College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University
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The Solidarity Economy: A Way Forward for Our De-Futured World
Get PDFAs society contends with the ongoing economic, environmental and political crises perpetuated by racist patriarchal ecologically-destructive capitalism, there is a need to look beyond forms of inequality to the opportunity of solidarity. While histories of mutuality and reciprocity have long been present in economies around the world, it is in the last thirty years that global movements have begun to coalesce under the framework of the solidarity economy. This framework asserts a path forward towards a just and sustainable post-capitalist future, based in cooperation and care.. We begin by exploring how the solidarity economy framework and movement have been making already-existing alternatives to capitalism visible. Then we consider the values, practices and institutions that have come to define the solidarity economy, and the vital role social movements have played in creating a politics and culture of solidarity. We then look at how the solidarity economy movement is growing and solidifying the solidarity economy through education, incubation, and establishing networks at multiple scales. The article concludes with a consideration of present challenges, including capitalist competition, dealing with competing frameworks, inclusion/exclusion, and overcoming conflict
The Implications of Solidarity for Food Ethics
Get PDFThis essay examines numerous ways in which commitments to solidarity have relevance in the area of food ethics. Among the topics explored are food insecurity and hunger, workers’ rights, ecology, and the treatment of animals. Particular attention is paid to the impacts of the production and consumption of animal products. These issues are examined through the lens of the developing understanding of solidarity present in the tradition of Catholic social teaching (CST). The ethical framework provided by CST, it is suggested, could be further enhanced by insights drawn from the growing tradition of “Black veganism” and its holistic, intersectional understanding of solidarity and liberation
CSB and SJU Convocation 2023
Get PDFThe CSB and SJU All College Convocation was on Friday, August 25 at 11 a.m. in Escher Auditorium, Benedicta Arts Center at the College of Saint Benedict. We gather to celebrate the beginning of the 2023-2024 academic year at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University.
Convocation welcomes all new students, returning students, faculty and staff back to campus. A community lunch will be served following the convocation ceremony. This lunch is for faculty/staff/support staff/students and members of the Monastic community. This is the first official academic event for the 2023-2024 academic year
The Spectrum of Nim-Values for Achievement Games for Generating Finite Groups
Get PDFWe study an impartial achievement game introduced by Anderson and Harary. The game is played by two players who alternately select previously unselected elements of a finite group. The game ends when the jointly selected elements generate the group. The last player able to make a move is the winner of the game. We prove that the spectrum of nim-values of these games is {0, 1, 2, 3, 4}. This positively answers two conjectures from a previous paper by the last two authors
Universe of Wonder: Galaxies, Stars, Planets, and Life
No full textCo-sponsored by the Reuter Professorship of Science and Religion and the School of Theology and Seminar. Dr. Jennifer Wiseman is an astrophysicist, author, and speaker. She studied physics at MIT, co-discovering comet Wiseman-Skiff in 1987, and is currently a senior astrophysicist at the Goddard Space Flight Center.
Join Dr. Jennifer Wiseman, astrophysicist as she considers some of the coolest discoveries in modern astronomy and the highest priorities for future exploration and how they impact faith, hope, and love on planet Earth
Monsters - In My Office!?
Get PDFAn average man, Sam, begins to notice something strange about the world around him. He struggles to adapt, believing that he\u27s having a psychotic trip, eventually learning the truth about the hidden world that lurks in plain sight
Exploration of Surface Embroidery
Get PDFThis is an Independent Learning Project on learning and mastering surface embroidery skills, learning a total of 48 stitches. This project culminated in an original design
The role of SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 protein ARKS motif on novobiocin binding
Get PDFThe discovery of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the COVID-19 pandemic required scientists to develop medical solutions to reduce infectivity, severity of symptoms, and death. Although vaccines and drugs provided urgent assistance, the need to continue developing better drugs is necessary long term, and understanding the structure of the virus and finding potential inhibitors would prove vital to discovering solutions to this worldwide health problem. This experimental project focuses on targeting the unique accessory protein, Open Reading Frame 8 (ORF8) in SARS-CoV-2 through studying its interactions with a repurposable drug, novobiocin. Importantly, ORF8 specializes in helping evade immune system checks by downregulating major histocompatibility complex I (MHC-I) after infection, and is also involved in inflammatory responses from the cytokine storm, the most prominent cause of fatalities from the virus. Additionally, the ORF8 protein has been proposed to act as a histone mimic at the histone-H3 ARKS motif that causes post-translational changes in chromatin, further worsening these problems through gene transcription. Previous in silico and in vitro work from our lab has shown that novobiocin [Kd = 54.5 ± 3.14 μM] and three other computationally verified ligands (iohexol [Kd = 1185 ± 193 μM], kaempferol-7-O-glucoside [Kd = 135 ± 10.9 μM] & lercanidipine hydrochloride [Kd = 52.7 ± 5.71 μM]) bind to. To probe the role of Arg in the histone-H3 ARKS motif, specific mutation was done in position 52 from Arg to Met, Glu and Leu respectively. The above results in drastic changes in intermolecular forces such as opposing charge, polarity and different sizes of these side chains that negatively affect novobiocin’s ability to bind to the ORF8 pocket , which this research aims to experimentally prove this hypothesis. In silico analyses for the mutagenic ORF8 were initially found to require more energy to bind novobiocin to the ARKS motif than wild-type, but was still possible to dock according to Swissdock. Primers for the ORF8 R52 mutants were then designed and mutagenic plasmids were constructed and sequence verified. Each of the mutant ORF8 proteins was overexpressed, purified, and Kd values for binding to novobiocin were determined via intrinsic fluorescence spectroscopy and compared with wild-type binding. This data will help further understand the role of SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 protein ARKS motif and how its interactions affected novobiocin binding, potentially benefitting future studies attempting to repurpose novobiocin and other ligands for treatment of the spreading virus