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Shame Across East And West
No full textIn order to gain a deeper understanding of shame and shamelessness as ethico-political phenomena in the contemporary world, this book stages a cross-cultural dialogue that questions and unsettles established views. Expounding and evaluating a range of perspectives on shame, from the ancient Greeks and classical Confucians to modern liberalism, the chapters in this collection reflect on how we should understand the movement of shame from private morality into the collective sphere, and ask what role shame can or should play, as emotional support or ethical corrective, to the normative frameworks of social and political civility. Covering the prominent discourses of Western modernity, as well as non-Western, and oppositional traditions, this volume will be of interest to students and scholars in moral and political philosophy, contemporary democratic theory, and comparative philosophy
“This Would Certainly Happen Unless We Killed Every White Man”: The Tsilhqot’in’s War of Survival
No full textIn 1864, several Tsilhqot’in (also spelled as “Chilcotin” or “Chilcoaten”) killed workers building a road across their territory in modern-day British Columbia. Six of the Tsilhqot’in, including their war chief, Lhatŝ’aŝʔin (also spelled as “Klatsassin”), were subsequently executed by the British colonial government. Since the Tsilhqot’in were initially assisting the road crew, this paper addresses the question of what caused the so-called “Chilcotin War” to begin
Colonial Whaling in Walvis Bay and in Southern Africa: Environmental Exploitation and Legacy of South Africa’s Cetaceans
No full textThis paper examines the colonial whaling industry in Southern Africa, with a focus on Walvis Bay, tracing its long term environmental and socio-economic impacts. From the 1700s to the 1900s, whaling operations, primarily led by American, British, and French enterprises, exploited the region’s rich populations of sperm and right whales, drastically reducing their numbers. The study contextualizes whaling within a broader colonial framework, analyzing its effects on whale migratory patterns, indigenous communities, and marine ecosystems. It explores as well, the transition from whaling as an economic endeavor to modern conservation efforts and the romanticization of whales in literature and art. The research in its entirety represents the continual challenges of reconstructing African environmental histories due to colonial record-keeping biases and the erasure of indigenous knowledge
Psychometric Properties Of A Novel Affective Bias Task And Its Application In Clinical And Nonclinical Populations
No full textTo mitigate limitations of self-reported mood assessments, we introduce a novel affective bias task. The task quantifies instantaneous emotional state by leveraging the phenomenon of affective bias, in which people interpret external emotional stimuli in a manner consistent with their current emotional state. This study establishes task stability in measuring and tracking depressive symptoms in clinical and nonclinical populations. Initial assessment in a large nonclinical sample established normative ratings. Depressive symptoms were measured and compared with task performance in a nonclinical sample, as well as in a clinical cohort of individuals who were undergoing surgical evaluation for severe epilepsy. In both cohorts, a stronger negative affective bias was associated with a higher Beck Depression Inventory-II score. The affective bias task exhibited high stability and interrater reliability as well as construct validity in predicting depression levels in both cohorts, suggesting that the task is a reliable proxy for mood and a diagnostic tool for detecting depressive symptoms
Western Mansions in the Gardens of Perfect Brightness, Another History of High Qing Sino-European exchanges
No full textThe Gardens of Perfect Brightness, the favorite residence of Chinese Emperors in the High Qing era (1683-1799), held mysteries that will remain forever concealed from the public eye after French and British imperialist forces looted it and burned it beyond repair during the Second Opium War (1856-1860). Behind the doors of the secret garden, scarcely open to anyone but the emperor, his wives, and servants, worked European artists and scientists. Most of them were Jesuit missionaries who served the emperor in the hope of gaining his favor and support for the spread of Christianity in China.
This paper aims to explain the paradox that arose when the Qianlong Emperor (r.1735-1796), otherwise critical of the Christian faith and of foreigners in general, ordered Jesuits to undertake the grandest project a Qing Emperor ever entrusted to Europeans: building European-style gardens and palaces in the Gardens of Perfect Brightness. With reference to English, French, and Chinese-language sources, this paper argues that the construction of Western Palaces was made possible by extraordinary circumstances, which comprised the emperor’s secret appeal for European art and his unexpected trust in the Jesuit missionaries’ ability to meet his expectations
A Public Statement On Our Surveillance Culture: Virtual Bodies, Virtual Worlds (ENGL 093A) Midterm
Full text linkFor your midterm assignment you will design a critical/creative art piece that makes a public statement about our surveillance culture inspired by the materials we have engaged with in this course, including the fictional stories, theoretical texts, and the items from special collections. The piece you make must be created using the resources available through the Makerspace, for example, the laser cutters, sewing material, 3D printers, or crafting materials. Aside from the workshop we will have together, you are encouraged to revisit the Makerspace and book time with the experts available to support your design. Please be respectful of their time and contact them early in the process
Using Published Undergraduate Biomechanics Research On Hydra Mouth Opening To Train Undergraduates
No full textBiophysics research is exciting because physical approaches to biology can provide novel insights, and it is challenging because it requires knowledge and skills from multiple disciplines. We have developed an undergraduate biophysics laboratory module that teaches fundamental skills such as time-lapse microscopy, image analysis, programming, critical reading of scientific literature, and basics of scientific writing and peer review. The module is accessible to students who are familiar with introductory statistics, cell biology, and differential calculus. We used published research on the biomechanics of Hydra mouth opening as a framework because it describes a stunning biological phenomenon: Hydra, a freshwater polyp, generates a multicell-wide mouth opening in an otherwise closed epithelium through extreme cell deformations within seconds. This publication was co–first authored by an undergraduate and was featured in the public press, thus providing multiple anchors that make the research accessible and motivating to undergraduates. Students start with a critical reading and discussion of the publication and then execute some of the experiments and analysis from the publication, thereby learning fluorescence time-lapse microscopy and image analysis by using ImageJ and/or MATLAB. Students quantify the kinematics of the tissue deformations during mouth opening and compare their data to the literature. The module culminates in the students writing a short paper about their results following the microPublication journal style, a blinded peer review, and final paper submission. Here, we describe one possible implementation of the module with the necessary resources to reproduce it and summarize student feedback from a pilot run. We also provide suggestions for more advanced exercises and for using Python for data analysis. Several students expressed that repeating a published study completed by an undergraduate inspired and motivated them, thus creating buy-in and assurance that they can do it, which we expect to help with confidence and retention
Male Mating Preference For Larger Females Does Not Vary Among Age Classes In The Long-Lived Beetle \u3cem\u3eBolitotherus cornutus\u3c/em\u3e
No full textTheory and past experimental work suggest that as males age, the strength of their mate preference should decrease. However, the empirical work investigating this question has primarily been conducted in insects that have very short life spans and often live for just a single mating season. This leaves a gap in our understanding of the relationship between male mate preference and age across taxa, as age can conflate with other ecological changes in a single mating season. In this study, we ask how the strength of preference for large female body size changes as males age in a long-lived insect, Bolitotherus cornutus. We used a two-pronged approach of both laboratory behavior trials and cross-sectional analyses of observations in a wild metapopulation to answer this question. We found that males overall exhibited a preference for large females, but there was no significant difference between the preference strength of young and old males in either the laboratory experiment or field observations. Our work suggests that age may not play as important a role in variation in male mate preference as predicted by previous findings, especially in long-lived animals. Instead, processes such as senescence, breeding season termination, or mate availability may be stronger drivers of male mate preference variation
Understanding Alternative Modes of Study in the 2018 K12 Education Strikes
No full textIn this article, I draw on Eli Meyerhoff’s (2019) Beyond Education: Radical Studying for Another World to suggest that the 2018 “red state” K12 education strikes created spaces, if momentary and often fraught, for many education workers to engage or expand alternative modes of study, modes that have long constituted predominantly women- and rank-and-file-led educator labor organizing. First, I elaborate Eli Meyerhoff’s theorization of modes of study as world-making in the context of education labor organizing and unions. Specifically, I engage his important critique of education as a particular, romanticized mode of study that contributes to liberal capitalist world-making. I argue, these alternative modes exist in tension with the romanticization of education that constitutes the business unionism prevalent in the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers. Then, I draw on oral history narratives of one Oklahoma school district, which are specific and situated in place yet, in many ways, exemplary of the kinds of alternative modes of study that produced knowledge of the (gendered) impasse of education work in the state
Model-Based Inference Of Electrode Distance And Neuronal Density From Measured Detection Thresholds In Cochlear Implant Listeners
No full textPurpose: Cochlear implants (CI) are a highly successful neural prosthesis that can restore hearing in individuals with sensorineural hearing loss. However, the extent of hearing restoration varies widely. Two major factors likely contribute to poor performance: (1) the distances between electrodes and surviving spiral ganglion neurons and (2) the density of those neurons. Reprogramming the CI at a poor electrode-neuron interface, using focused tripolar stimulation or remapping the electrodes, would benefit from understanding the cause of the poor interface. Methods: We used a cochlear model with simplified geometry and neuronal composition to investigate how the interface affects stimulation thresholds. We then inverted the model to infer electrode distance and neuronal density from monopolar and tripolar threshold values obtained behaviorally. We validated this inverted model for known scenarios of electrode distance and neuronal density. Finally, we assessed the model using data from 18 CI users whose electrode distances were measured from CT imaging. Results: The inverted model accurately inferred electrode distance and neuronal density for known scenarios. It also reliably reproduced behavioral monopolar and tripolar threshold profiles for CI users, with mean prediction errors within 1 dB for 17/18 subjects. Fits of electrode distance were more variable; accuracy depended on the assumed value of temporal bone resistivity. Twelve subjects had minimum distance error (0.31 mm) using low resistivity (70 Ω-cm) while the others had better fits (0.30 mm) with higher resistivity (250 Ω-cm).Conclusion: This inverted model shows promise as a simple, practical tool to better assess and understand the electrode-neuron interface