233 research outputs found
Cult: A Composite Novel
Get PDFCult (redacted)
The first component of the thesis is a composite novel called Cult which falls into two parts with seven narratives in each. Part 1 tracks the protagonist, Ellen, from her first involvement with the cult through to her eventually leaving it. Although fiction, the first half of the book answers the kinds of questions the author is asked when people discover that she was once a sannyasin (a follower of the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh). While the experiences of meditation, group therapy and communal living are all faithfully rendered within the stories, the need for strong characters, narrative drive and a lightness of touch takes precedence.
Part 2 picks up Ellen’s story some twenty or so years later and explores what becomes of her in middle age. It also looks at other groups in society, such as academia, the law and the internet dating community which each have their own jargon, hierarchies, rituals and rules but are not considered to be cults.
The book examines the question raised in the Epigraph, ‘how do we be together when we feel so alone’ with a focus on relationships other than the familial and the romantic.
Collisions, Chasms and Connections: a Performative Exploration of the Composite Novel Form
The second part of the thesis is both a critical and creative response to three contemporary American books: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout; A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan; and Legend of a Suicide by David Vann. The critical element comprises a close reading of the three books; a chronological reconstruction of their overarching storylines; and a consideration of what their authors have said about writing the books. It concludes that, in the composite novel, the simultaneous presentation of multiple views and storylines operate much like a 3D image to give the impression of depth to the characters and situations rendered. The creative element of the essay is a playful and personal response to the texts
Acts affecting town clerks and elections (2021)
No full text1 online resource (16 pages)"August 3, 2021."Discusses new laws (public acts and special acts) and two resolutions proposing to amend the state constitution enacted during the 2021 regular session and June 2021 special session (JSS
Measuring acceptance of immigrant groups in the U.S.: the importance of the semantic differential scale in conjunction with the social distance scale
No full textImmediately following the attacks of September 11th, 2001, prejudice and discrimination against particular immigrant/ethnic groups in the United States increased immensely. I sought to understand if this backlash was consistent with previous times of war and the degree to which college students in New Jersey would tolerate prejudice, discrimination and a lessening of civil liberties.
A literature review of existing materials helps provide a context for my findings. The two opening chapters discusses historical immigration to the United States, and provide a backdrop and context of the current situation surrounding prejudice, discrimination and civil liberties of immigrants. Chapter Three describes prejudice and discrimination post-9/11 in the U.S. And, Chapter Four examines the work of Emory Bogardus and subsequent sociologists, to understand under what circumstances prejudice correlates directly with discrimination.
Utilizing data from studies conducted between 1920 and 2001, I compare these to my own study of social distance. I also include a semantic differential measure of prejudice to use in conjunction with the social distance measure to get a more complete measure of prejudice towards various pan-ethnic groups. Including questions about civil liberties, I measure if respondents are accepting of prejudice and discrimination at the personal level and/or national/governmental level.
Primary conclusions of this study include:
- Respondents indicate greater allowances and acceptance of the hindrance of civil liberties during both times of war and perceived terrorist threats. These threats may or may not be real and one must not take an impediment on civil liberties lightly given the potential of grave consequence (for example, the imprisonment of an innocent person for life without due process of law.)
- The realization that the Bogardus Social Distance Scale is not an effective measure by itself when calculating the degree of prejudicial attitudes towards a particular group. Since semantic differential measures can provide a more complete analysis of prejudicial attitudes by measuring the degree of positive and negative attributes towards that group, results from these two scales should be averaged together to provide a more accurate reading of a group’s total acceptance into society.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical references (p.192-194)by Jennifer M. Kolese
Paradoxical Strength Conditions in Harmony Systems
No full textMany harmony systems impose conditions on the triggers and targets of harmony that involve prosodic features such as stress, length, or peripherality in the prosodic word domain. Such conditions serve to distinguish a 'strong' anchor (SA) from a 'weak' anchor (WA) for a given feature, and are responsible for asymmetries in the class of segments that may trigger or undergo harmony. Yet, languages employ prosodic conditions on the strength of an anchor in different ways, deriving what appears to be a paradoxical typology of harmony systems, as in (1).
(1) A partial typology of prosodic conditions on targets and triggers
WA's are good triggers: Mellieh'a Maltese round and palatal harmony.
SA's are good triggers: Tigre palatal harmony (Palmer 1956, 1962); Wolof RTR and ATR harmonies (Ka 1988); Pasiego and Tudanca Montañes vowel raising (Hualde 1989).
WA's are good targets: Qormi Maltese palatal and round harmony (Peuch 1978); Woleaian raising (Poser 1982); Wolof ATR harmony; Standard Maltese palatal and round harmony (Peuch 1978).
SA's are good targets: Menomini ATR harmony (Bloomfield 1962); Coeur d'Alene progressive RTR harmony (Reichard 1938); Lena Bable Spanish metaphony (Hualde 1989).The definitive version of this paper was published in Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society 25 and is available at http://glsa.hypermart.net/Cole, J. and C. Kisseberth. (1995). Paradoxical strength conditions in harmony systems. In J. Beckman (Ed.) Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Conference of the North-Eastern Linguistic Society, U Mass, Amherst, pp. 17-31.Peer reviewe
A study of the impact of organizational communication networks and personal communication technology uses on Korean immigrants’ intercultural development
No full textBased on the assumption that communication networks constitute culture, a study was conducted on the impact of organizational communication networks and personal communication technologies (PCTs) use on Korean immigrants’ intercultural development. The research has found that Korean immigrants’ structural positions within their ethnic church communication networks and diversity of their social network have significant influences on their intercultural development, of which the process is facilitated by PCT usage with distinctive ties. A theoretical model of immigrant intercultural development was suggested based on the existing theories of cross-cultural adaptation (Kim, 2001), cultural convergence (Barnett & Kincaid, 1983), and intercultural communication networks (Smith, 1999; Yum, 1988) with a communication-centered view on social networks. The current study first examined the structural composition of Korean immigrants’ communication networks in their ethnic church community, which became the main sources of their social capital, and then measured the effect of their network characteristics (i.e., size, diversity, and centrality) on individuals’ ethnorelative and ethnocentric development (for RQ1 and its related six hypotheses). An organizational member survey of a sample Korean immigrant church was used to construct the whole network of the organization and to analyze the relationships between major constructs (i.e., social capital, PCTs use, and intercultural development). Further, how those network characteristics are related to Korean immigrants’ PCTs use for contacting distinctive social ties (i.e., coethnic vs. host, strong vs. weak ties) were examined (for RQ2 and its four subsidiary questions). Last, this study examined how Korean immigrants’ social capital embedded in their communication networks and PCT usage affect their intercultural development together (i.e., RQ3) via hierarchical multiple regression modeling. As a result of data analyses, two path models for the process of intercultural development were proposed; PCTs use for coethnic strong ties appears to increase Korean immigrant’s network centrality within the ethnic religious community, which leads to ethnocentric development. By contrast, PCTs use for host ties (both strong and weak) seems to increase network diversity, which leads to ethnorelative development.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Sun Kyong Le
Numerical simulation and analysis of the propagation of a prefrontal squall line
Get PDFFall 1990.Also issued as author's dissertation (Ph.D.) -- Colorado State University, 1990.An observational and numerical study of the squall line that occurred on 17-18 June 1978 is described. This squall line was initially triggered by the strong surface convergence along a cold front, and stretched from Illinois to the Texas panhandle. The squall line was aligned with the surface front during its initial development (at 0000 UTC 18 June 1978), but then propagated faster than the front, resulting in a separation of approximately 200 km by 0300 UTC and 300-400 km by 0600 UTC. The CSU RAMS model is used to model the squall line development and propagation. Several sensitivity experiments were completed to test the sensitivity of the results to the use of the Kuo-type cumulus parameterization scheme and grid-scale microphysical processes. The simulations that included the cumulus parameterization scheme and grid scale latent heating or condensation effects accurately modelled the initial development of the squall line and its subsequent movement away from the front. The effects of the gridscale microphysical processes (versus the more simple grid-scale condensation and latent heat release) were m:nor in these simulations. A simulation to test the effects of varying the initial specification of roughness length zo, soil texture, and soil moisture was also completed. The results were very similar to the results with a non-varying specification of zo and soil texture, especially in the region of the squall line. Greater differences were found to the east of the squall line where the convection was not as strongly forced by the dynamics. The propagation of the squall line in the model is shown to be due to the propagation of a deep tropospheric internal gravity wave, in a wave-CISK-like process. The thermal and dynamic perturbations associated with the hypothesized wave are shown to be consistent with gravity wave theory, and the characteristics of the wave are compared to similar results from wave-CISK studies. The wave is forced by the heating profile associated with the convection and propagates southeastward at 18 m s-1 with a horizontal wavelength of ~200 km and a vertical wavelength of 10 km. The wave maintains its coherence and energy through the quasi-resonant effects of reflection from the stability discontinuity at the tropopause and a low-level layer in which the Scorer parameter is very small. The wave dissipates when the heating maximum associated with the wave forcing widens and rises so that the resonant effect is diminished. A critical layer also develops in the upper atmosphere at about the same time, which acts to absorb the wave energy. The propagation of the squall line as an internal gravity wave is discussed in relation to other studies. The current literature favors the mechanism o gust front convergence to explain squall line propagation, although there are a few other modelling studies that show specific instances of squall line propagation as being due to internal gravity waves. It is suggested that a spectrum of scales of forcing may exist and be responsible for squall line propagation, but many models and observations may be able to detect only the gust-front- type processes. The 17-18 June 1978 squall line probably did not propagate solely as the result of any one mechanism, but instead as the product of several active mechanisms. The dominant mechanism in these modelling simulations was an internal gravity wave, and it seems reasonable that the gravity wave was at least one of the mechanisms responsible for the actual propagation of the 17-18 June 1978 squall line
Calling the judiciary to account for the past : transitional justice and judicial accountability in Nigeria
Get PDFInstitutional and individual accountability is an important feature of societies in transition from conflict or authoritarian rule. The imperative of accountability has both normative and transformational underpinnings in the context of restoration of the rule of law and democracy. This article argues a case for extending the purview of truth-telling processes to the judiciary in postauthoritarian contexts. The driving force behind the inquiry is the proposition that the judiciary as the third arm of government at all times participates in governance. To contextualize the argument, I focus on judicial governance and accountability within the paradigm of Nigeria’s transition to democracy after decades of authoritarian military rule
The 'true use of reading' : Sarah Fielding and mid eighteenth-century literary strategies.
No full textPhDThe aim of this thesis is to explore, by examining her life and
works, how Sarah Fielding (1710-68) established her identity as an author.
The definition of her role involves her notions of the functions of
writing and reading.
Sarah Fielding attempts to invite readers to form a sense of ties
by tacit understanding of her messages. As she believes that a work
of literature is produced through collaboration between the writer and
the reader, it is an important task in her view to show her attentiveness
toward reading practice. In her consideration of reading, she has two
distinct, even opposite views of her audience: on the one hand a familiar
and limited circle of readers with shared moral and cultural values and
on the other potential readers among the unknown mass of people. The
dual targets direct her to devise various strategies. She tries to
appeal to those who can endorse and appreciate her moral values as well
as her learning. Her writings and letters testify that she is sensitive
to the demands of the literary market, trying to lead the taste of readers
by inventing new forms.
The thesis opens with an overview of Sarah Fielding's career,
followed by a consideration of her critical attention to the roles of
reading. I go on to examine the narrative structures and strategies
she deploys, with a particular emphasis on her use of the epistolary
method. The following chapter deals with her attention to the reading
of the moral message tangibly embodied in her educational writing. It
is followed by an analysis of the activity which earned her a reputation
as a learned woman. Various as the forms of her works are, they invariably
reflect her attempt to balance herself between the two demands of
inventiveness and familiarity
Survey Results of the New Health Care Worker Study: Implications of Changing Employment Patterns
Get PDFThis report examines the effects of contemporary employment arrangements on the quality of nursing work life, and the implications of these employment arrangements for individual nurses, the hospitals, and also for the organization. First we look at nurse work status (full-time, part-time or casual job), contract status (permanent or temporary), and employment preference as factors affecting commitment to the hospital and profession, job satisfaction, retention in the organization, and absenteeism from work. Second, we examine stress, burnout, and physical occupational health problems (in particular, musculoskeletal disorders), as affecting nurse and hospital outcomes. This project investigated how the quality of nursing worklife and career choices differ for nurses in full-time, part-time and casual employment, and whether nurses who have the employment arrangements they prefer enjoy a standard of worklife that encourages retention. We collected data for the study from 1,396 nurses employed at three large teaching hospitals in Southern Ontario (Hamilton Health Sciences, Kingston General Hospital, and St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto) using the New Health Care Worker Questionnaire. Results indicate that although a substantial majority of the nurses were employed in the type of job that they preferred, problems of stress, burnout and physical health problems were reported. Further, these problems affected the nurses' job satisfaction, commitment, and propensity to leave the hospitals.health care workers, employment status, nurses, job satisfaction, commitment, stress, burnout, physical health problems, MSD, propensity to leave
The workshop as the work: white anti-racism organising in 1960s, 70s, and 80s US social movements
Get PDFThis thesis explores the rise of anti-racism workshops developed by white activists in various United States social movements from the late 1960s through the mid-1980s. The shifting ideology of the black freedom movement in the late 1960s, from integration to Black Power, transformed white activists‘ place within racial justice struggles. While recent scholarship has begun to turn its attention towards whites‘ ongoing racial justice activities, one of the most radical and widespread of these efforts is consistently overlooked: anti-racism workshops. Increasingly prevalent from the late 1960s through to the diversity-trainings explosion of the 1990s, this thesis demonstrates that these workshops had their roots in the black freedom, women‘s liberation and gay liberation movements. White activists from these movements led these workshops in order to examine white racial domination and privilege within both leftist social movements and larger US society.
Analysing case studies from the black freedom, women‘s liberation and gay liberation/rights movements, this thesis explores the foundational assumptions of anti-racism workshops. It seeks to explain how and why these efforts sought to frame race and racism as issues of knowledge and consciousness and why such efforts constituted radical praxis. It is argued that early anti-racism workshops were pedagogical projects that sought to confront the racial ignorance that structured the lives of whites in the US, including progressives and their liberation movements. This thesis draws attention to the efficacy and power of these workshops in terms of their epistemological effects, in the transformations they brought about in whites‘ understanding, or awareness, of racial realities
- …
