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After the Golem: Teaching Golems, Kabbalah, Exile, Imagination, and Technological Takeover.
Get PDFThe golem is an elusive creature. From a religious perspective it enacts spirit entering matter, a creation story of potential salvation crossed with reprehensible arrogance. As a historical narrative, the golem story becomes a tale of Jewish powerlessness and oppression, of pogroms and ghettoization, of assimilation and exile, and sometimes, of renewal. As the subject of a course in women, gender and sexuality studies, the golem narrative can be seen as a relentless questioning of otherness and identity and as a revelation of the complex intersectionalities of gender, class, sexuality, race, disability, and ethnicity. As a philosophical motif, the ambiguous figure of the golem represents our human fears that we are not the autonomous individuals we believe ourselves to be. Haunted by specters of artificiality and automatism, we wonder whether we are unique individuals or inexorably programmed by social, cultural, psychological, and biological forces we are just beginning to fathom. As a Jewish story, the golem narrative illuminates the relentless history of anti-Semitism and resistance to blood libels of all sorts, hope for the future as well as despair, and most of all, the need for questioning any narrative we are given if we want to uncover its potential significances. [excerpt
Quantitative Analyses of Cirques on the Faroe Islands: Evidence for Time Transgressive Glacier Occupation
Get PDFThis study presents the first analysis of ice‐free cirques on the Faroe Islands using a Geographical Information System (GIS) and the Automated Cirque Metric Extraction (ACME) tool. The length, width, area, circularity, mean aspect, mean slope, and elevation range, minimum, and maximum were calculated using ACME. Cirque distance to coastline was measured using ArcGIS. A total of 116 cirques were identified. Mean cirque length is 950 m and mean cirque width is 890 m. Average cirque area is 0.8 km2 and mean elevation is 386 m a.s.l. The modal orientation of the aspect of cirques is north‐northeast, with a vector mean of 7° and mean resultant length of 0.09. Aspect data have large dispersion, which shows evidence of cloudy ablation seasons in the past. The dispersion in aspect may also be related to the time transgressive nature of glacier occupation in these cirques. Past equilibrium‐line altitudes (ELAs) of cirque glaciers reconstructed with the minimum point method resulted in a mean palaeo‐ELA of 213 m a.s.l. Positive, linear relationships are observed between palaeo‐ELA and cirque distance to coastline. There are at least two possible interpretations of this relationship: (i) that the cirque formation is dependent on pre‐existing topography with cirques forming at the head of valleys, which occurs at higher elevations further inland, and (ii) that this relationship demonstrates the importance of access to moisture for glacier survival. A combination of both interpretations is also possible. Positive linear relationships are also observed between longitude and palaeo‐ELA indicative of palaeo‐precipitation patterns along an east–west gradient. Cirques on the Faroe Islands are smaller in length and width and present at lower elevations compared to cirques located in other regions of the world. The timing of glacial occupation in these cirques is not known, and the landforms likely formed over multiple glaciations
Trade and Missionary Work: A Word Frequency Analysis of Dialogues and Detached Sentences in the Chinese Language (1816) and the Pedagogy of Robert Morrison
No full textThis paper analyzes how pedagogy is a means through which different political, economic, and cultural forces interact. I focus on one form of pedagogy—teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and use one textbook—Dialogues and Detached Sentences in the Chinese Language (1816) compiled by Robert Morrison (1782–1834)—as a case study to examine a convergence of factors that influenced the material for learning Chinese in the early nineteenth century. I combine the word frequency analysis of Dialogues and Detached Sentences in the Chinese Language and the close examination of certain translations from the textbook, and contend that this textbook reflects the diverse interests such as the urge to trade with China and the mission to spread Christianity. My paper concludes that pedagogical material is deeply rooted in its economic, political, and cultural conditions and that a synthesis of distant reading and close reading can reveal new aspects of the connection between Morrison\u27s textbook and its historical context
Faculty Meeting Minutes - August 20, 2020.
No full textMinutes of the Gettysburg College Faculty Business Meeting, August 20, 2020
The Intersection of an Epidemic and Pandemic: Smoking, Risk-Taking, and COVID-19
Get PDFElectronic cigarette use has risen drastically in recent years among teens and young adults. Rates of conventional cigarette use have decreased, while rates of electronic cigarette use are on the rise. Knowledge and perceptions of the risks and benefits of conventional and electronic cigarettes greatly impacts adolescents and young adults’ decisions to use these products. Published literature explores the issues of social norms, intertemporal choice, present bias, prospect theory, and hyperbolic discounting as means to explain the way in which young populations perceive risk and risky behavior. Research suggests that children and young adults believe that e-cigarettes are safer, less addictive, less risky, and more socially acceptable than conventional cigarettes. In addition to these findings, this study found that smokers are more likely to engage in risky behavior in general, and throughout the coronavirus pandemic. According to the World Health Organization, individuals who smoke are more likely to experience complications once contracting the coronavirus disease. This study calls for the need to educate frequent smokers, of both electronic and conventional cigarettes, about their individual risk factors in light of the recent pandemic
Review of David Naze, Reclaming 42
No full text2019 marked the centennial of Jackie Robinson\u27s birth, and Reclaiming 42: Public Memory and the Reframing of Robinson\u27s Radical Legacy, written by David Naze, is a reminder that Robinson\u27s accomplishments should be reexamined. Naze, an academic administrator trained in rhetorical studies, uses Robinson\u27s writing, articles written about Robinson, two museums that prominently feature Robinson, and Major League Baseball\u27s Jackie Robinson Day as the essential texts for his rhetorical, theoretical lens. Naze believes that American culture failed to recognize Robinson\u27s political voice both while he was a player and after his career ended. Using Ken Burns\u27s take on Robinson in his documentary Jackie Robinson (2016) as his foundation, Naze contrasts the hegemonic version of Robinson with the man Martin Luther King once described as a sit-inner before sit-ins, a freedom rider before freedom rides. [excerpt
“Strike Up” and Mobilize the Band: Musical Activities in the United States Military During World War II
Get PDFAfter the United States’ entry into the Second World War, music was one of the most prominent forms of art and popular entertainment to be repurposed by the federal government as part of the mobilization for war. The military implemented numerous music programs produced and consumed by a wide range of service personnel. These activities functioned as a means of building morale among military and civilian audiences, both on the domestic home front and in foreign nations, and disseminating an image of American culture that reinforced a set of values integral to the war effort. In order to present this argument, I will analyze the various motivations behind the measures undertaken by both the military and other government agencies, most notably the Office of Wartime Information (OWI), to expand and develop musical activities for military and civilian applications. I will then shift perspectives towards investigating how military personnel themselves undertook these duties and the roles in the war effort that they perceived for themselves as musicians
A Buck for a Forest: Does Corruption and Development Lead to Environmental Degradation?
Get PDFWith growing awareness of sustainability in both the private and public sectors of the world, new funds - for sustainable development - have been created for developing countries through inter-governmental organizations including the United Nations. With an increase in funding, comes the challenge of ensuring that the funds are used for their correct purposes. This paper analyzes the connection between corruption, human development index (HDI), and environmental degradation. This paper first looks at understanding the connection between corruption and environmental degradation. Secondly, the paper explores research demonstrating the possible impact development has on environment degradation. Finally, the paper looks at studies demonstrating connections between corruption and environmental degradation, and what possible policies could be enforced – at state and international levels – to address environmental corruption. In the end, it was found that there was a negative relationship between corruption and environmental degradation (using carbon footprint as a proxy), while HDI and environmental degradation had a positive relationship
The Unspoken Demands of Slavery: The Exploitation of Female Slaves in the Memphis Slave Trade
Get PDFIn the antebellum South, exploitation and mistreatment characterized the plight of the female slave. In Memphis, the story remained unchanged. The abusive and exploitative nature of the Memphis slave trade emerges through high prices for particular female slaves, the growth of the mulatto population, and the existence of mulatto children from certain prominent local figures. The survival of slavery depended upon the ability of the domestic slave population to sustain itself through the female slave population. This view of bondswomen as natural breeders and the accessibility of enslaved females in an urban setting, subjected them to sexual violence and exploitation. Higher average prices for young female slaves capable of having children, and higher prices for women with conventionally attractive qualities show that the price paid for a bondswoman can be used to infer the motives for buying her. Prominent men, including Nathan Bedford Forrest, left behind evidence of their exploitation of the women they owned in the children that resulted from the relationships. In Memphis between 1850 and 1860, in the most populous ward of the city, there was a 27% rise in the percent of the population considered Mulatto. A rise in the population of slaves of mixed race is the physical evidence of sexual relations occurring between slave women and the white men who owned them
Exposing Racism Part I: Environmental Racism
Get PDFThis is the first in a four-part series on Exposing Racism sponsored by the Office of Multicultural Engagement. Health Sciences Prof. Megan Benka-Coker \u2709 discusses how environmental racism occurs through rules, regulations, and policies that target Black communities