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What causes Hate?: How Politicians, the Media, and the US Educational System Are Influencing Xenophobic Behavior in the United States
No full textContributing to current literature on the effects of multiple variables on the increasing rates of xenophobic behavior in the United States, this paper analyzes and critiques research in the search of the cause of the increase in xenophobia. Scholars suggest that nationalist politicians, the media, and the failing American educational system may be to blame. The paper analyzes these various possibilities in the context of the United States and offers counter-arguments to the current literature.
The biggest contribution to current literature this paper provides is that it highlights a large gap in current literature. Thus far, scholars have not been able to agree on the root cause of the rise in xenophobia in the United States. This paper proposes that the root cause is a relationship between nationalistic politicians and the general public. The paper ends with a proposed research methodology to identify that relationship
To all the Productivity Hacks I\u27ve Known Before: Managing Executive Dysfunction at Work
Get PDFAny role in libraries is likely to ask a lot of our executive functions, and for those of us who experience executive DYSfunction with any regularity, keeping up with this work can pose an ongoing challenge. This lightning talk is a light-hearted overview of my many attempts to manage my own executive dysfunction using a variety of “productivity hacks.” In my ongoing mission to keep myself engaged in my role as a STEM librarian, I’ve tried bullet journaling, gratitude journaling, kanban boards, complex calendaring systems, and more. So far, none has stuck, and I think I might have figured out why. I will use my own experiences to highlight the problems behind the concept of productivity hacks, and the quiet power in accepting our limitations at work
Contagion, Causality, and Circumspection in a Late-Mamluk Digest of Natural Philosophy
Get PDFLike many men born to scholarly families at the turn of the fifteenth century, ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Ayyūb al-Qādirī moved from Damascus to Cairo as a young adult to pursue a career in law. Though this legal career soon foundered, Ibn Ayyūb gained a reputation in Cairo for perfectly embodying the pietistic and professional ideals of the Islamic learned elite, or ulama. In this article, I introduce this hitherto unstudied figure of the late Mamluk era with reference to his treatise on a major scholarly debate of his day: the extent to which natures, or the elemental composition of celestial bodies, humors, miasmas, etc., acted with causal independence from God, and whether this causal independence accounted for the incidence, spread, and cure of contagious disease. Entitled “Blocking the Means of Harm Caused by Teaching the Causal Efficacy of Natures,” Ibn Ayyūb’s treatise on this natural philosophical controversy is didactic and homiletic. He states at its outset that he composed it in order to acquaint inexperienced ulama with the concept of natural causal efficacy and demonstrate the speciousness of arguments made in its favor. Rather than constitute an original treatment of this subject, I argue that “Blocking the Means” served as an occasion for Ibn Ayyūb to project his adherence to the robust intellectual standards of his fellow ulama. By the fifteenth century, this class of scholars had tasked itself with protecting Islamic scholarly discourse from compelling yet nevertheless fallacious forms of knowledge. This mission included interrogating the demonstrative status of medicine and astrology—disciplines whose legitimacy the ulama purportedly questioned amid outbreaks of epidemic disease in the late Mamluk period. Accompanied by a biography of Ibn Ayyūb drawn from contemporary sources, the following analysis of “Blocking the Means” will provide further sociocultural context for natural philosophical debates in fifteenth-century Egypt, as well as document how the ulama of this era understood the implications these debates held for their professional and pietistic identities
Seed Coatings Containing Capsaicin Reduce Seed Removal in Temperate Woody Species
Get PDFCoating seeds in taste-averting chemical defenses (e.g., capsaicin from Capsicum spp.) can reduce rodent seed predation, and thus might promote plant establishment and forest regeneration. However, the efficacy of such seed coatings remains unknown for many woody plant species, and seed coatings have not been evaluated across different habitats where forest managers might seek to promote forest regeneration. We used two complementary seed-removal experiments in closed-canopy forests (Michigan) and an old field undergoing reforestation (New York) to examine whether coating seeds of four native tree species (Acer rubrum, Fagus grandifolia, Pinus banksiana, and Pinus resinosa) with chili powder reduces seed removal by rodents. In all species and habitats, control seeds were removed more than seeds treated with capsaicin (94% more in the closed-canopy forest, 17% more in the old field). Seed coatings containing capsaicin may provide a generally effective tool to support native tree recruitment and promote restoration success
Self-Transcendence: Servant-Leadership and the Doorway of Life
Get PDFRobert Greenleaf speaks of his relationship to Robert Frost’s poem Directive as a symbol in understanding servant-leadership, offering meaning for others in their reconciliation of who and where they are on life’s inward journey. Reflecting on my personal journey, in searching for a higher purpose and identifying what needs changing, a closer examination into the learnings inspired by my family is exposing the limitations in my predisposed self-orientation approach to leadership and challenging my relationship to a life of meaning. My inward desire to become a better person is opening my heart towards an other-orientation approach to serving, and towards servant-leadership; a framework that encourages dreaming bigger dreams and healing previously ignored wounds. Through the lens of self-responsibility, this article explores the progression from assimilating into a position of power, to redefining meaning through the freedom of choice, to prioritizing the well-being of others as an expression of love. This article ultimately affirms how servant-leadership, through the demonstration of awareness, conceptualization, and healing, leads to self-transcendence; reframing life from being a linear problem to solve to being a mystery to embrace
Re-imagining Teacher Education as an Andragogy of Hope
Get PDFBuilding on a co-authored book chapter, A Futures Perspective for an Andragogy of Hope, I propose to explore the role teachers can play in opening up hopeful pedagogical spaces for K-12 students. In the chapter, we describe a pedagogic/andragogic creed that includes “I am a teacher full of the spirit of hope, in spite of all that stands to the contrary. I am a teacher who refuses the disillusionment that consumes and immobilizes” (Freire, 2014, p. 94). This echoes my opening words which included the following from the Prayer of St. Francis: “where there is despair [let me sow] hope.” Education, as pedagogy and andragogy, should be a hopeful, aspirational, and worthwhile process for each student and each teacher. How can this manifest in the actions and words of existing and aspiring teachers? Hope can be a counterweight to hate and polarization that appears to grip parts of the social fabric of our communities and their schools. Schools offer an essential space for children, youth, and adults to learn in safe ways to restore hopefulness for each participant. Drawing on scholarship and literature from hate studies literature, critical pedagogy, liberation theology, educational philosophers, etc., I propose to provide some concrete examples for teacher preparation and their continuing educatio
Understanding Endangered Sawfish through the Growth and Structure of their Rostral Teeth
Get PDFSawfish are an endangered ray with a toothy rostrum containing a large number of teeth. Largetooth sawfish are a critically endangered species worldwide. Little is known about their life history or behavior, and natural populations are too low to easily track them. Preserved rostra are more accessible to study. Measurements of the rostrum teeth and rostrum length were taken which may indicate a subspecies or sexual dimorphism in the sample. 120 sawfish rostra from the Brazil sample were quantified using ImageJ to compare rostrum size to fish age and length. Sawfish rostral teeth have repeated tubule structures within them that might provide information about fish age, growth, and size. 7 teeth were imaged via micro-CT to quantify age using ring-like structures of internal tubule structures. Chemical analysis of 60 teeth, done via ICP-MS, may also provide information on migration, breeding, and juvenile rearing that is crucial to conservation efforts. Studying preserved rostra might aid the development of non-lethal methods to obtain basic information that is crucial to understanding the species
Promotion of Hate and Violence Through Social Media and Mainstream Sources
No full textThis session features the following presentations: AI4Dignity – Artificial Intelligence, Extreme Speech, and the Challenges of Online Content Moderation, Leah Nann Bias Against Asians, Black People, Hispanics/Latines, Jews, and Muslims on Twitter in 2020 and 2021, Gunther Jikeli Leaderless Resistance and Ideological Nihilism in the 21st Century: How Militant Accelerationists Use Social Media to Enact their Violent Ideology, Simon Purdue Racial Slurs Against Indigenous Peoples in Ecuadorian Twitter Interactions, Maria Elena Placenci
Beyond Self-Care : Rethinking the Issue of Marginalized Scholars\u27 Mental Health
No full textThere have been increasing calls to attend to the mental, emotional, and physical health or well-being of marginalized scholars within far right studies. Such calls to attention are welcome, because marginalized scholars belong to communities often targeted by supremacists who seek to preserve and intensify white, cis, heteropatriarchal dominance especially in Western contexts. Reading supremacist texts, consuming supremacist media, interviewing, and conducting participant observation with supremacists can adversely impact scholars of color, Jewish scholars, cis women, and LGBTQ people as these activities mean they must repeatedly confront the reality that they – and their communities – are at risk of bodily, somatic, structural, institutional, and psychological harm. Yet proposed ways of addressing these issues tend to align with neoliberal ideas “self-care” or are limited to individualized psychological interventions. To cope with distress, marginalized scholars are advised to take breaks, engage in enjoyable activities unrelated to their work, drink water, reach out to friends, or make sure to get plenty of sleep. Psychological interventions include seeking therapy and pushing for better access to mental health resources. There is nothing inherently wrong with caring for the self, and certainly, access to quality healthcare is crucial. At the same time, we question the tendency to place the responsibility of addressing issues marginalized scholars face on individuals rather than working to understand and change the structures that generate these problems in the first place. Finally, how might the rhetoric of “self-care” among academics distract from our entanglements with those most vulnerable to the dangers of supremacist and fascist politics? In other words, how does our preoccupation with individual well-being prevent us from working in solidarity with oppressed peoples, especially low-income communities, migrant groups from the Global South, and incarcerated people who struggle with forms of precarity from which most academics are relatively insulated? This roundtable will turn a critical eye towards individualistic approaches to health and well-being in far right studies