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Mystical Materialism: Unreason and Robert Sullivan’s Star Waka as Navigation for Postmodernity
No full textAgainst the portrayal of city lights as emblematic of modernity and progress, Robert Sullivan’s poetry book Star Waka portrays a star-absent sky as metaphor for the crisis for our time. Sullivan does not use Māori cosmology strictly within the frame of western rationalism nor its opposite, but instead falls more precisely within a third term, unreason, naming the alternate forms of rationality within “pre-colonial” thought. In this presentation, I propose that in providing an alternate frame for reason, Sullivan is able to challenge the legitimacy of capitalist economic rationalism. Following Gramsci, economic rationalism treats its assessment of materiality with a god-like reverence, giving an unchallengeable legitimacy to the supposedly solely material basis of the reasoning behind structural adjustment programs and other neoliberal policies. Staring in the face of its violent birth within a colonial world, Sullivan’s epistemology is not purely of a precolonial Māori origin, nor does it claim to engage the “purely material” world. Instead, I argue that the clearly cultural or religious basis of his work makes Star Waka an even more crucial navigation guide for the present globalizing and postmodern moment, contesting rather than ceding to the mystical grounds of modern capitalist economic materialism and rationalism
Castles, Lands, and Locks: Exploring the Social Capital of Heritage Sites
No full textThis Honors thesis aims to analyze the social roles of heritage sites as modes of cultural communication and connection. Through combined ethnographic and archaeological research methods, I argue that while the museumification and industrialization of heritage does provide useful information for populations with little knowledge of cultural processes, the communities most closely related to the heritage sites lose both tangible and intangible cultural connections when their backyards turn to tourist destinations. Studies of heritage have long argued that heritage processes take place not just through tangible heritage artifacts but also through everyday intangible heritage activities (Smith 2006). Throughout this work I drew together work in heritage studies (Appadurai 1986 & Smith 2006), the anthropology of Ireland (Glassie 1982), and power theory (Foucault 1975) to aid my ethnographic and archaeological research. In Co. Galway, Ireland, I interviewed individuals living in rural and urban areas about their interactions with heritage. Simultaneously, I participated in an archaeological excavation of a rural tower house built in the 1400s; here, I conducted participant observation and underwent the entire excavation process. The small communities that I researched represent the everyday rural neighborhoods in Ireland and their lack of communication with those residing in urban areas. I argue that anthropologists should place an increased importance on heritage as an intangible phenomenon that can be developed by personal exploration and free-learning methods. By focusing on heritage as an intangible phenomenon this research demonstrates how local communities engage with heritage through personal exploration and free learning methods
Hypersexualization and Disproportionate Punishments of Black Girls in All-Girl Catholic High Schools
No full textFaculty in private Catholic all-girls high schools in the US enforce a standard of modesty that they feel Black girls tarnish. The constant adultification and hypersexualization of Black girls in US society - especially in learning settings - regularly disrupts their education. Studies reveal that faculty responses are derived from a long history of objectification, criminalization, stereotypes, and over-sexualization of young Black girls and women.
Using a sociological lens, this study adopts an autoethnographic methodology to offer a nuanced perspective on my experiences in the context of the existing scholarship of Monique W. Morris, Catalina Carpan, and Robin M. Boylorn
Ligand-Controlled Regioselective Dearomative Vicinal and Conjugate Hydroboration of Quinolines
No full textA dearomative strategy to regioselectively modify arenes using a “diene” synthon within aromatic rings provides access to highly functionalized heterocycles from abundant aromatic feedstocks and represents an alternative synthetic approach besides traditional cross-coupling and C–H functionalization methodologies. In this study, we present an efficient method for selectively introducing boron onto quinolines through dearomative hydroboration using easily accessible and stable phosphine-ligated borane complexes. The vicinal 5,6- and conjugate 5,8-hydroborated products could be obtained regioselectively by modifying the phosphine ligand. Drawing inspiration from diverse organoboron transformations, these borane building blocks were diversified by a range of downstream functionalizations, providing modular pathways for the skeletal modifications of quinolines to access a variety of challenging functionalized heterocycles
How Did We Meet? : Experiments with Ethnographic Comics in Nepal
No full textThis comic-format article details a 2024 workshop that the authors held in Nepal, in which Nepali, US, and Chinese writers and artists teamed up to create collaboralife in the Nepali city of Patan and was grounded in open- ended ethnographic interviews that each pair conducted with locals. This article draws on the events and output of the workshop to consider the role of comics in ethnographic studies. We focus on how one pair\u27s comic helped the partners reflect critically on how they might go about forming the relationships that ground ethnographic research, while also pointing to the topic of relationship formation as a potential area of ethnographic inquiry. We conclude by discussing how the comic- making endeavor highlighted the importance of reflexivity in ethnographic work
I Felt Naked in a Way : Understanding the Experience of Indigenous Learners in the Communication Classroom
No full textIndigenous peoples are underrepresented at colleges and universities in the U.S. and their ways of knowing are routinely excluded from the knowledge systems that are normalized within these institutions. To expand our understanding of culturally informed teaching practices, this study examines rural Yup’ik learners’ experiences in the foundational communication classroom. A thematic analysis of 10 student reflections from a place-based intensive course, revealed tensions related to authority and feedback, gaps in cultural understanding, silencing through dominant frameworks, and honoring Indigenous perspectives. Understanding these students’ perceptions creates space for communication instructors, and the discipline itself, to further investigate current pedagogies