Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Myth, Fiction And Politics In The Age Of Antiheroes: A Case Study Of Donald Trump, Igor Prusa, Matthew Brummer

Heroism Science

In this article, we demonstrate that the antihero archetype informs our understanding of Trump in important ways, including his rise to and fall from power. We introduce an analytical framework for analyzing Trump’s antiheroic traits based on his social positioning, individual motivation, and personal charisma. We argue that Trump is fascinating because he is powerful, amoral, and charismatic, and suggest that the American public was primed for Trumpism through a zeitgeist hospitable to antihero worship. That is, Trump’s dogged popularity with nearly half of the American public was foretold by decades of pop-cultural obsession with, and adulation for, the antihero.

There Goes My Antihero: How Wendy Byrde Broke Bad, Melissa Vosen Callens

Heroism Science

Despite the increase of male antiheroes in popular culture, the number of female antiheroes is sparse, particularly when female characters are romantically involved with male antiheroes. There are several reasons for this disparity, partially which can be explained by affective disposition theory. First, female characters are rarely given agency and adequate backstories. Second, in order for female characters to be antiheroes, they typically must challenge gender role stereotypes, especially as they pertain to motherhood. Finally, they are often treated poorly by other characters in the series. All of these reasons have a profound effect on how audiences perceive female characters …

Consensus, Convergence, And Covid-19: The Ethical Role Of Religious Reasons In Leaders’ Response To Covid-19, Marilie Coetsee

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Focusing on current efforts to persuade the public to comply with COVID-19 best practices, this essay examines what role appeals to religious reasons should (or should not) play in leaders’ attempts to secure followers’ acceptance of group policies in contexts of religious and moral pluralism. While appeals to followers’ religious commitments can be helpful in promoting desirable public health outcomes, they also raise moral concerns when made in the contexts of secular institutions with religiously diverse participants. In these contexts, leaders who appeal to religious reasons as bases of justification for imposing COVID policies may seem to fail to show …

Curb Your Heroism: How Larry David, An Old, Bald Misanthrope, Won The Hearts Of Millions, Scott T. Allison, James K. Beggan, Olivia Efthimiou

Heroism Science

For eleven television seasons, viewers of the series Curb Your Enthusiasm have been witness to a main character in Larry David who paradoxically displays attributes that are both endearing and revolting. This article offers an analysis of Larry David’s character with the goal of ascertaining his heroic nature, specifically focusing on whether he best meets the scientific criteria for a hero or for an antihero. Drawing from the literature of heroism science, we examine a large body of evidence from episodes of the series supporting arguments for both heroism and antiheroism in Larry’s character. Consistent with definitions of heroism, Larry …

“It’S My Metier”: The Failed Hero In Chinatown, Ann C. Hall

Heroism Science

Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974) presents one of film’s most memorable failed heroes, Jake Giddes. Because of its grim ending, critics tend to conclude that it is an existential noir or a reflection on Polanski’s life and times, his escape from the Holocaust as a child, the death of his wife Sharon Tate, or political events such as Watergate and Vietnam. By examining the film as through the genre of tragedy, Giddes becomes a tragic, not failed, hero, a character who can show us how to suffer nobly.

The University Of Richmond: Leadership During Crisis, Gabby Beneducci, Josie Bossidy, Ben Castellano, Lexi Cobbs, Phoebe Cook, Westen Doran, Caroline Dzenitis, Taylor Fine, Evie Hanson, Sophia Hartman, Maha Hassan, Katelyn Inkman, Grace Jamin, Matt Kalady, Mimi Laws, Regan Mccrossan, David Nadwodny, Kathryn Reda, Savon Smith, Brian Taylor, Arden Tierney, Lauranett L. Lee

Student Publications

Throughout history, we have experienced numerous points of difficulty, tension, and conflict. Although they vary widely in their cause, context, and intensity, these points in history are considered times of crisis. How humans have reacted to these events and moments having created influential turning points in human history. This presentation explores various crises in American history, and the role of leaders and leadership during these times. This presentation looks at these crises, past and present, from the perspective of the collegiate institution, specifically, the University of Richmond.

[Introduction To] On Agamben, Arendt, Christianity, And The Dark Arts Of Civilization, Peter I. Kaufman

Bookshelf

Many progressives have found passages in Augustine's work that suggest he entertained hopes for meaningful political melioration in his time. They also propose that his “political theology” could be an especially valuable resource for “an ethics of democratic citizenship” or for “hopeful citizenship” in our times. Peter Kaufman argues that Augustine's “political theology” offers a compelling, radical alternative to progressive politics. He chronicles Augustine's experiments with alternative polities, and pairs Augustine's criticisms of political culture with those of Giorgio Agamben and Hannah Arendt.

This book argues that the perspectives of pilgrims (Augustine), refugees (Agamben), and pariahs (Arendt) are better staging …

Learning To Check Yourself: Improving Civic Engagement Through Duties, Better Voting Practices, And Combatting Group Loyalty, Katherine Brumund

Honors Theses

This project examines civic engagement. It is divided into three chapters: apathy, voting, and group loyalties. I derive two duties, a duty to care and a duty to reason well, that serve as a framework for community engagement aimed at facilitating moral progress. In the second section the main topic is voting. I argue for strategies to vote well. The third section of this project then focuses on group loyalties. This project uses two duties to frame how to engage with others, proposes a better way to participate civically, and ways to avoid pitfalls associated with group membership.

[Introduction To] Audacious Voices: Profiles In Intersectional Feminism, Holly J. Blake, Melissa D. Ooten

Bookshelf

Inspiring and hopeful, Audacious Voices is a collection of twelve stories from alumnae/alumni of WILL*, a feminist model for education. Each author featured in this book is working, in their own distinct way, to make their communities more equitable―and their stories illustrate how different elements of the WILL* program influence and inspire them to act with such intentionality.

Author-activist Courtney Martin writes in The New Better Off that the times we live in may break our hearts, but they don't have to break our spirit; it's that spirit that these stories capture, alongside the power of a feminist educational program …

[Introduction To] Red Prophet: The Punishing Intellectualism Of Vine Deloria Jr., David E. Wilkins

Bookshelf

In the face of looming, tumultuous global change, Red Prophet: The Punishing Intellectualism of Vine Deloria Jr. is a guide for those venturing into Vine's work in search of answers and solutions to Indigenous and non-Indigenous politics, ecology, and organization. David E. Wilkins's insights, based on his personal relationship with Deloria, document the sacred life and legacy of "one of the most important religious thinkers of the twentieth century" (TIME). A must-read for any deep examination of Indigenous legal, religious, social, and philosophical tactics.

Punishment And Reconciliation: Augustine, Peter Iver Kaufman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Punish the sin, not the sinner; easier said than done. Preaching on the second Psalm and purporting to address 'all who judge the earth,' Augustine wrestled with the problems attending punishment and reconciliation. The results recorded in his sermons and correspondence as well as in a few treatises perplex yet are worth considering before we investigate Augustine's more explicit remarks on the punishment of Donatist dissidents resisting reconciliation with the African church from which, he insisted, their predecessors had seceded in the early fourth century. At stake during Augustine's tenure as bishop, toward the end of that century and three …

[Introduction To] The Dream Is Lost: Voting Rights And The Politics Of Race In Richmond, Virginia, Julian Maxwell Hayter

Bookshelf

Once the capital of the Confederacy and the industrial hub of slave-based tobacco production, Richmond, Virginia has been largely overlooked in the context of twentieth century urban and political history. By the early 1960s, the city served as an important center for integrated politics, as African Americans fought for fair representation and mobilized voters in order to overcome discriminatory policies. Richmond’s African Americans struggled to serve their growing communities in the face of unyielding discrimination. Yet, due to their dedication to strengthening the Voting Rights Act of 1965, African American politicians held a city council majority by the late 1970s. …

[Introduction To] Ambassadors Of The Working Class: Argentina's International Labor Activists And Cold War Democracy In The Americas, Ernesto Seman

Bookshelf

In 1946 Juan Perón launched a populist challenge to the United States, recruiting an army of labor activists to serve as worker attachés at every Argentine embassy. By 1955, over five hundred would serve, representing the largest presence of blue-collar workers in the foreign service of any country in history. A meatpacking union leader taught striking workers in Chicago about rising salaries under Perón. A railroad motorist joined the revolution in Bolivia. A baker showed Soviet workers the daily caloric intake of their Argentine counterparts. As Ambassadors of the Working Class shows, the attachés' struggle against US diplomats in Latin …

"Everybody's Got To Wonder What's The Matter With This Cruel World Today": Social Consciousness And Political Commentary In "Love And Theft" And Modern Times, Thad Williamson

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Bob Dylan has spent much of the past fifty years trying to escape the label of "protest singer.” Over the past decade, there have been plenty of serious topics for the topically minded song writer to address: the Iraq War, threats to civil liberties, rising economic inequality, the financial collapse of 2008 and "Great Recession" that followed. Unlike his musical peers Neil Young (Living with War [2006]) and Bruce Springsteen (Wrecking Ball [2012]), Dylan to date has not addressed those events in any direct way, through new topical songs, in the last stage of his career.

Marlowe’S Radical Reformation: Christopher Marlowe And The Radical Christianity Of The Polish Brethren, Kristin M.S. Bezio

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Although scholars of both literature and history have made arguments for Christopher Marlowe’s religious belief in Catholicism, the Church of England, and even atheism (which could have been conflated with both by different parties during his lifetime), few consider the belief system of the Polish Brethren, a precursor to Unitarianism established by one Faustus Socinus. This essay uses historical and social network analyses to suggest a close tie between Marlowe’s acquaintances and believers in Socinianism. Clues in Doctor Faustus and Massacre at Paris suggest Marlowe’s skepticism concerning the doctrines of Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism. Furthermore, repeated references to Poland and …

Augustine's Punishments, Peter Iver Kaufman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

During Augustine's life, government authorities were generally friendly to the Christianity he came to adopt and defend. His correspondence mentions one imperial magistrate in Africa, Virius Nicomachus Flavianus, a pagan vicar of Africa who seemed partial to Donatist Christians whom Augustine considered secessionists. Otherwise, from the 390s to 430, assorted proconsuls, vicars, and tribunes sent from the imperial chancery and asked to maintain order in North Africa were willing to enforce government edicts against Donatists and pagans. To an extent, Augustine endorsed enforcement. He was troubled by punitive measures that looked excessive to him, yet scholars generally agree with Peter …

Realignment: A Century Of Political Evolution, Abigail Huth

Jepson School of Leadership Studies Research Symposium

The Republican Party was founded to oppose the expansion of slavery. For decades, African Americans supported the party of Lincoln, while the Democratic Party rallied against “Black Republicans”. Now Black voters overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party. How did this transition happen? What began this shift? We have explored several milestones that we believe have led to this significant realignment. The evolving politics and policies of both Republicans and Democrats come into play when analyzing this transition. Events involving Theodor Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, and Lyndon B. Johnson present as significant turning points in the realignment of …

Leading Through Reading In Contemporary Young Adult Fantasy By Philip Pullman And Terry Pratchett, Elisabeth Rose Gruner

English Faculty Publications

There’s a popular bumper sticker in some areas that reads: “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” It is sometimes paired with another one: “Bibles that are falling apart usually belong to people that aren’t.” The two combine to suggest an approach to reading and religion that are at the core of my argument in this chapter: they suggest that religious reading is fundamentally anti-interpretive; that reading the Bible or other religious texts provides direct access to truth. In the young adult texts I discuss in this essay, however, the opposite is the case: while texts (of many …

Ha Muerto Leslie Matchbox, Ernesto Seman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

La primera creacíon de Leslie Smith y sus socios fue un par de patines para la hija de uno de ellos. No tuvo mas trascendencia que la envidia de sus amigas de colegio. Fue su segunda obra la que vendió más de un millón de copias en poco menos de un año: una versión en miniatura del carruaje que transportó a la Reina Elizabeth II de Inglaterra el día de su coronación. Eso fue en 1953, y para el mismo año, Smith, Smithy Odell ya habian formado Lesney Products y sacaban a la venta uno de los productos más exitosos …

Nudlerías, Ernesto Seman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

"Nudlerías, Nudlerías", diría José María Aznar si fuera argentino y hubiera tratado de desestimar el mangrullo de boludeces derivadas de la difusión de la censura ejercida sobre una nota suya.

Los motivos para no empezar esta discusión son variados. Hemos dicho hasta el hartazgo que Nudler y Wainfeld son de los pocos tipos que nos interesa leer cuando leemos sobre la Argentina, supongo que, como siempre, porque sí El hecho de que se hayan trenzado a tortazos en público no me parece en absoluto relevante, ni que merezca una nota, ni que afecte el buen momento de nadie; lo atribuiría …

Clerical Leadership In Late Antiquity: Augustine On Bishops’ Polemical And Pastoral Burdens, Peter Iver Kaufman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Augustine returned from Italy to North Africa in 388, apparently elated to have found his calling. The cities he had known, Thagaste and Carthage, and would soon come to know, Hippo Regius, were relatively prosperous, despite taxes collected for the central government which had been making increasing demands since the time of Emperor Constantine. The funds available for municipal improvements were depleted (gravement amputés), Claude Lepelley calculated, siting the African cities in “a history of inexorable decline” from the 380s into the 430s. In the coastal city of Hippo, however, Augustine, as bishop was busy from the late 390s, exchanging …

Antebrazo, Ernesto Seman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

nada puede ser más parecido a un campo de concentración que el útero, con sus paraedes húmedas y rugasas, los ruidos de aguera asordinados, la luz que apenas llega. Carecemos de voluntad propia y de su ejercicio. Nuestro destino sujeto a fuerzas que imaginamos, sin saber cuándo ni porqué. Para los que vengan, en el muro oscuro con la punta del mango de una cuchara tallaría hasta hacerlas chillar: «Acá estuvo durante nueve meses Heraldo Dornou. No sabemos adónde nos lleban ni qué será de nosotros desde hoy. Marzo 1976 ¡Hasta siempre¡».

Ernesto Semán New York 2011, Ernesto Seman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Según el relato noticioso, Ronald Reagan estaba mirando par la ventana del Salón Oval de la Casa Blanca cuando entró Elliot Abrams, su subsecretario de Estado para America Latina. Era en el 84, Estados Unidos se enfervorizaba por borrar del mapa al gobierno sandinista de Nicaragua, financiando cuanto sátrapa le propusiera una incursión militar. Una pasión por la desigualdad de oportunidades, diría cualquiera. Abrams traía noticias. En el norte de Nicaragua, donde peleaban con la Contra, las sandinistas habían derribado por error un helicóptero cargado de periodistas. Ocha muertos.

Managing To Clear The Air: Stereotype Threat, Women, And Leadership, Crystal L. Hoyt, Susan E. Murphy

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

In this article, we explore the process and implications of stereotype threat for women in leadership, broadly construed. First, we provide a brief background on the phenomenon of stereotype threat generally. Next, we explore stereotype threat for women in leadership by reviewing a model of stereotype threat in leadership contexts that includes cues to stereotype threat, consequences of stereotype threat, and moderators of stereotype threat appraisals and responses. In this review, in addition to considering research focused squarely on leadership, we include the broader categories of research examining stereotype threat effects in the workplace and in tasks and domains relevant …

Deposito Diademate: Augustine’S Emperors, Peter Iver Kaufman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

To assist colleagues from other disciplines who teach Augustine’s texts in their core courses, this contribution to the Lilly Colloquium discusses Augustine’s assessments of Emperors Constantine and Theodosius. His presentations of their tenure in office and their virtues suggest that his position on political leadership corresponds with his general skepticism about political platforms and platitudes. Yet careful reading of his revision of Ambrose’s account of Emperor Theodosius’s public penance and reconsideration of the last five sections of his fifth book City of God—as well as a reappraisal of several of his sermons on the Psalms—suggest that he proposes a radical …

Ethical Decision Making And Leadership: Merging Social Role And Self-Construal Perspectives, Crystal L. Hoyt, Terry L. Price

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This research extends our understanding of ethical decision making on the part of leaders by merging social role and self-construal perspectives. Interdependent self-construal is generally seen as enhancing concern for justice and moral values. Across two studies we tested the prediction that non-leading group members’ interdependent self-construal would be associated with lower levels of unethical decision making on behalf of their group but that, in contrast, this relationship would be weaker for leaders, given their social role. These predictions were experimentally tested by assigning participants to the role of leader or non-leading group member and assessing the association between their …

[Introduction To] Hayek On Mill:The Mill-Taylor Friendship And Related Writings, Sandra J. Peart

Bookshelf

Best known for reviving the tradition of classical liberalism, F. A. Hayek was also a prominent scholar of the philosopher John Stuart Mill. One of his greatest undertakings was a collection of Mill’s extensive correspondence with his longstanding friend and later companion and wife, Harriet Taylor-Mill. Hayek first published the Mill-Taylor correspondence in 1951, and his edition soon became required reading for any study of the nineteenth-century foundations of liberalism. This latest addition to the University of Chicago Press’s Collected Works of F. A. Hayek series showcases the fascinating intersections between two of the most prominent thinkers from two successive …

Bringing Down The Island: Rebellion, Colonial Hierarchy, And Individualized Leadership In Nuñez’S Novel Prospero’S Daughter, Kristin M.S. Bezio

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

“Bringing Down the Island: Rebellion, Colonial Hierarchy, and Individualized Leadership in Nuñez’s novel Prospero’s Daughter” offers an analysis of Elizabeth Nuñez’s (2006) novel Prospero’s Daughter and Aimé Césaire’s A Tempest (1969), both of which draw upon multicultural tradition of European and Caribbean literatures, retelling Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1611). The paper is concerned with the ways in which leadership has been transformed from the original story, through Césaire’s text, and into Nuñez’s. Each work acts as an agent of leadership in literary and social terms, attempting to enact paradigmatic shifts away from hierarchy and classification and toward individualized transformational leadership.

The Social Role Theory Of Unethical Leadership, Crystal L. Hoyt, Terry L. Price, Laura Poatsy

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Challenging the standard reasoning regarding leaders’ ethical failures, we argue that a potent contributor to these failures is the social role expectations of leaders. We maintain that leaders’ central role expectation of goal achievement contributes to the over-valuing of group goals and greater moral permissibility of the means used to achieve these goals. In studies 1 and 2 we demonstrated that the role of leader, relative to group member, is associated with an increased appraisal of group goals which is predicted by the leaders’ role expectations and not driven by the psychological effects of power. Next, we experimentally demonstrated the …

Ethical Decision Making And Leadership: Merging Social Role And Self-Construal Perspectives, Crystal L. Hoyt, Terry L. Price

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This research extends our understanding of ethical decision making on the part of leaders by merging social role and self-construal perspectives. Interdependent self-construal is generally seen as enhancing concern for justice and moral values. Across two studies we tested the prediction that non-leading group members’ interdependent self-construal would be associated with lower levels of unethical decision making on behalf of their group but that, in contrast, this relationship would be weaker for leaders, given their social role. These predictions were experimentally tested by assigning participants to the role of leader or non-leading group member and assessing the association between their …