical role of Snai2 in diabetes-impaired wound reepithelialization, extending …

Responses Of Chlorophyll A Content For Conchocelis Phase Of Alaskan Porphyra (Bangiales, Rhodophyta) Species To Environmental Factors, Rulong Lin, Michael Stekoll

Faculty, Staff, and Students

Investigations were performed on variations of photosynthetic pigment in conchocelis of Alaskan Porphyra species, P. abbottae (Pa), P. pseudolanceolata (Pe), P. pseudolinearis (Pi) and P. torta (Pt), in response to environmental variables. Conchocelis were cultured under varying conditions of irradiance (0, 10, 40 and 160 µmol photons m-2s-1), nutrient concentration (0, f/4, f/2 and f) for up to 60 days (with temperature 11°C and salinity 30ppt). Chlorophyll a (Chl a ) content was measured by spectrophotometry. Results indicated that Chl content varied with different culture conditions and species. Photosynthetic pigment was significantly affected by irradiance, nutrient concentration and culture duration, …

Style, Discourse, And The Completion Of The Vernacular Style In Modern Japanese Literature, Jacob Zan Adachi Lee

Theses and Dissertations

Many histories of modern Japanese literature see the "completion" of the modern vernacular style in the writings of Shiga Naoya (1883--1971), Mushakōji Saneatsu (1885--1976) and Takamura Kōtarō (1883--1956). Why and how this critical-historical perception of stylistic normalcy arose and still continues is better understood, I propose, through a close reading of key texts that identifies instances and patterns of creative manipulation of-as opposed to mere determination by or complicity with-certain philosophical, social, and historical discourses.How this creative manipulation plays out varies in prose and poetry and from text to text. In Mushakōji's Omedetaki hito (1911; The Simpleton), temporal and generic …