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'Respected for What I am, Not for What I am Seen to Be':An Exploration of the Representations of African Americans within the Spiritualist Movement
Full text linkThis thesis explores the intersection of race, religion, and social reform within the context of nineteenth-century America, focusing on the spiritualist movement and its representations of African Americans. Rooted in the trauma of slavery, displacement of Native Americans, and the Civil War, spiritualism emerged as a cultural response to the era’s instability. Often perceived as a progressive force aligned with abolitionism and women’s rights, the movement advocated for a vision of an egalitarian society. However, this thesis challenges the notion of spiritualism as uniformly progressive, particularly in its treatment of race.By critically examining the spiritualist periodical The Banner of Light, this research uncovers how Black spirits were depicted, revealing the complex relationship between the movement’s ideals and racial prejudice. These representations, while occasionally reflecting a vision of racial equality, frequently reinforced stereotypes and paternalistic views, illustrating a tension between spiritualists' aspirations and the pervasive racial ideologies of the time. The study traces the evolving portrayals of Black spirits—from infantilised depictions to more dignified representations of Black individuals—offering insight into the movement’s engagement with race as it adapted to the changing social landscape during and after the Civil War.The thesis also situates spiritualism within broader social and cultural reforms, addressing how Black Americans influenced the movement’s discourse on race and citizenship. Through an analysis of these spiritual depictions, this work highlights the contradictions within spiritualism and offers a nuanced understanding of how race, religion, and reform intersected in nineteenth-century America. By employing critical race theory, the thesis provides a critical lens through which to examine how systemic racism shaped both historical narratives and spiritualist practices. Ultimately, this research aims to expand the historiography of spiritualism and race, offering valuable insights into the continuing relevance of these historical discussions in contemporary struggles for racial justice and equality
Towards a Psychological Understanding of Character Design in Screenwriting:How Character Values, Viewer Values, and Film Narratives' Value Messages Shape Mainstream Film Popularity
Full text linkCreating psychologically 'deep' characters is considered central to mainstream fiction films' popularity and a very challenging aspect of character design for screenwriters. However, there appear to be few effective training and problem-solving tools due to a lack of systematic and evidence-based understanding of character psychology. Seeking to address this gap, the thesis develops an interdisciplinary model drawing, amongst others, from the Schwartz Value Theory. The model defines film characters’ Wants and Needs and their value-driven motivations to address two research questions: how characters' value change and stability communicates film narratives' value messages, and how the alignment between film and viewer values affects film popularity.As hypothesised, an online experiment revealed that main characters often seem to follow one of two paths: either shifting from pan-culturally less preferred values to their preferred counterparts in the Schwartz value circle – when these derive from a basic human need described by Self-Determination Theory – or maintaining such need-derived values throughout a film. Particularly important in film value communication appear to be the final values of changing and the stable values of non-changing characters, as they correlated most consistently with film value perceptions. The initial values of changing characters seem to be perceived as either opposed or unrelated to a film's value message.Contrary to predictions, neither an online experiment (examining individuals’ film interest) nor an archival study (examining box office revenues and audience ratings of 1,200 films) supported the proposed alignment effect of film and viewer values. As endorsement of pan-culturally preferred values appears highly prevalent in films, it likely does not serve as a selection criterion. Moreover, the more strongly films express pan-culturally preferred values, the lower seem to be their audience ratings, potentially as they become too predictable. The thesis contributes to the scientific study of character psychology and the development of evidence-based screenwriting tools
Towards a decolonial heat-health nexus:Disrupters, enablers and energy properties of heat from the 19th century to the present day
Full text linkREPORT ON THE 2023 SURVEY ON DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION
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Mobile Calibration for Bus-Based Urban Sensing
Full text linkIn bus-based sensing, public transport serves as a mobile urban sensing platform. While offering much higher geographical coverage, the low-cost sensors mounted on vehicles can be less accurate and demand more frequent calibration, which may be challenging for large vehicles fleets. As calibration is performed by relating mobile sensor readings to those of fixed reference stations, the placement of reference stations is very important. In this work, we propose an algorithm for computing the optimal reference stations locations to maximize the sensing coverage. Contrary to prior work, the coverage is defined in terms of geographical area , extending a certain distance away from the route trajectory representing the actual sensing capacity of the vehicles. The proposed algorithm computes it using geographical set operations, such as spatial join and subtraction to compute the unique contribution of each bus route. We evaluate the approach using real bus trajectories from Manhattan, US and compare it with a random baseline and prior work. The results indicate that the given the bus routes, a complete sensing coverage can be achieved using a single reference station with a maximum of 2-hop calibration path
Being Responsible in Cybersecurity:A multi-layered perspective
Full text linkThe paper posits that in the increasingly connected digital landscape, there is a growing need to examine the scale and scope of responsible cybersecurity. In an exploratory study that involved qualitative interviews with senior cybersecurity professionals, we identify different layers of responsible cybersecurity that span across techno-centric, human-centric, organizational (intra and inter) and societal perspectives. We present these in an onion-shaped framework and show that collectively these diverse perspectives highlight the linked responsibilities of different stakeholders both within and beyond the organization. The study also finds that senior leadership plays a crucial role in fostering responsible cybersecurity across the different layers. Implications for research and practice are discussed
Facilitating generative AI literacy in the face of evolving technology:Interventions in marketing classrooms
Full text linkThe emergence of generative AI (GenAI) has illustrated that higher education needs to adapt to the technology. Its speed of evolution requires that we adequately prepare students for an ever-changing landscape. Toward achieving that aim, we draw on the concept of interpretive flexibility, where the interpretations, uses, and outcomes of a new technology can differ and evolve over time, often with dominant stakeholders controlling the process. To engage marketing students in this process, we propose that they be presented with these diverse interpretations now as part of GenAI literacy. Specifically, we offer three small-scale pedagogical interventions designed to address this urgent need. Given the newness of GenAI, our interventions are designed to be infused into existing marketing instruction, instead of requiring a redesign of a curriculum. With each intervention, students not only significantly decrease their confidence in the accuracy of what GenAI produces but also see reasons to examine the implications of it. Both these outcomes, we suggest, could help to maintain interpretive flexibility required to properly respond to and guide the technology as its uses, impacts, and evolution become evident. We encourage educators to prioritize a comprehensive notion of GenAI literacy in their pedagogy to maintain interpretive flexibility
Spheres of resonance:How consumers contribute to atmosphere’s dynamics and plurality
Full text linkConsumer experiences often build on resonant atmospheres that touch, seduce, or thrill consumers. Lack of resonance can diminish an atmosphere, alienate consumers, and render experiences meaningless. However, the way in which consumers contribute to atmospheres’ evolving resonance and plural nature has nonetheless been undertheorized. We address this question by operationalizing the concept of spheres of resonance, which we develop based on a multi-sited ethnography at the iconic holiday resort Club Med. Drawing on theory of resonance, we explain atmospheres are consumed through co-evolving spheres of resonance emerging in bodily encounters that momentarily envelop people and groups. Our findings show how these spheres co-exist but can also overlap, merge, and clash, influencing how atmospheres are felt and mobilized. Overall, we expand prior understandings of consumption atmospheres beyond a “mono-spherical” view and contribute to theory on the dynamics of atmospheres and resonance in consumer research
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