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The Two Faces of Anti-Semitism: Reuben Sawyer the Klansman and Reuben Sawyer the British Israelite
Full text link“She had snatched their trophy”: “Lanval,” “Beowulf,” and the Weaver-cum-Warrior
No full textHow was masculinity defined, and for whom, in medieval English epic? Employing Marie de France’s “Lanval” and the anonymous “Beowulf” as example cases, when examining the social role of gender rather than focus on sexuality as defined by genitalia, these poems flip the script. Wherein titular male-identifying characters swap social responsibilities with female-identifying foils; Beowulf and Lanval become “weaving” humans, while Lanval\u27s lover and Grendel’s Mother take on the “weaponed” roles in order to protect the material existence of their communities. By examining these exchanges, as well as characters that embody the gender role that is expected of them, I argue that early medieval English epic consistently presented a vision of society where a critical part of maintaining healthy communities necessitated the inversion of gender roles
The —ick of It: Phalluses, Swords, and Character Development in “Beowulf” and “Morte d\u27Arthur”
Full text linkThis essay explores the quintessential accessory to any male warrior in medieval literature.The swords that belong to Grendel’s Mother in the medieval epic poem “Beowulf”and King Arthur in the “Morte d’Arthur”are used as metaphors and symbols to illuminate specific motivations fueling medieval English representations of masculinity. Grendel’s Mother’s sword underscores anxieties of Hrothgar’s people in “Beowulf”—namely, that of procreation and the subversion of traditional gender roles. Its destruction is key to understanding the disdain that the Danes hold against Grendel’s Mother as an aberrant model of loyalty. King Arthur’s, thrown into a lake and seemingly cleansed of its impurities, likewise highlights faults in his reign and their absolution after his death. The history of the medieval sword plays an important role in this analysis, as the jewels and engravings provide a new reading of weapons in medieval English poetry
Mobility Justice, Phenomenology and Gender: A Case from Karachi
Full text linkKarachi is considered the economic hub of Pakistan, but it lacks a systematized public transport service. Although the demand-supply gap in the transport sector and the poor quality of this deregulated service affects everyone, it wreaks havoc for women, manifesting in the form of social exclusion. Men can benefit from alternative, (and sometimes cheaper) private modes of transport such as motorbikes, which are socially discouraged for women, making them dependent on their male counterparts. Despite the seriousness of this issue, there is little literature showing how women are differentially deprived of their agency due to gender disparity in society. To better understand this issue, the aim of this paper is to study the cultural foundations of transport poverty to assess their impact on women’s life opportunities. For this purpose, the experiences of women while using public transport have been analysed. The study has identified a variety of reasons why women curtail their mobility. It concludes that the social exclusion of women motivates a greater concern for their freedom of movement and that their needs be adequately reflected in transportation policies
Opportunities With Archives West: How a Small Academic Archive Benefits From Membership
No full textLike many smaller academic organizations, Southern Oregon University’s Hannon Library Special Collections and University Archives (SPEC) operates with a limited budget and minimal staffing. Membership to Archives West provides Hannon Library with a framework to enhance discovery, improve collection management, and promote growth and sustainability. The additional resources provided by Archives West and the Orbis Cascade Alliance allow SPEC to increase capacity and improve services to students and community researchers. The underlying framework consists of training sessions, best practices documents, affordable access to ArchivesSpace, and system support. While improved discoverability is often the primary motivator, libraries should not overlook the added value of improved workflows concerning collection management. Overall, the support provided by Archives West enables smaller archives to streamline their management activities while enhancing discoverability for the current users and reaching new users. Participation in Archives West also offers greater visibility, which facilitates the library’s outreach and advocacy efforts. The benefits of membership in Archives West are well worth the efforts inherent in implementing new software and altering workflows
Effect of Body Positive Social Media on Body Image and Acceptance
No full textSince the mid-1990s, social media sites (SMS) have proliferated (Obar & Wildman, 2015; Oggolder, 2015). SMS users tend to present themselves positively according to cultural ideals (Zhao, Grasmuck, & Martin, 2008). For example, SMS users may hashtag media #fitspiration, promoting thin and muscular bodies (Boepple, Ata, Rum, & Thompson, 2016; Talbot, Gavin, van Steen, & Morey, 2017). Social comparisons to idealized bodies can trigger body image dissatisfaction (BID; Groesz, Levine, & Murnen, 2002; Myers & Crowther, 2009) and body image self-discrepancy (i.e., disparity between one’s perceived and ideal self; Higgins, 1987). In contrast, proponents of the body positive movement (BPM) have sought to expand beauty norms via SMS (e.g., Afful & Ricciardelli, 2015). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of body positive and acceptance media (BPAM) exposure on body image. Hypotheses included: Participants in the BPAM group would report significantly greater body appreciation than #fitspiration and control groups, and #fitspiration and control groups would endorse significantly greater body image self-discrepancy than the BPAM group. Predicted moderators included body mass index, gender, racial and ethnic identification, self-esteem, SMS habits, and familiarity with the BPM. A community sample of US adults (N = 197) completed our online survey. Data revealed no significant differences post-exposure between groups on body image. Post-hoc chi square analyses showed differences regarding image preferences related to gender and BPM familiarity/alignment. About 46% of participants reported familiarity with BPM. Further, qualitative responses evidenced the popularization of the BPM
Exploring the Link Between Low Birth Weight Babies and Risk of Maternal Venous Thromboembolism - Why This Disproportionately Affects African American Women
Full text linkBackground: Maternal morbidity and mortality during childbirth has been a tragic complication of childbirth throughout history. However, maternal mortality rates have been trending down in every developed country other than the United States of America. Certain populations and comorbidities present expectant mothers with greater risk for maternal mortality or severe life-threatening complications during childbirth. Many of these factors are medically intuitive such as obesity, tobacco use, hypercoagulabilities/hemoglobinemias, positive family history, various disease states, and pre-partum complications such as preeclampsia. However, the greatest risk factor for maternal mortality in America is being African American. Two main factors were stand out in African American pregnancies and childbirth compared to other ethnicities, these two factors were firstly that African American women tend to give birth to low birthweight (LBW) babies at higher rates than any other race. Secondly, African American women are at higher rates of maternal morbidity and mortality. Since venous thromboembolism accounts for 10% of all maternal deaths these findings prompted us to explore if a link between LBW babies and occurrence of venous thromboembolism is present.
Methods: Exhaustive search of available medical literature was performed via Web of Science, CINAHL, MEDLINE-PubMed, and GoogleScholar using the keywords low birthweight OR birth weight OR small for gestational age OR intrauterine growth restriction OR fetal growth retardation OR postpartum AND venous thromboembolism”. Articles were assessed for quality based on GRADE criteria.
Results: African American women were found to be higher risk for postpartum VTE than and other race, and a 50% higher risk than white women. This correlation was particularly prominent when examining rates of postpartum VTE in African American women who has to undergo cesarean section, while cesarean section puts all races at increased risk of VTE, and in this population cesarean section is the largest risk factor for pulmonary embolism. Being an African American woman who underwent a cesarean section increased the VTE risk by 5 times compared to white women who underwent a cesarean section.
Conclusion: Low birth weight babies increase the risk of venous thromboembolism in mothers, leading to higher maternal death. Research has already explored what could be causing this discrepancy, with one of the leading theories causing LBW being exposure to chronic stress. One study found that chronic exposure to racism throughout one’s life has a “dose dependent response” to low birth weight. In other words, the longer an expectant mother has been exposed to racism, the more likely the baby is going to be born into the very low birth weight (VLBW) category.
The medical community needs to continue to explore what is causing the increased maternal mortality in the African American community. With the above proposed assessment, we suggest that mothers who birth low birthweight babies – particularly African American women – be closely monitored for VTE. Further research may consider specific protocols to address this complication and therefore reduce maternal mortality rates. Optimally, research would be conducted to determine the etiologies of low birthweight babies in African American women so that this can be addressed and prevented – therefore, saving thousands of lives.
Keywords: low birthweight, postpartum, venous thromboembolism, African America
Leveraging Cataloging and Collection Development Expertise to Improve OER Discovery
No full textWhile there is ongoing improvement in some of the larger open educational resources (OER) search engines, librarians sending emails to listservs asking “anyone know of OER on this topic?” and keeping old-fashioned reading lists of valuable OER are common occurrences. Compared to searching for books in a library catalog or scholarly articles in a research database, finding OER wherever they may be is challenging even for librarians, not to mention instructional faculty. The reason is technical: subpar and variable metadata in OER search engines leads to difficulties searching, capturing, and sharing data across repositories. In other words, the current lack of robust, descriptive metadata for OER results in fewer access points. Thus, OER are comparatively hard to find.
Bibliographic control for purposes of information storage and retrieval is something librarians are experts in, but we have not shared our methods with the Open Education community yet. So far, the majority of library advocates for OER have been reference and instruction librarians, as well as library directors. This is great, and we need them to continue to champion OER creation and adoption, but the Open Education movement needs technical services librarians to step forward and apply their cataloging and systems administration expertise to streamline access to the sprawling landscape of OER content; our profession would do well to share our collection development expertise as well. To this end, Clare Sobotka, Reference Assistant at Linn-Benton Community College (LBCC), Holly Wheeler, Library Cataloging and Metadata Specialist at Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC), and Heather White, Library Technical Services & OER Coordinator, along with their colleagues, have started to experiment with creating collection development policies and MARC records for OER. Ultimately, they hope for the development of a metadata schema that is shared between the Open Education and library communities and is mapped to MARC and RDA, to improve both catalog records and OER search engines across the web