43 research outputs found
Dr. Daryl Cumber Dance – Faculty Author Interview
No full textDr. Daryl Cumber Dance, Professor of English Emerita, discusses her new book, In Search of Annie Drew: Jamaica Kincaid’s Mother and Muse, published recently by the University of Virginia Press. In this provocative new book, Daryl Dance argues that everything Jamaica Kincaid has written, regardless of its apparent theme, actually relates to Kincaid’s efforts to free herself from her mother, whether her subject is ostensibly other family members, her home nation, a precolonial world, or even Kincaid herself
Raising the profile of public health in an acute trust: collaborative working and changing perceptions.
No full textA population health approach has not traditionally featured in the work of acute hospitals. Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust (CWFT) is working to challenge perceptions and demonstrate the opportunity acute trusts have to lead the way in population health. Evidence suggests that CWFT's seven local clinical commissioning groups have 10% more emergency-specific 30-day readmissions than national rates. National data demonstrates alcohol-related attendances increases up to 70% of all weekend attendances. CWFT established an Alcohol Collaboration group to proactively address this alcohol burden. Led by a public health consultant, the group consists of seven local authorities, commissioners, third sector organisations, clinicians and a patient representative. The group engages monthly to support and direct the strategic development of hospital alcohol services. A trust audit suggested that 33% of our population consume alcohol at risky levels, 3% higher than national data, with 2% considered dependant. These findings have been used to engage and prompt discussions with clinical and non-clinical staff and feature as part of a trust-wide alcohol education programme targeting all frontline staff. Our staff and community partners increasingly recognise the opportunity in addressing health at a population level. The most significant achievement to date has been the launch of a 7-day alcohol support service without investment of additional resource. The groups collaborative approach is actively impacting perceptions at an acute trust and ultimately improving patient outcomes at a population level
International Collaborative Case Research
No full textWhy dont you say no if you mean no? How can we discuss the central issues of a case if not everyone understands what is meant by issues? How can I lead if I dont know where Im going? The author faced these questions, and many more, while exploring collaborative case research opportunities in other countries. This personal and professional journey taught her that the prospect of increasing global awareness for her students and herself is enticing. Another lesson learned is that the opportunities to appear to be an insensitive, cultural illiterate are abundant. This paper focuses on the benefits and challenges of collaborative case research across national boundaries. Illustrations of cultural miscues and misunderstandings are given. Cultural consciousness structure differences are explored. Insights and rewards gained through international experience are highlighted
The Demise of Rhonda
No full textThe case involves a long-term, highly productive employee who has become increasingly less productive and disruptive of the workplace. Because of the strength and quality of her past contributions, her employers have been reluctant to confront the issue directly. The situation continues to deteriorate as the employee seeks to change employment, while deceiving her employers regarding her interest in strengthening her contributions to the firm. Falsification of a recommendation letter leads to the employee’s termination. The issue presented to the firm’s owners is how to rebuild the management of their agency and address some of the motivational issues in their environment for the future. (Contact author for a copy of the complete report.)Personnel, morale, Small Busn Mgmt
Following in Zora Neale Hurston\u27s \u3ci\u3eDust Tracks\u3c/i\u3e: Autobiographical Notes by the Author of \u3ci\u3eShuckin\u27\u3c/i\u3e and \u3ci\u3eJivin\u27\u3c/i\u3e
No full textAs I began to peruse collections and studies of black folklore, I found that although considerable work had been done from which I was l earning a great deal, there were some aspects of black folklore with which I was personally familiar (from my childhood in Charles City, Virginia, my college days in Petersburg, and my adult life in Richmond) that I had observed as influence in numerous literary works, particularly on temporary works, that were not included in the material was finding, or were not presented in anything even vaguely resembling the versions I knew and saw represented in much of the fiction and poetry I was studying. It occurred to me then that there must indeed be a wealth of folk materials circulating contemporaneously that was neither treated in these studies nor included in my own knowledge of black folklore, but that I needed to be familiar with in order to adequately treat the subject of wit and humor in black literature. Thus began my collecting of black folklore
\u3ci\u3eIn Search of Nella Larsen: A Biography of the Color Line\u3c/i\u3e by George Hutchinson (Book Review)
No full textWith In Search of Nella Larsen, George Hutchinson makes the third major attempt to provide a biography of the elusive Harlem Renaissance author Nella Larsen (1891-1964), the mulatto daughter of immigrants from Denmark and the Danish West Indies whose life and fiction were shaped largely by her mixed emotions about her racial heritage and her feelings of abandonment by her white mother, stepfather, and sister. In his introduction, Hutchinson makes much of the errors of prior Larsen biographers Charles R. Larson (Invisible Darkness: Jean Toomer and Nella Larsen [1993]) and Thadious M. Davis (Nella Larsen, Novelist of the Harlem Renaissance: A Woman\u27s Life Unveiled [1994]), charging that they overlooked important information that he will provide and that they pathologized Larsen in a pattern not atypical of the way children from interracial families had often been misunderstood (3). At times he seems to actually gloat over his own discoveries, as he points to a document previously unknown to scholars (65). Conversely, he sometimes makes use of previous scholars\u27 work without even mentioning their names in the text, though he does meticulously document all borrowings in footnotes. A gracious recognition of the contributions of Larson and Davis is, however, found at the end of the book, where Hutchinson generously acknowledges, Had it not been for the two previous biographies of Nella Larsen, by Charles R. Larson and Thadious M. Davis, I would never have undertaken this project. I owe them a lot (592)
Identity and dislocation in Caribbean women's literature: a study of the writings of Velma Pollard
No full textJamaican-born Velma Pollard has been publishing poetry and short stories for nearly
thirty years. Her first poems appeared in the 1970s, her first volume of short stories in
1989, and her first novel in 1994. Despite this considerable literary output, in the evergrowing
critical literature on Caribbean women's writing Pollard's work has not attracted
any of the scholarly treatment accorded to other writers. Given this lack of critical
attention to Pollard's considerable body of work, this thesis aims to provide the first
detailed and contextualised study of her writings (excluding the majority of her poetry
and of her writings on linguistics), and to accord Pollard the recognition her work
deserves.
Chapter 1 of this thesis situates Pollard's writings in the context of Caribbean
(women's) literature, and writings on identity, dislocations and (Caribbean) migration. I
argue that Pollard's principal contribution to Caribbean literature is found in her
engagement with two main subjects, return migration and relationships (male-female and
female-female), within a wider context of debates on identity and dislocation.
Chapter 2 introduces Pollard's work by way of a general discussion of her novella
Karl, which won the Casa de las Americas literary award in 1992. I consider Karl to be
central to Pollard's work, not least because it features many of the themes explored by
her later writings, including her novel, Homestretch, which is the subject of Chapter 3.
Pollard's first novel, Homestretch, which was published in 1994, explores the themes
of identity and dislocation through the experiences of 'return migrants' and 'repeat
migrants' and their comparison of life in England, the United States and Jamaica. The
novel chronicles how these migrants come to reconnect with and accept their cultural
heritage.
In chapters 4 and 5 I discuss selected stories taken from Pollard's two collections
of short stories, Considering Woman ('Cages', 'My Sisters', 'My Mother', and 'Gran') and
from Karl and Other Stories ('A Night's Tale', 'Miss Chandra', 'Betsy Hyde', and 'Altamont
Jones'). In these stories Pollard explores male-female relationships and the lives of
several generations and a wide range of Caribbean women and men. Pollard utilises the
West Indian setting, speech, situations and conflicts in these stories to graphically
describe familiar Caribbean role models and to provide a narrative and literary
examination of the frustrations and conflicting desires of women in the region.
In my conclusion, I address the ethnographic quality and significance of her work,
and its contribution to an understanding of the Caribbean
The Really Good Buffalo Project: A ‘Values Added’ Product
No full textFor several years, an effort to ‘bring back the buffalo’ has been of key interest in many American Indian communities across the country, and particularly in the Northern Plains of the United States. Tribal college faculty approached colleagues at South Dakota State University during a meeting of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) with the desire to develop a niche market for Native American-raised bison. The Lakota words for the concept underlying the effort are Tatanka Waste (pronounced Ta-TONK-a Wash-TAY), roughly translated as ‘Really Good Buffalo’. A pivotal factor that influenced the development of the Really Good Buffalo project was the unique historical, cultural, and spiritual relationship between American Indians and bison. These issues and the diverse consortium of partners involved made it critically important that the project deliberately address values as part of the niche market analysis. As one tribal partner stated, “Great care must be taken when we are working with our brothers, the buffalo.” This case emphasizes the process of concept-testing, pre-feasibility analysis, and branding of an agriculturally based niche product within a broader cultural context.(Contact author for a copy of the complete report.)Bison Production, Cultural Values
Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad: 1997
No full textApproximately twenty-five years ago, a majority of the railroads in the industry were either in or near bankruptcy. As a partial cure, a series of federal and state legislation was enacted which freed the industry from archaic laws passed in the days railroads enjoyed a virtual monopoly in U.S. transportation. One of the outcomes of this new legislation was the freedom granted major railroads to abandon or sell off excess trackage to entrepreneurs. The Dakota Minnesota & Eastern (DM&E) is a regional railroad that was spun off from the Chicago and North Western(C&NW) Railroad in 1986 and purchased by a group of entrepreneurs. The railroad’s mainline extends from the Mississippi River at Winona, Minnesota across southern Minnesota and central South Dakota to Rapid City. In 1996, the DM&E acquired more than 200 miles of track from Union Pacific Railroad, extending from Colony, Wyoming through Rapid City to Crawford, Nebraska. Grain currently accounts for more than 40 percent of the railroad’s 60,000 annual carloadings, which have increased more than 40 percent since 1987—DM&E’s first full year of operation. The DM&E began operations with 130 employees, 37 locomotives and no freight cars. The DM&E now employs 350 people, and owns or leases 70 locomotives and almost 30,000 freight cars. The case traces DM&E’s first eleven years of operations from its chaotic beginnings to its development as a profitable railroad, to its recent apparent unraveling. (Contact author for a copy of the complete report.)Strategic Mgmt, Regional Railroads
