Columbia University Libraries Journals
Not a member yet
6467 research outputs found
Sort by
Bailing Out the Protester
Get PDFThe United States cash bail system unconstitutionally hinders protest rights enshrined in the First Amendment. Protesting on controversial issues, while protected activity, often risks arrests and other interactions with police. Unfortunately, studies show that protesters of color are arrested at higher rates than white protesters.
Cash bail, in turn, increases the cost associated with the arrests related to protests, further disincentivizing protesters from engaging in lawful activity. Although the overwhelming majority of these protests and demonstrations are peaceful, and many of the charges in these arrests are eventually dropped, arrested protesters are still required to put up hundreds––sometimes even thousands––of dollars to be released pretrial. If they cannot, they must remain in jail until their trial, until the charges are dropped, or until they are able to raise enough money to be released. This pretrial detention, even if it only lasts a few days, has significant consequences. Furthermore, these consequences are not shared evenly: the cash bail system disparately impacts people of color, who are imposed bail at higher rates and at higher amounts, meaning they will also experience negative consequences at a disproportionate rate.
Because states are criminalizing more conduct, elevating charges from misdemeanors to felonies, and continuing to impose bail amounts on protesters, the intersection between cash bail and protests is unavoidable. In turn, many people could be afraid to protest because they do not have enough money to afford their bail if they are arrested at the protest, and because they cannot afford the negative consequences of awaiting their trial in jail.
This Article discusses how cash bail dissuades First Amendment expression by compounding existing consequences created by government action that also curtails lawful protests. Furthermore, the disparate rates at which protesters of color are arrested and later imposed bail raises an equal protection concern, deterring people of color from expressing constitutional rights. Removing cash bail in limited circumstances associated with otherwise lawful protesting, measured reform may help alleviate some of the disparate risks involved with protected activity. While eliminating bail altogether is the ultimate goal, this measured reform would be an incremental step towards broader change, building public support for holistic reform
Engaging Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus with Bonhoeffer: Panel Discussion on Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance , by Reggie Williams
No full textBonhoeffer’s selfinterpretation in relation to Williams’ reading of the Harlem Renaissance.Influences of Bonhoeffer’s Union Seminary theological discussion group of friends, and thepreaching of Adam Clayton Powell Sr. Question: the relative impacts on Bonhoeffer of theSermon on the Mount and the Harlem Renaissance. Bonhoeffer’s newly found 1934 letter toGandhi is a development of his 1931 thinking in New York. Reviewing Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesusposes questions regarding Bonhoeffer and the proletaria t in Germany, and also his theologicalconcept of Stellvertretung . Query: Why no reference to Josiah Young’s No Difference in theFar
Physical therapy students’ perceived levels and sources of stress during clinical education experiences
No full textPurpose: Stress has been linked to poor performance and mental health disorders in health professions students. Very little is known about health professions students’ stress during clinical education. The purpose of this study was to explore the levels and sources of stress experienced by Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students during the clinical education portion of their curriculum.
Methods: In this cross-sectional, descriptive study, 925 first-, second-, and third-year DPT students from eight Midwestern colleges and universities were invited to complete an electronic survey during a clinical experience. The survey included demographic information, the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Undergraduate Sources of Stress (USOS) scale.
Results: The response rate was 28% with a total of 259 returned surveys. The mean PSS score was 14.15 out of a possible 40, with a range from 0 to 30. There were significant differences in levels of stress based on program year and clinical level. No significant differences in level or sources of stress were noted based on gender or clinical setting. Academic sources were the greatest source of stress reported. Amount of student debt and percentage of responsibility for graduate education were significantly correlated with financial sources of stress.
Conclusion: Participants in this study reported mean PSS scores during clinical education experiences similar to those previously reported for physical therapy. Identifying perceived stress levels, sources of stress, and mitigating factors has the potential to improve the health of students and positively impact patient care
Alcohol and Substance Use Among Different Subgroups/Ethnicities of East Asian American Youth in the United States
No full textThis reading challenges the prevailing Model Minority Myth perspective which influences the examination of substance use patterns among different subgroups of East Asian American (EAA) youth. A disaggregated analysis of existing literature reveals significant variations in substance use across EAA subgroups. This article explores influencing factors such as acculturation, cultural norms, and peer dynamics, emphasizing distinctions between Chinese Americans, Taiwanese Americans, Korean Americans, and Japanese Americans. Several EAA subgroups show a higher prevalence of cigarette or alcohol use than their white counterparts, a finding normally hidden by the aggregation of Asian American data. These unrealized differences prompt a call for tailored and culturally appropriate treatment approaches. Data shows EAA youth are more likely to not seek treatment or to drop out after beginning treatment (Wang & Kim, 2010 as cited in Ong, 2023). Understanding the typical family dynamics as well as the discrimination faced by EAA communities, including cultural stigma and culture-specific syndromes, plays a crucial role in improving treatment adherence. Additionally, studies of treatment preferences show that implementing family-based programs, outreach efforts, and involving culturally attuned treatment providers is crucial to actively address the unique needs of youth of different EAA subgroups (Lee et al., 2004).
Keywords: substance use, treatment approach, culturally appropriate care, East Asian American, model minorit
Study Quality in Applied Linguistics: Highlights from Dr. Luke Plonsky’s Public Talk
Get PDFOn October 15, 2024, the Center for International Foreign Language Teacher Education (CIFLTE) hosted a public talk by Dr. Luke Plonsky on study quality, research methods, and ethics in applied linguistics. Faculty and students from universities around the world attended the talk via Zoom.
Dr. Luke Plonsky is a Professor of Applied Linguistics at Northern Arizona University. In addition to teaching courses in second language (L2) acquisition and research methods, Professor Plonsky is a prolific researcher. With a primary focus on L2 research methodology, he has published over 100 articles, book chapters, and books. In 2024, Professor Plonsky edited the book Open Science in Applied Linguistics and co-authored the guidebook Addressing Questionable Research Practices in Applied Linguistics: A Practical Guide. Professor Plonsky currently serves as the Editor of Studies in Second Language Acquisition, as well as Managing Editor of Foreign Language Annals, and General Editor of Applied Linguistics Press.
CIFLTE extends its deepest gratitude to Professor Plonsky for his stimulating talk
Bamboo, Landscape, Monumentality: Guan Daosheng's "View by the Bamboo and Stream Scroll"
Get PDFIn this paper, I aim to reappraise the status of Guan Daoshen, one of the most well-known women artists across Chinese art history. Previous scholarship on her and her works has not only been scarce but also limited to her identity as a woman. I attempt to enrich the academic conversation on Guan through an examination of her painting View by the Bamboo and Stream Scroll (竹溪攬勝軸, 1309 b.c.). I argue that she contests the canonical modes to represent bamboo and the established conventions associated with the formats of scrolls. Specifically, the painting illustrates Guan’s innovative interpretation of shu hua tong yuan and obfuscation of the boundaries between hanging scrolls and handscrolls. In conclusion, the innovations presented by this painting broadened the repertoire of Yuan Dynasty literati paintings, which posits her as a significant figure within the genealogy of Chinese art history instead of a mere female counterpart of the male-dominated literati milieu. 
Corroded Stagnancy: A Literary Testimony
Get PDFThis piece navigates the long term post-traumatic impacts of an acid attack victim in India.
In South Asia, the prevalence of reported acid attacks – or the throwing of concentrated acid on another person with the intention to disfigure or kill – remains high, despite strict penal codes against the crime. According to Acid Survivors Trust International, 80% of reported cases globally have been against women.
I had the privilege of speaking to a remarkable woman who survived one of these attacks. The physical, psychological, and social elements of this work come from her story. 
To Live is to Desire: Cultural Production and the Phantasmatic Nation in Zhang Yimou’s To Live
Get PDFThis essay examines media dissemination in mid to late twentieth-century China, during and after the Cultural Revolution, as China established its place in the modern world. Through a psychoanalytic inquiry into the revolutionary romance genre and fifth- generation Chinese film—in particular, Zhang Yimou’s film To Live (1994)—this essay will analyze the formation of national narratives across media formats and the hierarchization of this modern knowledge production. I argue that the dissonance between the popular images of the Cultural Revolution and post-Mao highbrow filmography reveals the imaginative essence of nationhood
Inequities in Public Scholarship during the Pandemic: Who Made Predictions about the Future of Higher Education?
No full textThroughout the Covid-19 pandemic, commentators in broadly accessible media have offered a surfeit of predictions about the future of higher education. Due to the absence of accountability mechanisms, however, the accuracy of these claims has been heretofore unknown. Research shows that op-eds and other forms of public scholarship influence public policy, heightening the significance of predictions. This paper asks who makes predictions about higher education, in what venues they issue them, on what topics they make predictions, and how accurate they are. It answers these questions by drawing from an original data set of 91 distinct predictions issued by 22 unique authors in 31 separate texts across a 19-month time span from March 2020 to October 2021. It finds that predictions most often appeared in op-eds written by senior academic white men in higher education trade journals. More than half of predictions could not be evaluated a year or more after they were first issued. Still, predictions with determinable outcomes tended to bear out accurately. Enrollment patterns and teaching modalities were the most common topics. Women and people of color were significantly under-represented among predictors. The paper concludes with suggestions for improving equity and performance
Competence or Experience: The Missing Voice in Pediatric Decision-Making
Get PDFPhoto ID 129550171© Katarzyna Bialasiewicz|Dreamstime.com
INTRODUCTION
One night in 2016, I fell sound asleep, then awoke to painkiller-induced, nightmarish hallucinations in the ICU. Despite being unable to identify myself or surroundings, I can clearly remember the discordant beeping of hospital monitors, acrid smell of saline wash, and taste of sickly sweet orange amoxicillin syrup. I was unaware that, the morning after I’d fallen asleep, I’d skied off an unmarked 30-foot cliff, breaking my legs, jaw, eye socket and nose, rupturing my right ear canal, and shattering nearly all of my teeth. Over the years that followed, I was fortunate enough to receive care from skilled, compassionate physicians. This not only allowed me to return to ski racing, but to dream of becoming a surgeon. Having grown older and thus more aware throughout my years as a pediatric patient, I’ve developed a nuanced understanding of what treatment made me feel heard.
In fact, I found the most radically varying aspect of my care to be the degree to which I was addressed as a conscious, capable individual versus an extension of my parents. This is unsurprising as the proper amount of authority lended to pediatric patients persists as highly disputed in bioethics. Over the course of this paper, several perspectives will be considered in order to evaluate the current position of the pediatric patient in medical decision-making. First, the ambiguity of maturity and reactions to pediatric autonomy will be considered through the Mature Minor Doctrine, especially important in the refusal of life-saving therapies. Next, the need for improved pain management, rooted in the misalignment of experienced and perceived pain in pediatric patients. Finally, this paper will prove, through the lenses of communitarianism and mosaic decision-making, the need for a more nuanced approach to pediatric care that structurally accounts for the patient’s voice without neglecting their place within a greater network. Therefore, there exists a great need for a more direct, balanced integration of pediatric patients’ as well as revisiting prevailing notions of where pediatric patients stand in relation to reason and experience.
ANALYSIS
To begin, Fleischman’s Pediatric Ethics opens with an exploration of what makes pediatric bioethics distinct.[1] Fleischman quickly runs into the most problematic of principles in the treatment of pediatric patients– autonomy. The ethical ambiguity of the degree of autonomy to offer pediatric patients and at what point in their lives is a central point of conflict. Many in favor of expanded authority point to the neurobiological similarity between young adults and late teenagers.[2] Furthermore, while parents are treated as natural decision-makers for their children, there are several cases of minors facing pressure to undergo medical treatment against their wishes.[3],[4] In response to these concerns, the Mature Minor Doctrine was created, a common law exception to the parental consent requirement. The doctrine allows a minor “to refuse or consent to medical treatment if [they possess] sufficient maturity to understand and appreciate the benefits and risks of the proposed medical treatment.”[5] The doctrine has spurred extensive and impassioned bioethical discourse, especially in relation to the refusal of life-saving therapies.
In “Health Care Decisionmaking by Children'', Ross draws a clear distinction between the notion of competence, often cited in psychological justifications of the Mature Minor Doctrine, and sound judgment.[6] Her points against child liberationists can be simplified as follows: (a) children need time to develop virtues that preserve their life-time autonomy versus their present-day autonomy, (b) pediatric patients possess “limited world experience and so [their] decisions are not part of a well-conceived life plan,”[7] and (c) it serves parents and children alike for parents to make decisions in line with their view of a good life. I find all three points convincing, but each of them to be uniquely rooted in this same, critical lack of experience possessed by pediatric patients. I can attest to this. There were times where I suffered so desperately that I longed for relief by any means. I even told my mother that I was content only hearing out of one ear, willing to do anything to prevent another surgery. Now, I am fearful to imagine a world where, at my lowest, I had full autonomy.
Hence, the broad aversion to expanded pediatric autonomy is largely rooted in potential misuse, especially in the possibility of a unilateral, misinformed decision in favor of death via refusal of life-sustaining therapy.[8],[9] Yet, one might argue, the desire for death has concrete rationale beyond lack of life experience— pain and suffering. As Foley describes, “The public's fear of pain and the media's portrayal that physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia are the only reliable options for pain relief… demand that health care delivery systems commit their efforts to improve pain relief at an institutional level.”[10] Indeed, the issue of insufficient pain management is all too common in pediatrics. One study comparing postoperative pain assessments surveyed 307 patients, 207 of whom were verbal. Across the board, nurses’ pain estimations produced significantly lower pain scores than parents and children, and were consistently closer to estimated pain scores of independent observers.[11] In another study, a total of 356 nurses across 22 Japanese PICUs were surveyed, and despite possessing a median of 4 years of experience, a mere 32.6% expressed confidence in their ability to accurately assess pain.[12] It is alarming and telling that even in verbal pediatric patients, pain is significantly underestimated by medical personnel, reflecting a real gap in pediatric patient-professional communication. I can, again, personally attest to this. In the children’s ward, I was offered only Tylenol for severe nerve pain in my legs that kept me awake most nights.
Relatedly, the spirited debate in response to the Mature Minor Doctrine is somewhat disproportionate. Despite the suggestion of various commentators that the law broadly recognizes the doctrine or that states are trending in its direction, only eight states have adopted a mature minor exception, and even these states condition this authority greatly.[13] With this in mind, a crucial issue is illuminated– an aversion to the pediatric patient voice altogether. As Flesichman writes, “Children should be informed about the nature of their condition, the proposed treatment plan, and the expected outcome… appropriate to their developmental levels.”[14] Hence, it is vital to curtail pediatric autonomy in complex and life-threatening choices, but it is worth seriously considering that the current landscape might excessively minimize or avoid pediatric patients’ expression, merely serving to inform them rather than account for their voice.
The experience that pediatric patients do possess, in the form of knowing their body, past medical experiences, and thus present pain-related needs, is systemically underrepresented. This is a pressing issue. Before considering expansion of the pediatric voice, though, it is first important to consider the manner in which the patient’s capacity is further complicated by their role within a larger community. It is worthwhile explicitly mentioning communitarianism, a prevailing school of thought in modern bioethics, defined by Callahan as “a way of… assum[ing] that human beings are social animals… and whose lives are lived out within deeply penetrating social, political, and cultural institutions and practices.”[15] Pediatric patients present a uniquely communitarian case as the perspectives of parents and the needs of patients’ families are vital considerations in offering care. The pediatric patient’s role in a larger family unit and community should be kept in focus so long as the well-being of the patient isn’t compromised, such as in potentially life-threatening religious preferences, as the obligation of the physician is, first and foremost, to the patient.
Nonetheless, the status quo demands a more thoughtful and structural accounting of the pediatric voice to ensure that they feel heard and empowered in complex decision-making and regular care alike. Hence, it is necessary to develop and evaluate clinical models and frameworks that directly account for the pediatric voice, that integrate pediatric patients’ input as continuous, regular, and required elements of treatment. For instance, there may be promise in a model similar to that of mosaic decision-making, a means of restoring the capacity of reemergent patients following brain injury. Rather than enabling complete surrogate authority, the model would enable a pediatric patient’s emergent voice to be accommodated but to not “speak beyond its range and capabilities” via group deliberation between surrogate and patient, a medical professional, and a patient advocate.[16] Opting for such a model would enable the active involvement of pediatric input without excessively empowering the patient in a manner that neglects their communitarian role and lack of experience.
CONCLUSION
In the heated response to the largely unenforced mature minor doctrine, one finds the invaluable and lacking factor of experience in pediatric patients, especially in decisions to withdraw or refuse life-sustaining medical treatments. In this same response, however, one finds a sharp aversion to the pediatric voice, reflected in pervasive under-medication. Deficits in pain management must be addressed to more effectively treat discomfort, an effort bolstered by a more structural accounting of the pediatric voice and thus pain-related needs. Finally, frameworks that regularly involve the pediatric patient perspective while valuing their communitarian importance and lacking experience, such as the mosaic model, hold real promise moving forward.
-
[1] Fleischman, Alan. Pediatric Ethics: Protecting the Interests of Children. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, September, 2016), p. 1-16.
[2] Coleman, Doriane & Rosoff, Philip. “The Legal Authority of Mature Minors to Consent to General Medical Treatment.” (Itasca: American Journal of Pediatrics, March 2013), p. 1.
[3] Hawkins, Susan. “Protecting the Rights and Interests of Competent Minors in Litigated Medical Treatment Disputes.” (New York: Fordham Law Review, March 1996), p. 1.
[4] Derish, Melinda & Heuvel, Kathleen. “Mature Minors Should Have the Right to Refuse Life-Sustaining Medical Treatment.” (Boston: The
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, January 2021), p. 1-14.
[5] Derish, Melinda & Heuvel, Kathleen. “Mature Minors Should Have the Right to Refuse Life-Sustaining Medical Treatment.” p. 7.
[6] Ross, Lainie. “Health Care Decisionmaking by Children. Is It in Their Best Interest?” (Garrison: The Hastings Center Report, November-December 1997), p. 1-5.
[7] Ross. “Health Care Decisionmaking by Children''. p. 5.
[8] Penkower, Jessica. “The Potential Right of Chronically Ill Adolescents to Refuse Life-Saving Medical Treatment - Fatal Misuse of the Mature Minor Doctrine.” (Chicago: DePaul Law Review, 1996), p. 1-8.
[9] Burk, Josh. “Mature Minors, Medical Choice, and the Constitutional Right to Martyrdom.” (Charlottesville: Virginia Law Review, September 2016), p. 1-15.
[10] Foley, Kathleen. “Pain Relief Into Practice: Rhetoric Without Reform.” (Alexandria: Journal of Clinical Oncology, 1995), p. 1-3
[11] Hla et. al. “Perception of Pediatric Pain: A Comparison of Postoperative Pain Assessments Between Child, Parent, Nurse, and Independent Observer.” (Melbourne: Pediatric Anesthesia. 2014) p. 1-5.
[12] Tsuboi et. al. “Nurses' perception of pediatric pain and pain assessment in the Japanese PICU.” (Tokyo: Pediatrics International, February 2023), p. 1-3, 10-12.
[13] Coleman, Doriane & Rosoff, Philip. “The Legal Authority of Mature Minors”. p. 1-3.
[14] Fleischman, Alan. Pediatric Ethics. p. 115.
[15] Callahan, Daniel. “Principlism and communitarianism.” (Garrison: The Hastings Center Report, October 2003), p. 2.
[16] Fins, Joseph. “Mosaic Decisionmaking and Reemergent Agency after Severe Brain Injury”. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, September 2017), p. 6