Sociology Commons^™

'Time In A Bottle': Temporal Discontinuities In Narratives Of Diaspora, Emily Churilla

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

The concepts of home have been, and continue to be, the foundation of much of the contention surrounding all sides of discourse regarding diaspora and immigration - through both viewing the home as threatened and defiled as well as redefining the imagined reality of home. It is the impasse of working around and against the frame of Western temporality and space from within the trope of home that this paper will explore; specifically how narratives of diasporic subjectivity disrupt and threaten normalized constructs of origin and time, history, and identity. Because to only consider the question of "home" leaves a …

On Being Acceptable: State Sanction, Race Privilege And Lesbian And Gay Parents, Damien W. Riggs

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

'Positive' representations of lesbian and gay parents within the media continue to draw parallels between the experiences of heterosexual parents and those of lesbian and gay parents. Such comparisons are typically aimed at 'proving' that lesbian and gay parents are acceptable parents. There is, however, most often a failure to examine how race mediates representations of the category 'parent', the result being that references to 'parents' typically refer to white parents. The category parent is thus built upon a series of exclusions, ones with which white lesbian and gay parents may unwittingly be complicit. Through an examination of both a …

Unruly Corporeality: Aids, Immigration And The Imagined Australian Body, Zoë Anderson

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Particular bodies within the Australian nation can be seen to threaten to disrupt and destabilize dominant notions of cultural citizenship. Understood through intricate intersections of ethnicity, gender and sexuality, 'Australianness' - and its correlation to the geographical nation - is constantly monitored. Crucial here is the manner in which boundaries of whiteness, and 'true Australianess', are reconstituted, fuelling avoidance of the ambiguities of national belonging and ensuring the enduring pathologisation of the 'un'Australian. In particular, discursive associations between HIV/AIDS and the 'foreign' as perceived contaminates to the nation operate to reinforce these understandings. Here, the threat of disease both informs, …

Review Of Spreading Misandry: The Teaching Of Contempt For Men In Popular Culture, By Paul Nathanson And Katherine K. Young, Marc Ouellette

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

No abstract provided.

Theorizing Threat: An Investigation Of Contentious Embodiment, Jennifer Musial, Emily Van Der Meulen

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In early summer 2006, we had a phone conversation that generated interest in this topic. Emily was reminiscing about her experiences at the Washington, D.C. March for Women's Lives in April of 2004. The March, a demonstration for reproductive justice, brought out feminists and anti-abortion protestors alike. Emily remembered seeing African-American men holding signs that equated abortion to the airplane attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001. This sparked curiosity: how does abortion become equated with "terrorism"? [1] One answer to this question is that a woman who has an abortion is said to commit "body-terrorism" …

Colonial Constructs And Legally Sanctioned Sexually Violent Consequences In R V. Edmondson, Nicholas Bonokoski

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

What kind of a system or process would portray a twelve-year-old girl from the Yellow Quill First Nation as a sexual threat to three twenty-something white men, who promising her a ride home, picked her up and got her drunk? The answer: The Canadian legal system. In R v Edmondson a twelve-year old Aboriginal girl, who was sexually assaulted by Dean Edmondson, Jeffrey Brown, and Jeffrey Kindrat from Tisdale Saskatchewan, was portrayed by the judge as a "sexual aggressor". This paper focuses on the trial of Dean Edmondson in which, according to Judge Kovatch, the girls "sexual aggression" led to …

Justice-Learning: Service-Learning As Justice-Oriented Education, Dan W. Butin

Special Topics, General

"Justice-learning" lies at the intersection of service-learning and social justice education. Specifically, I argue for a distinctive form of community-based learning ("antifoundational service-learning") that fosters a justice-oriented framework ("anti-anti-social justice") that makes possible the questioning and disruption of unexamined and all too often oppressive binaries of how we view the struggle toward equity in education. The linkage of service-learning and social justice education in this manner offers a "weak overcoming" that strengthens experiential learning toward justice while avoiding the dilution and radicalization faced by both movements. I, thus, trace the linkages between service-learning and social justice education; explicate the potential …

We Know It's Service, But What Are They Learning? Preservice Teachers' Understandings Of Diversity, Courtney A. Bell, Brian R. Horn, Kevin C. Roxas

Diversity

A great deal of research on multiculturalism looks at different approaches to multicultural education and visions of multicultural teaching and learning. Though some research theorizes about how preservice teachers might learn about race or gender, there is very little work that helps teacher educators understand what learning about diversity more broadly, might look like. This study uses the conceptual framework developed by Paine to raise questions about and illuminate differences in the learning outcomes of preservice teachers who participated in two similar yet notably different service-learning experiences. Through examinations of writing tasks we find that teacher learning did indeed depend …

An American Mosaic: Service Learning Stories, Carol Lester, Gail Robinson

Higher Education

The goals of Community Colleges Broadening Horizons through Service Learning, supported by the Learn and Serve America program of the Corporation for National and Community Service and administered by the American Association of Community Colleges, are to build on established foundations to integrate service learning into the institutional climate of community colleges and to increase the number, quality, and sustainability of service learning programs in colleges nationwide.

Service learning combines community service with classroom instruction, focusing on critical, reflective thinking as well as personal and civic responsibility. Service learning programs involve students in activities that address local needs while developing …

Review Of "The Moral Imagination: The Art And Soul Of Building Peace" By J. P. Lederach, Lee A. Smithey

Sociology & Anthropology Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Effects Of A Multi-Component School-Based Nutrition Intervention Program In Elementary School Students, Linda Silverman

LSU Master's Theses

The objective of the study was to evaluate a multi-component school-based nutrition intervention program, Smart Bodies, to see if the curriculum increased nutrition knowledge, increased self-reported intakes of fruits and vegetables, and improved opinions, outcome expectations, social norms, and self-efficacy related to fruit and vegetables among elementary school students. The Smart Bodies curriculum was conducted in the classrooms of eighteen public schools in south Louisiana over a twelve-week period and included nutrition related games, videos, books and classroom activity tracking charts. Six hundred forty-one 4th and 5th grade students were included in the sample. A survey based on the Social …

Neighborhood Effects Of Public Housing: How The Level Of Public Housing Concentration Influences Neighborhood Crime Levels, Paul Joice

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Public housing is plagued by the well known “not-in-my-backyard” (NIMBY) phenomenon. People may support the existence of public housing, but oppose it in their neighborhood. This is particularly relevant to “scattered site” public housing – which has a much lower density than “traditional” public housing – because, by its very essence, scattered site public housing will be “in more backyards”. Public protests against such programs have made it clear that people don’t care about the positive effects for the public housing tenants nearly as much as they care about perceived negative effects on their neighborhood.

My goal is to …

Violent Personal Crimes On Campus: The Influence Of Size, Setting, And Police Presence, Chris Mckinney

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Statement of the Problem

Violent campus crime, in particular rape and aggravated assault, has become more pronounced in the last several decades. The judicial and legislative branches have responded through court decisions and legal enactments that require most universities to collect and report campus crime data. Many concerns have arisen as to the effectiveness and implications associated with such mandates. Some believe current laws do little to improve campus safety. Some suggested solutions to address campus crime have involved safety initiatives/programs and potential staffing increases to their campus police force.

Research Questions

• Are universities a reflection of surrounding community levels …

Transnational And Intimate Crossings: The 'Threatening Body' Of The 'Migrant Sex-Worker', Melissa Autumn White

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This paper introduces the rubric of the "migrant sex-working body" in order to theorize the affective and geopolitical valences of power 'threatened' by such bodies. The everyday and affective labours of migrant sex-workers whose bodies have been positioned as a 'threat' to the imagined community of the nation and to Hetero Factory's (Rossi 2003) family are fetishized in a Marxian sense in order to make an exploration of the collusion of transnational "structures of feeling" and border security regimes possible. In other words, the focus of the paper is not on or about the "migrant sex-working body", but rather on …

The Whitening Of Brown Skins And The Darkening Of Whiteness, Elaine Laforteza

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This paper draws on the interrelation of whiteness and Orientalism to provide a framework for examining the use of skin-bleaching lotions and soaps by some Filipino men and women. Through this focus, I investigate the ways in which skin-bleaching negotiates the "threatening" existence of brown flesh upon the contours of Filipino bodies and within the corpus of western(ised) nations. These threats are negotiated through the skin wherein various chromatic inflections of the flesh become processed as a part of or a threat to normative comfort zones. Skin-colour is thus the site of and for discursive construction and a domain of …

The Body Of The Terrorist In Contemporary Cinema, Robert Duggan, Páraic Finnerty

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This article will explore the presentation of the body of the terrorist in a range of British and American films with a particular emphasis on how these films combine political and romantic plotlines. As part of a broad consideration of how the terrorist is presented, this essay will concentrate in particular on Cal (1984), The Crying Game (1992), The Dancer Upstairs (2002) and The Quiet American (2002). Rather than fully engage with the more complex discourse of politics, often these films ask audiences to conceptualize the transgressive figure of the terrorist through the very familiar vocabulary of love and sexual …

Terrorizing Bodies, Chris Gutierrez

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Beginning with one single body painted by Gustave Courbet in 1866 and one temple destroyed on September 11th, this paper moves to consider the far reaching impact that the War on Terror has on the entire social body. By paying attention to the unknowable status of both the events and the perpetrators of terrorism, it will be argued that the overwhelming ambiguity of terrorism and counter-terrorist activity has allowed the War on Terror to return to prior discourses of racism and homophobia to mark the corporeal otherness it hopes to confront. Here, images from Abu Ghraib prison, joke pictures forwarded …

Tshl Foundation Endowment Committee Information, Texas Silver Haired Legislature Foundation

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

Meeting notes and information on the Texas Silver-Haired Legislature Foundation Endowment Committee, 2007-2008

Premarital Sex And Schooling Transitions In Four Sub-Saharan African Countries, Ann E. Biddlecom, Richard Gregory, Cynthia B. Lloyd, Barbara Mensch

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Using data from the 2004 National Survey of Adolescents conducted in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, and Uganda, this Population Council working paper investigates the timing of two key transitions in adolescence—school exit and premarital sex—among those who remain enrolled in school at the beginning of adolescence (age 12). Girls appear more vulnerable to dropout once they become sexually mature and once they engage in premarital sex. While girls were found to be less likely than boys, at any given age and controlling for other covariates, to have had premarital sex (except in Ghana), school enrollment and the timing of school …

Casamento Infantil No Contexto Da Epidemia Do Vih, Judith Bruce

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Da forma como a epidemia do VIH cresceu, transformou-se em muitos contextos numa doença de mulheres joven. Na África subsariana, 75% dos 6,2 milhões de jovens com idades entre os 15–24 que vivem com o VIH são mulheres. Ao mesmo tempo, o casamento infantil, apesar de estar a diminuir, continua. Em certos locais africanos, um número elevado de raparigas encontra-se em risco de casarem ainda crianças e muitos milhões de jovens esposas casaram ainda crianças. Para entender melhor estes fenómenos com semelhanças em comum—casamento infantil e epidemia do VIH—o Population Council adoptou uma abordagem em vários níveis. Um nível de …

Éducation Sexuelle Et Vih : Il Est Temps De Changer De Méthodologie, Nicole Haberland, Deborah Rogow

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Pendant des décennies, l’éducation sexuelle basée sur un curriculum a été la pierre angulaire des efforts en fournis par les écoles et les communautés pour améliorer la santé sexuelle et génésique des jeunes, et plus récemment pour prévenir le VIH. Malheureusement, le discours public sur l'éducation sexuelle s’est égaré dans des débats polarisés qui ont détourné l'attention de la manière dont les programmes d'éducation sexuelle et VIH peuvent atteindre le mieux possible les objectifs partagés par différentes circonscriptions. Une étude exhaustive récente de l'impact des programmes d'éducation sexuelle et VIH dispensés par les écoles dans les pays développés et en …

Educación Sobre Sexualidad Y Vih: Tiempo Para Un Cambio De Paradigma, Nicole Haberland, Deborah Rogow

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Durante décadas, la educación sexual basada en un programa de estudio fue la piedra angular de los esfuerzos de la escuela y de la comunidad para mejorar la salud sexual y reproductiva de los jóvenes y, en forma más reciente, para prevenir la infección de VIH. Desafortunadamente, el discurso público sobre educación sexual ha estado envuelto en debates contradictorios que sirven para distraer la atención en lugar de determinar en que manera los programas de educación sobre sexualidad y VIH podrían alcanzar mejor los objetivos compartidos de las distintas partes. Una reseña exhaustiva que se realizó recientemente sobre el impacto …

Jovens Abandonadas: Redireccionar As Intervenções De Vih No Sentido Das Mais Vulneráveis, Judith Bruce

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

No início da terceira década da pandemia do VIH na África Subsariana, as mulheres jovens—muitas vezes adolescentes—são o novo rosto da doença. O VIH/SIDA está a ameaçar, sobretudo, raparigas e jovens com rendimentos sociais e económicos limitados—as que não conseguem evitar, controlar ou sair de relações sexuais inseguras dentro e fora do casamento. As jovens em risco de exploração sexual não são uma pequena minoria, contam-se entre elas centenas de milhões. Promover Transições para a Idade Adulta: Saudáveis, Seguras e Produtivas Nº 23 explora: determinantes estruturais de risco, falta chegar às mais vulneráveis, avançar com os meios que temos e …

Le Contexte De L’Initiation Sexuelle En Évolution Dans La Région Subsaharienne De L’Afrique, Barbara Mensch

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

L'ampleur de l'épidémie du SIDA en Afrique subsaharienne expose particulièrement les jeunes femmes au risque de l'infection par le VIH et requiert une meilleure compréhension des comportements reproductifs, y compris l'initiation sexuelle et les relations sexuelles pré-maritales. La croissance des relations sexuelles pré-maritales est une conséquence inévitable des mariages tardifs dans les pays en développement, en particulier à cause du fait que la période pendant laquelle les filles sont sexuellement mûres et non mariées est prolongée quand le mariage est retardé. Un récent projet du Population Council a fait des recherches sur les liens entre le changement d'âge au mariage …

Leave No Woman Behind, Ethiopia: Baseline Report, Annabel Erulkar, Tekle-Ab Mekbib, Helen Amdemikael, Garry Conille

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

“Leave No Woman Behind, Ethiopia” is an experimental project being implemented in rural areas of Ethiopia’s Amhara region. The project uses the mobilization of women into groups and adult literacy as an entry point for reproductive health education and referrals. Measurement of the program’s impact is being undertaken using a quasi-experimental research design including baseline and endline surveys in six Kebele Associations in rural Amhara. This report presents findings from the baseline survey conducted among more than 3,000 girls and women aged 10–45 in rural Amhara region. The results cover a broad range of topics including education, work, livelihoods, social …

Addressing The Sexual And Reproductive Health Needs Of Young People: Perspectives And Experiences Of Stakeholders From The Health And Non-Health Sectors, K.G. Santhya, Shireen J. Jejeebhoy, Saswata Ghosh, Nicole Haberland

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

In India, recent policies have underscored the right of adolescents and youth to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) counseling and services. Despite recent policies and programs, little information is available on the extent to which policy recommendations and program strategies have been implemented, and the extent to which services serve the disparate needs of married and unmarried young women and men. Also, there is limited evidence about the extent to which health-care providers at different levels of service delivery and stakeholders from other sectors are involved in providing SRH and HIV/AIDS-related information and services to young people, or their perceptions …

Ethnic Differentials In Parental Health Seeking For Childhood Illness In Vietnam, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, James F. Phillips

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The recent introduction of user fees for Vietnam’s primary healthcare services has generated concern that economic policies may adversely affect health-seeking behavior and health outcomes of the poor, particularly among impoverished families who are members of socially marginalized minority groups. This Population Council working paper examines this debate by analyzing parental recall of illness and care-seeking for sick children under age 5 recorded by the 2001–02 Vietnam National Health Survey. Ethnic differentials are evident in all geographic and income levels, although adverse effects of minority status are most pronounced among poor households in remote areas. Results suggest that social equity …

Child Marriage In The Context Of The Hiv Epidemic, Judith Bruce

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

As the HIV epidemic has matured, in many settings it has become a disease of young women. In sub-Saharan Africa, 75 percent of the 6.2 million young people aged 15–24 living with HIV are female. At the same time, child marriage, though on the decline, persists. In parts of Africa, large numbers of girls are at risk of child marriage, and many millions of young wives were married as children. To better understand these twin phenomena—child marriage and the HIV epidemic—the Population Council adopted a multilevel approach. One level of investigation examines the effect of child marriage on the epidemic, …

The Changing Context Of Sexual Initiation In Sub-Saharan Africa, Barbara Mensch

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The magnitude of the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa puts young women at particularly high risk for HIV infection and calls for a better understanding of reproductive behavior, including sexual initiation and premarital sex. An increase in premarital sex is an inevitable consequence of later marriage in the developing world, if for no other reason than that the period during which girls are sexually mature and unmarried is prolonged when marriage is postponed. A recent Population Council project investigated the links between changing age at marriage and premarital sexual behavior in 27 sub-Saharan African countries. After documenting the decline in …

Reducir La Exclusión Social Des Las Niñas, Kelly Hallman, Eva Roca

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

En todo el mundo, las niñas son sistemáticamente excluidas de la participación en la vida social, económica y política. La ausencia de niñas en estos terrenos tiene consecuencias, no solo para las mismas jóvenes sino también para la sociedad en su totalidad, ya que se exacerba la pobreza y se perpetúan las disparidades de salud, educación y éxito económico. A nivel internacional, esta marginación dificulta o hace imposible que algunos países logren objetivos en toda la sociedad, como los Objetivos de Desarrollo del Milenio, considerados por las Naciones Unidas como parámetros para reducir la pobreza. Desde hace algunos años, el …