27 research outputs found
Letter re: visit
No full textLetter from author Meredith Nicholson to Amon Carter regarding a visit.Sept 7 1924 Dear Colonel: Here's hoping you got home safely. It was a joy to see you. Come again soon & stay longer. Yrs Nicholso
Transforming the (Teacher) Educator Through Ecojustice and Decolonization
No full textTransformative Inquiry (Tanaka, 2015) can be a methodological ally in critical education that addresses systems of oppression. Transformative Inquiry (TI) actively decenters institutional knowledge by placing one’s intuitions and embodied experiences and classroom observations on an equal footing with the academic literature. The process draws heavily upon Indigenous methodologies and pedagogies, specifically, relational accountability. This paper reports how using TI challenged the author’s previously held Western cultural beliefs around scientism and individualism. It also reports on selected experiences from the author’s teaching career, salient public pedagogy moments and conversations with fellow critical ecojustice educators that helped decolonize her thinking and made her more aware of eco-cidal neoliberal structures often overlooked, like the Janus-face of science. Data are still being collected as the research process is (and always will be) ongoing. However, initial results point to an increased understanding of unjust local power structures and habits of mind and the need for courage in pointing them out. These results also suggest the necessity of speaking out in allyship with oppressed groups who may not have a voice and using the author’s white privilege to make and hold space for everyone to be heard. This study is about how one scientist-turned-educator used TI to learn from and with others about how to decolonize her mind and unlearn Western, eco-cidal, neoliberal norms that have created the conditions for current socio-ecological crises
The Butanding: A Narrative Illustration Book and Exhibition
No full textabstract: My work focuses on the themes of grief, closure, and celebration of life. Life is a catalyst both celebration and grief. Feeling joy when a life is introduced is as common as feeling pain when a life is lost. When I lost my maternal grandmother nearly a year ago, I felt grief accompanied with guilt. I never got a chance to say goodbye since we lived so far apart, her residing in the Philippines and me residing in the United States. In order to get rid of these negative emotions, I sought closure. I attended her funeral, and now I want to celebrate her life through my artwork.
My work comes in two parts: an illustration book titled The Butanding and an illustration exhibition. The book will be published through lulu.com and made available to the public. The exhibition component will be held from March 2nd to March 6th in Gallery 100 as part of my senior exhibition Post Pre-Production with six other colleagues in the School of Art. The illustration book is a narration of a little girl and her growing friendship with a whale shark. The overarching theme of the creative project is closure with the passing away of loved ones.
The Butanding is a narrative illustration book about a young girl befriending the local menace of her village, the whale shark. Similar to my own experience, the main subject—the young girl—of my narrative is shown suffering from grief and guilt over her grandmother’s death. My work illustrates a progression of the young girl’s emotional state as she goes on a journey with the whale shark or locally known in the Philippines as the “butanding”. It provides the scenario of a grieving individual who gets the chance to reconnect with a deceased loved one and rebuild relationships that were lost
Coleridge and the rhetoric of power: the conflict between Coleridge’s poetic theory and practice
No full textThe purpose of this thesis is to investigate the poetry of S.T. Coleridge in relation to his idealist theories of the poetic imagination. According to his various writings on the function of the imagination, the act of poesis ought to reflect the internal principles of creation as manifested in nature. The primary imagination, as Coleridge defines it in Biographia Literaria, speaks the language of God; the secondary imagination (the medium for poetic creativity) strives to imitate this universal power within the language of men. Poetry is thus understood as the vehicle which activates the "whole soul", moving man towards a sympathetic appreciation of the world he inhabits. However, as I intend to demonstrate, Coleridge's poetic language proves consistently inadequate in providing a constubstantiality between the mind and nature. The arbitrary nature of words often undermine the poet's intentions, ironically providing an outlet for repressed desires and fears. This is reflected strongly in the nature of poetic diction which often achieves an artistic fluidity at the expense of theoretical conviction. By contrast, when Coleridge's poetry remains faithful to his views, the language is often forced and stilted. Modem critical theory, in its emphasis on the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign, can be useful in locating such a subversion of intended meaning within the romantic text. In my introduction, I shall discuss the generic term "romanticism " in relation to post-modernist literary theory m a manner which suggests that romantic discourse is already profoundly aware of inherit contradictions within its own creative process. Having established a correlation between romanticism and its twentieth century literary criticism, I shall investigate Coleridge's poetry in the terms of his own theory, which always suggests the duplicity of the literary imagination in its articulation of artistic distinctions (Imagination/Fancy; Imitation/Copy)
The socio-cultural milieux of the left in post-war Britain
No full textThis thesis examines the relationship between activist subjectivities and the shaping of Britain’s late
sixties extra-parliamentary left cultures. Based on the oral narratives of ninety men and women, it
traces the activist trajectory from child to adulthood to understand the social, psychological, and
cultural processes informing the political and personal transformation of young adults within the
new left cultures that emerged in the wake of Britain’s anti-war movement, the Vietnam Solidarity
Campaign (VSC). To this end the study charts the development of the political and cultural shifts on
the left over the decade from the early 1960s to the early 1970s. It shows how throughout this
period dialogue between inner and outer activist life occurred against a background of ongoing
realignment on the left from a fluid, eclectic cultural network around the VSC to a demarcated post-
VSC left after 1969, that saw increasing divergence between a non-aligned libertarian New Left on
the one hand and a Trotskyist far left milieu on the other.
The study seeks to claim a valid space for Britain’s left activist landscape within the political,
social and cultural framework of ‘1968’ and British post-war historiography. Privileging individual
and collective subjectivities, the thesis examines ways of belonging inside Trotskyist and non-aligned
left milieux by situating the respondents, their radical histories and activist cultures within the
changing post-war fabric. It shows that investigating individual and collective memories provides
deeper understanding of the ‘cognitive maps’ that young men and women created, as they
attempted to situate themselves as radical, global beings as well as local, gendered social citizens.
As micro-studies the individual stories reveal how the experience of social, emotional and
political maturation from child to adult intersected with a specific social and political moment – the
formation of a new and distinctive left culture that came to full fruition only in the aftermath of 1968
with the arrival of Women’s Liberation and the new personal politics. Exploring the social and
psychological impact of post-war childhood and youth, the study engages with the political and
emotional impact of Women’s Liberation on the men and women within the cultural context of the different left milieux.
Overall, the thesis questions how, from the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, the variant
cultures of the milieux penetrated public and private spaces, and shaped early life experiences of
work, political activity, family, and political and personal relations in order to understand how
activism shaped social patterns and psychic being
The Determinants of Tribal Population Growth in the New Zealand Census
No full textBy the early twentieth century the notion that ethnic populations would dissipate was a commonly held belief. However, after World War II, the modern world has seen an incredible resurgence in ethnic identities. Ethnic conflicts, mobilisations, and the political movements of the 1950s and 1960s served as a major catalyst in the diffusion of indigenous identities and rights. Consequently, indigenous groups in settler states, especially in North America, experienced population growth beyond the levels of natural demographic factors, that is, fertility, mortality and migration. Researchers attributed a significant proportion of this growth to changing patterns of ethnic identification, also referred to as ethnic mobility . Although this phenomenon is well documented in North America, it is only just beginning to be understood in relation to the New Zealand context.
During the 1970s and 1980s, the indigenous Māori population of New Zealand gained substantial progress in political, social and economic spheres, following the same patterns of ethnic identity growth as in North America. Despite these gains, the average individual socio-economic outcomes for Māori remain poor, especially in comparison to New Zealand Europeans/Pākehā. Through key legislation, iwi (tribal) organisations became the core mechanism in which to address Māori socio-economic issues, achieve Māori aspirations and to manage Treaty of Waitangi settlement monies. Subsequently, the need for iwi statistics for policy and planning purposes saw the reinstatement of iwi data in the New Zealand census in 1991. Surprisingly, however, very little attention has been given to contemporary patterns of iwi demography.
Since the 1991 census, observations of total iwi population growth patterns indicate these patterns cannot solely be explained by natural demographic factors. Furthermore, the growth trajectories of individual iwi were markedly different, and in some cases erratic. These initial observations have raised the following key research questions: What do patterns of iwi growth look like? What is the role of ethnic mobility? What factors drive ethnic mobility? Who changes iwi identification? Why should we care?
This thesis examines patterns of iwi identification in the New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings from 1991 to 2006. It uses statistical methods to not only document iwi population changes but to also identify the key determinants driving these trajectories. In addition, this thesis considers ethnic mobility as an important driver of population growth but, situates this within the broader macro-political environment. Along with the analysis of aggregate iwi population changes, this thesis also provides an in-depth analysis of four iwi groups – Ngāi Tahu, Waikato, Ngāti Awa and Tūhoe, in order to observe individual iwi dynamics that are not clearly visible at the aggregate level.
The findings of this thesis raise important implications for theories of ethnicity and the demographic study of ethnic populations. For example, this thesis argues that the category of ethnic mobility is mainly contextual, that is, decisions to change ethnic responses are influenced by the broader political, social and economic contexts. Furthermore this thesis contends that individual ethnic identification decisions are for the most part defined by ethnic categories imposed by the State. While traditional views suggest ethnicity is fixed, intrinsic and kinship based, this thesis finds significant support for contemporary views that argue ethnicity is fluid, extrinsic and socially constructed. Rather than reject traditional views of Maori identity, this study recognises that ethnic identities are complex, and that shifts in iwi identification is about connecting and reconnecting with whakapapa. Thus this thesis argues that in order to understand individual iwi dynamics both points of view need to be considered
Resilient places? The healthcare gardens and the Maggie's Centres
No full textThis thesis takes as its focus the Maggie’s Cancer Centres exploring for the first time the impact of their designed gardens. This research is situated within the immediate context of Maggie’s ambitions as an organisation and looks closely at their design process. It is also set within the wider debates about the effects of green space on health and the historical context of the restorative garden. By exploring both historical and contemporary examples, it argues that a healthcare garden may be a space for transformation.
Using four different Maggie’s gardens as case studies, the research seeks to investigate the role of these outdoor spaces and their impact on users. Through ethnographic and sensory methods, each garden is considered and mapped. It looks at the design brief and the intentions of the designers’, but the core work is an exploration of the experiences of staff and visitors. The focus is on the everyday use of these gardens as well as the design historiography. The experiences of gardens within healthcare are examined in order to expose the ways in which gardens, people, health and care are entwined.
Through the qualitative research process this thesis develops a new hypothesis as to how healthcare gardens may operate – offering a new definition for them as “resilient places”. Careful analysis of the data reveals the specific networks and affordances presented by these gardens. The thesis argues, based on the evidence of users, that healthcare gardens can uniquely embrace certain “essences” where essence is defined as conveying a quality or attribute. These garden essences are identified as thresholds, sensory richness, the density of time and homeliness. The thesis also argues that a healthcare garden can provide specific and unique opportunities for care and this, in turn, can enhance the healing ethos of an organisation such as Maggie’s
The eschatology of Margaret Fell (1614-1702) and its place in her theology and ministry
No full textEThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo
Charismata and compassion : Dhinakaran, Charismatic healing and Pastoral Pentecostalism in South India : a practical theological assessment
No full textThis dissertation is a theological assessment of the Jesus Calls divine healing movement as it developed in South India. It analyses the thought of the founder D. G. S.
Dhinakaran, India's pre-eminent healing evangelist and explores its potential and adequacy as a pastoral theology. It draws out Dhinakaran's healing theology and model for ministry that has significantly contributed to Indian mission and attained international recognition. Until now, this movement has received no critical analysis.
The author, a native of South India, as an observer-participant, takes up this task.
The emergence and impact of the modem Pentecostal movement and the `full gospel' with healing as its flagship is discussed. The study highlights lesser-known precursors
and theological roots that give Indian Pentecostalism its distinct identity from the 1906 Azusa Street Revival, USA. It reveals how Charismatic Christianity flourishes due to
its bhakti spirituality, guru leadership, apostolic charismata and practical compassion. The thesis maintains that the dialectic of Pentecostal power and pastoral care is an effective mission strategy and proceeds to demonstrate this in Dhinakaran's ministry.
The research method progressed from a description of Dhinakaran's healing praxis via theological analysis to a critical assessment. It shows some major influences and the
appeal of his prayer movement and argues that the key to its success lies in its highly pragmatic, culturally adaptive and syncretic nature. Three doctrinal concepts that are embodied in Dhinakaran's model are presented: compassion, the wounded healer and healing evangelism, which correlate within a theological apparatus to make
interpretative sense of his praxis resulting in what is termed `Pastoral Pentecostalism'.
The hybridity in Dhinakaran's `miracle healing' is explored within two wider contextual interfaces: the traditional Hindu culture with the shamanic manthiravadi and an imported but adapted version of American faith healing. Here, an easternwestern synthesis is shown to contribute at once to a viable indigenous ministry and to global trends in Charismatic Christianity, allowing each to inform and shape the other. Dhinakaran's distinct prosperity message is located within the Guru movement and assessed against the American health-wealth gospel for pastoral integrity. The thesis advocates a Pastoral Pentecostalism that holds charismata and compassion in creative tension and re-presents Dhinakaran as a significant charismatic healing evangelist
