15 research outputs found
Episode 12: Power and Resistance in Holocaust Music: Dr. Tamara Reps Freeman
No full textIn this episode, Dr. Tamara Reps Freeman--an ethnomusicologist specializing in Holocaust music and Holocaust music education--visits from Montclair State University in New Jersey to tell us how she got into this field, who her prized viola belonged to, and what she learned from Holocaust survivors that inspired her work. She plays for us a couple of songs (which began as poems) that were performed and/or written in the camps
Using Holocaust music to encourage racial respect: an interdisciplinary curriculum for grades K-12
No full textThe rationale for the dissertation is based on the needs for a Holocaust Music Education Curriculum (HMEC) and Holocaust music research guide for grades K-12, in response to NJ Governor Christine Todd Whitman's 1994 Holocaust-genocide education mandate. Extant Holocaust-genocide curricula do not include the wealth of music composed by the Jewish people during the European Holocaust (1933-1945). Jewish Holocaust survivors and their musical manuscripts from European ghettos and concentration camps provide reliable and valid historic melodies that reflect their World War II experiences. The various melodies include lullabies, folk songs, partisan songs, and death marches. In addition to survivors' interviews, focus groups with K-12 music teachers and K-12 parents provided humanistic guidance for creating the HMEC. The purpose of the dissertation is to create a HMEC that is interdisciplinary among compatible subject areas: vocal music, general K-5 education, English, and social studies. Holocaust music is the focal point of the HMEC and is used among all subject areas to encourage racial respect and religious and cultural diversity. Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe, 1998), a curriculum design theory, grounds the methodology of the dissertation. The HMEC is also grounded in aesthetic, praxial, and spiritual music education philosophies, giving teachers and students educational and emotional support and flexibility to face the challenges of Holocaust music education. Holocaust events and lessons of racial respect may have a better chance of coming alive for students through active listening, analyzing, and re-creating Holocaust melodies. This qualitative curriculum-design research follows the New Jersey mandated Holocaust-Genocide Studies K-12 Curriculum Guidelines and the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards. The researcher's premise is: students may take ownership of racial respect through studying the history, prose, and music of the Holocaust Jews.D.M.A.Includes bibliographical referencesby Tamara Reps Freema
The impact of marketised discourse on the interaction between drug representatives and physicians
No full textDrug representatives (‘drug reps’) visit physicians to present and promote pharmaceutical products (‘drug detailing’). Against the background of a continuous innovative slow-down, drug companies have shifted strategic emphasis towards marketing and selling. With regards to drug detailing, I am investigating how this shift towards marketing is manifested in discursive terms. I show how the detailing discourse is impacting the attitudes and behaviours of those involved in it, namely physicians, drug reps and their managers. By means of qualitative interviewing I access the individual meaning-making and attitudes towards the phenomenon of drug detailing. I demonstrate how discourse is designed, transformed and responded to. In that, I point to a system of incompatibility resulting in unproductive action. Marketised discourse as devised by management is not fostering collaboration between the industry and the medical profession. Moreover, it leads to a growing detachment of drug reps from their organisations. By highlighting the issue of drug detailing for the first time from a drug rep perspective my research demonstrates that the industry is not an integrated ideological whole. I conclude by advocating a more transparent conduct of business, suggesting controlling means to improve the quality of information delivery. Last not least I want to stimulate a critical public discourse about the sublime ways of constructing and disseminating marketised pharmaceutical information
"They're not the flavour of the month": regional primary health care organisations and primary health care for migrants and people from refugee backgrounds in Australia
No full text© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.Introduction:
Globally, new migrants and refugees face barriers accessing Primary Health Care (PHC) and experience inequitable health outcomes. Many nations have regional PHC organisations (RPHCOs) to coordinate PHC. This paper describes a project examining PHC in Australia in two incarnations of RPHCOs – Medicare Locals (MLs) and Primary Health Networks (PHNs). We consider the extent to which they facilitated the PHC needs of migrants and refugees, and how RPHCOs in Australia and internationally might be improved.
Methods:
We undertook analysis of ML and PHN reports, a survey of senior staff and board members (N = 121 ML and N = 66 PHN), individual interviews with senior staff in MLs (N = 50) and PHNs (N = 55) and 8 focus groups with migrant/refugee organisations across Australia (N = 62). Documents and interviews were analysed thematically and survey data using frequencies.
Results:
Multiple barriers to PHC access were identified. Migrant/refugee health was reported as a low priority for RPHCOs, though some with larger migrant/refugee populations had specific initiatives. In the surveys 117 (56%) ML and 27 (41%) PHN staff reported somewhat/very effective relationships with migrant health organisations. However, in focus groups with migrant/refugee organisations low levels of RPHCO engagement were reported and there was little migrant/refugee health representation on RPHCO boards. A lack of policy and political support and limited resources were reported as key barriers. Facilitators included migrant/refugee health being a priority, ‘champions’ within RPHCOs, dedicated funding, long-term relationships with migrant/refugee organisations, and social health approaches.
Conclusions:
Comprehensive PHC delivery for migrants and refugees RPHCOs requires strong collaborations with migrant/refugee organisations, relevant policy frameworks, flexible funding, and social health approaches.
Main messages:
Despite comprehensive PHC being crucial for new migrants and refugees, they face many access barriers.
RPHCOs have the potential to facilitate PHC access but require strong policy frameworks, adequate funding and effective collaboration with migrant and refugee organisations
Interagency collaboration in primary mental health care: lessons from the Partners in Recovery program
No full text© The Author(s) 2019 This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.BACKGROUND: Collaborative care is a means of improving outcomes particularly for people with complex needs. The Partners in Recovery (PIR) program, established in Australia in 2012, provides care coordination to facilitate access to health and social support services for people with severe and persistent mental illness. Of the 48 PIR programs across Australia, 35 were led by Medicare Locals, the previous Australian regional primary health care organisation and nine involved Medicare Locals as partner organisations. AIMS: To identify features which enabled and hindered collaboration in PIR programs involving Medicare Locals and determine what can be learnt about delivering care to this population. METHODS: Data were collected from 50 interviews with senior staff at Medicare Locals and from eight focus groups with 51 mental health stakeholders in different Australian jurisdictions. RESULTS: Successful PIR programs were based upon effective collaboration. Collaboration was facilitated by dedicated funding, a shared understanding of PIR aims, joint planning, effective network management, mutual respect and effective communication. Collaboration was also enhanced by the local knowledge and population health planning functions of Medicare Locals. Jurisdictional boundaries and funding discontinuity were the primary barriers to collaboration
Returning culture to peacebuilding : contesting the liberal peace in Sierra Leone
No full textThis thesis investigates the advantages and limitations of applying culture to the analysis of violent conflict and peacebuilding, with a particular focus on liberal peacebuilding in Sierra Leone. While fully aware of the critique of the concept of culture in terms of its uses for the production of difference and ‘otherness,’ it also seeks to respond to the critique of liberal peacebuilding on the account of its low sensitivity towards local culture, which allegedly undermines the peace effort. After a careful examination of the terms of discussion about culture enabled by theoretical approaches to conflict in Chapter 2, the thesis presents a theoretical framework for the analysis of cultural aspects of conflict and peace based on the processes and effects of meaning-generation (Chapter 3), developing the conceptual apparatus and vocabulary for the subsequent empirical study. Instead of bracketing out the recursive nature of cultural theorising, the developed approach embraces the recursive dynamics which arise as a result of cultural ‘embeddedness’ of the analyst and the processes which s/he seeks to elucidate, mirroring similar dynamics in the cultural production of meaning and knowledge. The framework of ‘embedded cultural enquiry’ is then used to analyse the practices of liberal peacebuilding as a particular culture, which shapes the interaction of the liberal peace with its ‘subjects’ and critics as well as framing its reception of the cultural problematic generally (Chapter 4). The application of the analytical framework to the case study investigates the interaction between the liberal peace and ‘local culture,’ offering an alternative reading of the conflict and peace process in Sierra Leone (Chapter 5). The study concludes that a greater attention to cultural meaning-making offers a largely untapped potential for peacebuilding, although any decisions with regard to its deployment will inevitably be made from within an inherently biased cultural perspective
Reading between the blurred lines: A discussion into the representation of rape and rape culture in contemporary fiction
No full textIn this dissertation, the focus will be on the representation of rape and rape culture within contemporary fiction; the aim of this is to discover how prevalent rape and rape culture is within this particular area. The thesis is split into three chapters, the first of which discusses the depictions of male rape and gender shifts in contemporary fiction, focusing on Lisbeth Salander as a rapist in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The second chapter follows on from this, discussing the portrayal of victims of rape within contemporary fiction; and the last chapter debates whether or not a perpetuating rape culture means that women cannot be as sexually experimental as they wish to be. The aim of the dissertation is to focus on how authors depict rape, and whether or not this depiction is perpetuating rape culture, or simply addressing the issue within fiction. The introduction is a larger part of the dissertation, setting up exactly what rape and rape culture is, and how rape myths prevail in modern western society. There are certain areas that the dissertation has not addressed, such as race, because they are such complex issues that merely by giving them a single chapter within the dissertation would not be enough. The dissertation’s main purpose, and main area of focus, is to illustrate the perpetuating rape culture in western societies through gender inequality
Freedom and the 'creative act' in the writings of Nikolai Berdiaev : an evaluation in light of Jürgen Moltmann's theology of freedom
No full textThis project revisits the work of Nikolai Berdiaev, one of the first Russian Silver Age religious philosophers to be widely read in the West. The focus of this research is his thought on freedom and the ‘creative act’. We will argue that Berdiaev’s vision of freedom contains two types of freedom – a freedom understood within the created order and a freedom ‘outside’ of creation. It will be shown that in the former type, the reader finds a nuanced and insightful multi-layered conception of human freedom, which offers intriguing possibilities for exploring freedom and its implications for humanity. It will also be demonstrated that this type of freedom is closely related to his innovative view of creativity. Berdiaev conceives of freedom and creativity as distinct concepts, and yet so integrally related that they are interdependent. In the latter type of freedom, the reader will encounter a highly speculative and original metaphysical view that attempts to explain freedom as non-determination and answer the challenges of theodicy, which, this research will maintain, fails to do.
This research will contend (contrary to Berdiaev’s own statements) that his thought is most comprehensible from a broadly theological perspective. This perspective will underscore the significant tension within his work that arises from his speculative metaphysics. Unlike earlier works on Berdiaev that glossed over this tension, we will attempt to ameliorate it by engaging Jürgen Moltmann’s theology of freedom. Moltmann’s theology will provide a number of ideas and concepts for an analysis, critique, and reconfiguration of Berdiaev’s vision. This reconfiguration will seek to remain faithful to Berdiaev’s core concerns, while providing a new interpretation of his thought that is relevant for a contemporary dialogue concerning the significance of freedom and creativity for the person and community in relation to God
The 'creative factory': an innovation systems model using a systems thinking approach
No full textThe author has designed, developed and applied, employing a system dynamics approach, a new innovation system concept - the Creative Factory - in order to communicate innovation theory to the different actors in the system using a common perspective and to reveal the complexity of innovation systems. Furthermore, the model aims to create a dynamic framework that can be used to analyse and assess the innovation activity of a firm against best practice and to illustrate, through simulation, the short and long-term influences of managers' decisions or external factors on innovation outcomes and between the different factors in the system.
The concept has at its centre the firm's knowledge creation, the new product design and development process and the competencies that separate successes from failures. These core elements are affected by other business activities of the firm such as the corporate strategy, the risk taking policy and the organisational structure. Additionally, it is influenced by the National Innovation Environment within which the firm operates. The creative factory model has been used in this project as an assessment tool in three different firms. Then, action-scenarios are simulated, which demonstrate how to improve and control the innovation activity of these three firms. Additionally, the author designed scenarios in order to demonstrate the effects of external influences on the innovation activity of the firms.
Studying the results of the creative factory's simulation, the interconnection between the elements of an innovation system is illustrated. The need for capital investment in research in parallel with organisational improvements is shown to be a key factor for the success of the innovation process. The importance of the early stages of the new product design and development process in the overall performance of a firm is demonstrated. Finally, the influence of the national innovation environment on the innovation process and on the related business activities is identified
The Prepared Piano Music of John Cage: Towards an Understanding of Sounds and Preparations
No full textThe subject for this thesis is the prepared piano music of John Cage with particular attention focussed on the preparations that create the varying sonic pallets in this music. The thesis is divided into six chapters, each chapter fulfilling one of two tasks. Firstly they will provide for pianists an examination of ways in which Cage‟s instructions in the scores for preparing the piano can be interpreted, and it will highlight the difficulties that become apparent (and should be considered) when performing Cage‟s prepared piano music. The second function to be fulfilled will be to musicologists who wish to trace the development of Cage‟s prepared piano music with relation to his later chance determined music.
Chapter one traces the historical and aesthetic influences that were relevant to Cage in the creation of the prepared piano, and places it in an historical context.
Chapter two looks at John Cage‟s compositions for prepared piano and provide a thorough inventory of John Cage‟s prepared piano pieces. Chapter two also examines the possibilities for making suggestions for the recreation of Cage‟s preparations.
Chapter three examines the physical relationships between piano, strings and preparations.
Chapter four analyses the solo prepared piano pieces and highlights the compositional techniques that Cage used in the composition of the prepared piano pieces.
Chapter five looks at the reasoning for performer choice in relation to ambiguity discussed in chapter three
Chapter six explores the six movement work The Perilous Night, and uses it as a case study to identify and explain all of the issues discussed within this thesis
