bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Early Pottery in South China
Authors: Lu Tracey L-D
Published: February 2012

Potsherds of thick walls with coarse inclusions have been found in several archaeological sites in South China, associated with flaked or ground stone tools and ground organic implements. This paper focuses on the natural and cultural contexts, the chronology, and the characteristics of the early pottery found in South China, as well as the impetus to the origin of pottery and several related issues. It is argued that the earliest potters in South China were affluent foragers, who lived on diversified natural resources and were members of egalitarian societies. The earliest pottery in this region is tentatively dated to approximately 12,000 years ago, characterized by thick, crumbled walls built by hand pinching and without decoration. Although potsherds found in South China may not be the earliest in terms of the absolute dates, they represent the very beginning of pottery manufacturing as a technological invention from the terminal Pleistocene to the early Holocene in southern East Asia. Based on current archaeological data and the results of multi-disciplinary analyses, it is argued that South China seems to have been an area for the origin of pottery, which might have been associated with subsistence strategy changes. Furthermore, there might have been cultural exchanges between the prehistoric potters in South China and those in adjacent areas.
Incompatible Partners: The Role of Identity and Self-Image in the Sino-U.S. Relationship
Authors: Morris Lyle J.
Published: February 2012

This article examines identity as an underexplored factor complicating U.S.-China relations and concludes that the identity variable contributes to mutual suspicion and frustrates efforts in conflict resolution.
Colin Mackerras
Authors: Liu Siyuan
Published: February 2012

Colin Mackerras built a foundation for later scholarship through his careful documentation of Chinese performance from a social and political perspective. His research illuminates the history of jingju, the theatre of the PRC, and the performance of minorities in China and beyond.
The Ati-Atihan Festival: Dancing with the Santo Niño at the “Filipino Mardi Gras”
Authors: Peterson William
Published: February 2012

In a country famous for its many festivals, the Ati-Atihan Festival on the island of Panay near the geographic center of the Philippines stands out not only for its devotion to the Santo Niño, or Holy Child, but because of its claim of being the country’s oldest festival. Believed to date from 1212, this festival grafts the veneration of the Santo Niño onto a kind of thanksgiving commemorating the “voluntary” gift of land from the indigenous population to their “brothers” from present-day Borneo. This article traces the “Mardi-Gras-ization” of the festival through an examination of its more extravagant, public, and theatrical elements, while considering what this weeklong event means for its tens of thousands of active participants.
John D. Mitchell
Authors: Leiter Samuel L.
Published: February 2012

John Mitchell of the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Theatre Arts used his position in New York to draw awareness to theatres of style including jingju , Sanskrit drama, and kabuki. He invited masters of Asian traditional theatre to work with American artists, hoping to inculcate full appreciation of the power of stylized approaches to performance.
"Persons That Live Remote from London": Apothecaries and the Medical Marketplace in Seventeenth-and Eighteenth-Century Wales
Authors: Withey Alun
Published: February 2012

This article uses evidence from Welsh apothecary shops as a means to access the mechanisms of the "medical marketplace" in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Wales. As a country physically remote from large urban medical centers, and with few large towns, Wales has often been overlooked in terms of medical commerce. Nevertheless, evidence suggests that Welsh apothecaries participated in broad and sophisticated networks of trade with London suppliers. Moreover, their shops contained a wide range of medicines from herbal simples to exotic ingredients and chemical preparations, highlighting the availability of such goods far from large urban centers.
Was the Black Death in India and China?
Authors: Sussman George D.
Published: February 2012

Firsthand accounts of the Black Death in Europe and the Middle East and many subsequent historians have assumed that the pandemic originated in Asia and ravaged China and India before reaching the West. One reason for this conviction among modern historians is that the plague in the nineteenth century originated and did its worst damage in these countries. But a close examination of the sources on the Delhi Sultanate and the Yuan Dynasty provides no evidence of any serious epidemic in fourteenth-century India and no specific evidence of plague among the many troubles that afflicted fourteenth-century China.
Diasporic Disclosures: Social Networking, Neda, and the 2009 Iranian Presidential Elections
Authors: Naghibi Nima
Published: February 2012

This article explores the ways in which social media was used by diasporic Iranians in the aftermath of the June 2009 Iranian presidential elections. With particular attention to global reactions to the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, the author considers how social networking sites such as Facebook create an “intimate public sphere,” simultaneously facilitating and defanging collective activism through expressions of compassion for others.
“I’d Like My Life Back”: Corporate Personhood and the BP Oil Disaster
Authors: Lyons Laura E.
Published: February 2012

In this essay, I analyze British Petroleum’s initial attempts to manage its enormous environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico and its concomitant public relations crisis through the use of its Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward. In his public interviews and statements, he both personifies the corporation and distances himself from its decisions. At stake in these attempts to make use of life stories either to limit the damage (and liability) that have resulted from the disaster or to hold the corporation accountable is the continued viability of “corporate personhood,” a concept central to American corporate law.
Who Do You Think You Are? : Intimate Pasts Made Public
Authors: Lynch Claire
Published: February 2012

The hugely successful BBC television series Who Do You Think You Are? ™ follows celebrities tracing their family trees as part of a journey of self discovery in a format described here as “biogravision.” The show’s popularity runs in parallel with the rise in genealogy made possible by digital archives. What impact has this had on modes of self-narration and the move between private and public histories?
Autographics and the History of the Form: Chronicling Self and Career in Will Eisner’s Life, in Pictures and Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s A Drifting Life
Authors: Davis Rocío G.
Published: February 2012

Using the notion of “autographics,” this essay examines how Will Eisner, in Life, in Pictures (2007) and Yoshihiro Tatsumi, in A Drifting Life (2009), deploy the graphic form to illustrate the development of graphic art, incorporating the story of their artistic trajectory with a critical look at the development of the medium in their time. The texts become exceptional documents that trace the interconnections among politics, society, art, economy, and idealism in the United States and Japan before and after the Second World War.
Picture books in China from 1950-1966: A snapshot
Authors: Tongwei Qi
Published: February 2012

This article provides a brief glimpse at a sampling of picture books published in China from 1950-1966 with particular attention to the role of theme, text, and illustration.
"Barrier-Free Books from Around the World"- IBBY traveling exhibitions come to Japan
Authors: Kakuage Hisako
Published: February 2012

This article details Japanese experiences in hosting multiple traveling exhibitions of barrier-free children's book from the IBBY Documentation Centre of Books for Disabled Young People, along with insights about encouraging the publishing and promotion of such books.
Red, Yellow, and Black: Australian Indigenous publishing for young people
Authors: Sheahan-Bright Robyn
Published: February 2012

The growth in the publication of Indigenous literature in Australia is one of the most significant recent developments. This article discusses the treatment of Indigenous cultural themes (sometimes by non-Indigenous people), issues that confront publishers when dealing with Indigenous writers and illustrators, and how the establishment (or consolidation) of Indigenous publishing houses has been a force for change. [Warning: This article may contain names of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.]
Robot Dreams and the language of sound effects
Authors: Venable Colen AF
Published: February 2012

What happens when sound effects are translated to various languages? Colleen AF Venable appreciatively describes the beauty of sound effects around the world in her discussion of translations of Sara Varon’s Robot Dreams .
The accidental graphic novelist
Authors: Tan Shaun
Published: February 2012

As the title of this article suggests, Shaun Tan communicates the process of his creations as playfully experimental, exploratory, and as a quest to find expression to meet the demands of particular stories. Tan is inspired and often stands in awe of renowned artists who, like him, seem to engage in this process. Tan hits home in conveying the multilayered and complex nature of visual and verbal narratives that create a space in which author and reader can intersect in powerful and personal ways.
Hearing the Voices of "Comfort Women": Confronting Historical Trauma in Korean Children's Literature
Authors: Sung Yoo Kyung
Published: February 2012

During the period of Japanese colonization (1910-1945), especially during World War II, thousands of young Korean girls were forced to work as sex slaves in so-called 'comfort stations'. The silenced voices of Korean girls who were victimized and abused in this way have recently become an important topic in Korean children's books. This paper examines attempts to break that silence and to give voice to the young Korean victims of this atrocity in Korean children's literature. The teenage girls in these picture books and novels describe the trauma of their forced journeys, their systematic abuse and the difficulties they faced reintegrating into society afterwards. In this article, the concepts of dark secrets and therapeutic, authoritative, and critical voices are used to examine literature which confronts historical trauma and depicts the violation of childhood.
Dos calas en las estructuras profundas de la tragedia moderna: El caballero de Olmedo , Lope y Lorca
Authors: Peale C. George
Published: February 2012

Despite a substantial body of research, generic issues in El caballero de Olmedo continue to be problematic. The present study proposes to outline considerations that help understand more clearly what is tragic in Lope's "tragicomedy" by refocusing the play from a synchronic perspective, that is, by framing El caballero de Olmedo within the theory and practice of modern tragedy, as manifested in works by Ibsen, O'Casey, Synge, Chekhov, Brecht, and, especially, García Lorca. El caballero de Olmedo was the last work that Lorca adapted for La Barraca. His script and notes for that production have been lost. Nevertheless, it is appropriate to probe what Lorca assimilated into his own dramaturgical system when he adapted Lope's play, because within El caballero de Olmedo Lorca found deep structures and a decidedly modern tragic vision that were to be essential to his Andalusian trilogy.
Inverting Plato's Allegory of the Cave: The Cave as a Backstage to the World/Theater in La vida es sueño and La hija del aire
Authors: Gómez Fernando
Published: February 2012

Out of the immense bibliography on Pedro Calderón de la Barca's La vida es sueño has emerged a relatively small number of studies that have analyzed the influence of Plato's philosophy in this play. However, little attention has been given specifically to the image of the cave that Calderón and Plato both use in their works. The purpose of this study is to show that Calderón does not simply transplant his grotto onto the Spanish stage, but rather inverts its imagery to renovate the myth of the cave according to the aesthetics and philosophy in vogue during the seventeenth century in Spain. The playwright does this in La vida es sueño by turning the cave into the locus of desengaño and enlightenment wherein he clearly sees the artificiality of the world, which then leads him to liken it to a stage. In La hija del aire , Semíramis comes to this realization as well after experiencing similar injustices. However, unlike the Polish prince, she uses this knowledge in sinister ways to take over Babylon. By comparing the caves found in La vida es sueño and La hija del aire with the backstage dressing room in El gran teatro del mundo , we find that these grottoes and the vestuario function similarly, in that they first trap their inhabitants in its "cradle," which keeps them from "acting" in the light of the world-stage, and, later, unlike in Plato's allegory, serve as a space of knowledge in the form of a "sepulcher" that reveals to them the theatricality of the world. Therefore, the juxtaposition of these two comedias reveals that it is not knowledge alone that saves the individual, but rather the way s/he "acts" upon acquiring it.
El “cor-tesano des-nudo”: los cuentos de Juanete y la estética de la resistencia corporal en El pintor de su deshonra
Authors: Repinecz Martin
Published: February 2012

Aunque muchos estudios literarios tratan el tema de la figura del gracioso en las obras teatrales de Calderón, la función del gracioso Juanete, criado del protagonista Juan Roca en El pintor de su deshonra (1650), todavía no ha sido explicada completamente. En este artículo, analizo varios de los cuentos alegóricos y enigmáticos de Juanete en la luz de las reflexiones teóricas de Susan Buck-Morss sobre la relación entre la estética y el cuerpo. Centrándome en su tesis de que el malestar o el dolor físico constituya un punto de partida para que uno se resista a los valores culturales de su sociedad, sostengo que el nombre de nuestro gracioso, “Juanete,” nos invita a explorar la relación entre las resonancias simbólicas del “juanete,” por un lado, y el conflicto entre el cuerpo y la sociedad, por el otro. Al igual que un juanete le produce un malestar constante a un cuerpo aparentemente sano, Juanete perturba de forma repetida la fe del público en los valores sociales del honor y la hombría, los cuales eran prevalentes en aquella época. A pesar de los intentos de Juan Roca de interpretar el papel del cortesano honrado, Juanete usa sus cuentos para llamar la atención sobre las maneras en que los impulsos, las limitaciones y las necesidades corporales de Roca frustran y se resisten a las exigencias de dicho papel. Por último, afirmo que aunque Roca consigue recuperar su honor al matar a su esposa (Serafina) y al hombre que la había secuestrado (don Álvaro), el último cuento de Juanete socava cualquier posibilidad de que el espectador mantenga una fe no crítica en los valores del honor y la virilidad. En cambio, este cuento demuestra que tales valores sólo conducen a la desnutrición física y espiritual del cuerpo, y por eso, nunca llevarán a la felicidad real.
Los animales en el auto sacramental El divino Jasón de Calderón: ingenio y simbolismo
Authors: Arellano Ignacio
Published: February 2012

Este artículo revisa la presencia animalística en el auto sacramental calderoniano El divino Jasón . Estudia los motivos animales en relación con la estructura alegórica del auto y los aspectos emblemáticos y simbólicos que enriquecen su composición desde el punto de vista ingenioso y artístico.
Different Beginnings and the Same Ends: The Unique Introits of Bartolomé Torres Naharro’s Comedia Tinellaria and Comedia Soldadesca
Authors: Grubbs Anthony J.
Published: February 2012

The introitos of Bartolomé Torres Naharro’s Comedia Soldadesca (1510) and Comedia Tinellaria (c. 1516) demonstrate qualities that set them apart from the playwright’s other introductory pieces. Of course, similarities between all of Torres Naharro’s prologues do exist, as they fulfill the role of calming the audience members and preparing them for the principal play that follows. In the case of Soldadesca and Tinellaria , Torres Naharro altered a reliable and proven formula when he composed and staged these two introits, which are distinct from the others in terms of content, performance, and context. His experimentation included the omission of racy subject matter in both and the absence of a brutish prologuist in one. Also, they are unique since they introduce comedias a noticia . This divergence from convention further points to the dynamic and fresh character of Torres Naharro’s theater.
“El mejor mozo”?: The Representation of the Future Catholic Monarchs in Lope de Vega’s El mejor mozo de España
Authors: Brooke Alice
Published: February 2012

The representation of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, on the Golden Age stage has been somewhat neglected in recent scholarship. Despite a growing interest in the critical potential of portraying monarchs in the theatre and a recent monograph on the character of Isabella in the Golden Age theatre (María Y. Caba), the only study dedicated to the royal couple in the drama of the period (DeLys Ostlund) concludes that their portrayal is largely conformist and laudatory of their role in the unification of Spain. This article, which draws on the above scholarship yet refutes many of its conclusions, begins to rectify this situation. Presenting a close reading of the portrayal of the young couple before their ascent to the throne in Lope de Vega’s El mejor mozo de España , this essay considers how contrasts in their portrayals affect how they are viewed individually and as a couple. It concludes that Lope introduces subtle criticisms, in particular of Ferdinand, who is shown to be proud, materialistic, and immature. Additionally, it considers the characterisation of the secondary roles of King Henry IV and one of Isabella’s advisors, Don Gutierre, explaining how their different actions also serve to express reservations about Philip III and his foreign and domestic policies.
Autobiographical Echoes in Calderón’s El hombre pobre todo es trazas
Authors: Voght Geoffrey M.
Published: February 2012

The traditional view of Don Pedro Calderón de la Barca is of an austere and serious-minded writer who used his knowledge and poetic skills to reinforce his audience’s faith in Church dogma and in Spain’s holy mission to establish a global Catholic monarchy. Yet among his contemporaries Calderón had the reputation as one of Spain’s greatest humorists. His short pieces and comedias alike demonstrate his gifts at creating entertaining comedy. Even his Corpus Christi productions are full of joyful singing and dancing, and most contain graciosos and numerous laughable scenes. On a personal level—and also contrary to the prevailing perception—Calderón was gregarious and fully engaged in the social and amorous practices of his day. He was arrested more than once, was excommunicated, was held responsible for a murder, and fathered at least one illegitimate child. Answering the call to arms in 1640, as a knight of the Order of St. James, the playwright fought bravely for his king in two campaigns against the rebels and their French allies in Cataluña. My purpose here is four-part: to review the darker aspects and hard times of Calderón’s early life, not to denigrate an extremely talented dramatist but to broaden our view of him as a human being; to defend Calderón from the suggestion by A.A. Parker and others that Calderón was somehow emotionally disturbed; to demonstrate that in one 1627 play in particular some of his troubles and experiences seem to find dramatic reverberations; and, finally, to suggest a more complete picture of him as a man, a view that reconciles his tragic and difficult personal life, his comic and optimistic spirit, and the ostensibly traditional nature of his philosophy of life.
La dimension marginale de l’inclusion de la diversité ethnique à l’école : l’exemple de la Colombie-Britannique
Authors: Jacquet Marianne
Published: February 2012

En Colombie-Britannique, le respect de la diversité, des droits humains et de la justice sociale en fait les piliers de la politique officielle provinciale d’inclusion dans les écoles ( BC Ministry of Education 2005). Cet article traite de la comparaison entre deux contextes scolaires (le programme régulier en anglais et l’école francophone) qui se différencient par le choix de la langue d’enseignement, l’articulation des rapports entre majorité / minorités et l’enjeu identitaire, et par la manière d’y considérer l’inclusion de la diversité ethnique dans leurs pratiques pédagogiques. L’analyse comparée d’un échantillon de données résultant d’entrevues réalisées auprès d’enseignants des écoles secondaires de la région métropolitaine de Vancouver met en évidence leur conception de la diversité, les points de divergence et de convergence présents dans leurs discours sur la diversité ethnique et son inclusion en classe, de même que l’écart existant entre les politiques éducatives de multiculturalisme et d’inclusion, adoptées par la province (ibid.), et les pratiques pédagogiques mises en place à cet effet.

In British Columbia, respect for diversity, human rights and social justice, are the pillars of the official provincial politics of inclusion in the schools (BC Ministry of Education 2005). This article is about the comparison between two school systems (the regular program in English and the francophone school) which are differentiated by the choice of the language of instruction, the relationship between majority/minorities and identity issues, and by the way in which they consider the inclusion of ethnic diversity in their pedagogical practices. The comparative analysis of a sample of data from interviews with teachers in secondary schools in the metropolitan region of Vancouver reveals their conception of diversity, the points of divergence and convergence which are present in their discourse on ethnic diversity and its inclusion in the classroom, as well as the gap which exists between the education politics of multiculturalism and inclusion, adopted by the province (ibid.), and the pedagogical practices put into place for this purpose.
In Defense of Dragons: Imagination as Experience in the Earthsea Trilogy
Authors: Dunn Margaret M.
Published: February 2012

If an adult is to cope with the inevitable tragedies and incongruities of life, then it is the faculty of imagination which, having been nourished in him as a child, will provide him with the inner resources to do so. In the Earthsea Trilogy , Ursula LeGuin offers just such imaginative sustenance — a symbolic rendering of the journey from childhood to adulthood. Although clearly clothed in the habiliments of fantasy, this imaginative journey may, in fact, be more relevant to the lives of its young readers than an entire shelf of numbingly factual and matter-of-fact books.
Eleanor Farjeon: The Shaping of a Literary Imagination
Authors: Greene Ellin Peterson
Published: February 2012

This paper explores the relationship between childhood fantasy play and the shaping of a literary imagination by drawing on the writings of one literary artist, namely, Eleanor Farjeon, British writer of original fairy tales. The author attempts to show how the literary-theatrical-musical milieu in which Farjeon grew up directed her talent toward a kind of writing in which fantasy is believable and reality magical and how her childhood imagination informed her creative work as a whole. Farjeon's childhood imagination influenced her choice of material, the direction (fantasy) of her writing, its characteristic form (daydream), and even the conditions necessary for creative effort.
"O Best Beloved": Kipling's Reading Instructions in the Just So Stories
Authors: Anderson Celia Catlett
Published: February 2012

In the Just So Stories , Kipling uses tricks from the story-telling tradition (set phrases, asides to the reader, heavy repetition), poetic devices (refrains, rhyme, alliteration), and typographical clues to retain the tone and emphasis that he favored when telling the stories orally. A close investigation of these various strategies reveals how they guide the reader to approximate the original effect, keeping them vital for a young audience.
The Magician's Conjuror: E. Nesbit's Illustrator, H. R. Millar
Authors: Smith Louisa A.
Published: February 2012

Even the best storytellers profit from having a compatible illustrator. E. Nesbit was fortunate in obtaining the services of H. R. Millar for her magic books. This paper explores their contributions to each other's art, examines their working relationship, and notes a possible disagreement towards the end of their fourteen year collaboration.
What Are Jewish Boys and Girls Made Of?: Gender in Contemporary Jewish Teen and Tween Fiction
Authors: Cummins June
Published: February 2012

After a period of limited activity, the genre of children’s and young adult Jewish literature has recently experienced a boom. While this surge of new publications is welcome, it does carry with it some problems of representation, notably in the area of gender. Authors of books featuring Jewish girls tend to rely heavily on the genre of chick lit in ways which can reinforce stereotypes, while authors writing about Jewish boys create more well-rounded and variable protagonists. The conflict between fitting in with the mainstream and retaining specific cultural traits is apparent in contemporary Jewish literature through the complicated depiction of gender.
“Eve was Framed”: Ideostory and (Mis)Representation in Judeo-Christian Creation Stories
Authors: Gillhouse Elizabeth
Published: February 2012

This article examines the influence of feminist ideology on contemporary retellings of the story of creation and the fall in Genesis. Unlike many retellings of traditional narratives, retellings of Bible stories are limited by an expectation of fidelity to the sacred text by practitioners, which often results in the more subtle influence of cultural changes being overlooked in these texts. The complex negotiations of traditional interpretations with changing cultural ideologies are examined in three features of the narrative: the creation of the first humans; the temptation and moment of choice; and the outcome of choice and dispensing of punishment.
This Is Not About Picture Books: From "Here and Now" to Surrealism in Margaret Wise Brown's Little Fur Family and The Important Book
Authors: Panszczyk Anna
Published: February 2012

This essay examines the surreal qualities present in two classic picture books by Margaret Wise Brown: Little Fur Family (1946), illustrated by Garth Williams, and The Important Book (1949), illustrated by Leonard Weisgard. Although these stories were created in the "here and now" style of storytelling, an approach seemingly opposed to the interests of the fantastical, this analysis argues that surrealism actually encompasses the interests of the "here and now" tradition rather than subverts them. By specifically drawing comparisons between the "here and now" tradition and the subtle surrealism of René Magritte, this essay discusses how the two picture books are able to fully embrace the experience of the surreal as well as still stay firmly grounded in the "here and now" style of storytelling for children.
Cryptozoology and the Paranormal in Harry Potter: Truth and Belief at the Borders of Consensus
Authors: Dendle Peter
Published: February 2012

J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series explores issues of belief and knowledge in ways that reflect our own society's multivalent relationship with both authority and conflicting sources of information. Cryptozoology and the paranormal—fields outside the consensus of mainstream science—are portrayed in the series through proponents who mean well but who are ultimately mistaken. Through her treatment of these peripheral communities of belief, Rowling implies that although knowledge acquisition is difficult and is an ongoing project, objective knowledge is possible even in the face of conflicting authorities.
The Trouble with Being Sincere
Authors: Chan Timothy , Kahane Guy
Published: February 2012

Questions about sincerity play a central role in our lives. But what makes an assertion insincere? In this paper we argue that the answer to this question is not as straightforward as it has sometimes been taken to be. Until recently the dominant answer has been that a speaker makes an insincere assertion if and only if he does not believe the proposition asserted. There are, however, persuasive counterexamples to this simple account. It has been proposed instead that an insincere assertion that p is one made by a speaker who (a) does not express his belief that p; or (b) does not believe that he believes that p; (c) does not assent to p; or (d) does not express any of these cognitive states. We show that these alternative accounts also face counterexamples.
Old Boys: Teacher–Student Bonding in Roman Oratory
Authors: Richlin Amy
Published: February 2012

Scholars have explored the ways in which Roman oratorical training worked to construct masculinity, and vice versa. This essay historicizes Roman oratorical discourse by examining the letters of Cicero, Pliny, Fronto, and Sidonius Apollinaris. A number of Cicero’s correspondents are identified as his possible apprentices, with particular attention to a group of letters exhibiting the language of sentimental friendship, and the vocabulary of bonded master/apprentice pairs is compared with the vocabulary of oratorical invective against youthful corruption. At the end of the Republic , I argue, the violence inherent in these eroticized power relations bursts out.
"Vot Long Stret Man": Personality, Policy, and the Election of Ralph Regenvanu, Vanuatu 2008
Authors: Rousseau Benedicta
Published: February 2012

This dialogue piece provides an ethnographic account of the 2008 election campaign in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Focusing on the seemingly exceptional campaign and victory of Ralph Regenvanu, it is argued that current analytical perspectives on "Melanesian-style" politics misplace the role of culture in political activity in Vanuatu, treating it as a hindrance to the realization of an implicit ideal of "acultural" parliamentary politics. This serves to both dehistoricize and decontextualize the electoral participation of ni-Vanuatu. It is argued that ethnographic investigation of election campaigning produces a more nuanced picture of both continuous and novel aspects of political engagement. Particular attention is given to the production of policy over time, and the ways in which leadership is manifested and judged in the context of elections. This allows us to understand Ralph's success as embedded within ongoing civil society politics in Vanuatu and dependent on public discourses regarding the legitimacy of leadership, rather than viewing it as an anomalous victory over "culture."
Collaborating to Address Infant Mortality: Lessons Learned from the Brownsville Action Community for Health Equality
Authors: Holden Craig , Moses Ngozi , Fox Margaretta , Glose Georgianna , Vaughn Brian C. , Marshall-Taylor Sharon
Published: February 2012

Background: Brownsville Action Community for Health Equality (BACHE) is a coalition-based, service system change pilot for African American and Puerto Rican women of Brownsville, a community within Brooklyn, New York, with disproportionately high rates of infant mortality.
Objectives: Identify “lessons learned” from the implementation phase of a 5-year pilot project that employs a community-based participatory (CBPR) approach to reducing risk factors for infant mortality.
Methods: Nineteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with BACHE’s partners throughout 2010. Sessions were audiotaped and transcribed. Data was incorporated into a framework based on grounded theory and interpreted by project partners.
Results: Lessons learned related to engaging partners, leveraging community resources, dealing with highly structured institutions, measuring progress, and promoting and sustaining system change.
Conclusion: A service system change pilot like BACHE requires: social capital, capable partners, a strong coalition, flexibility of approach, internal champions, systems knowledge, awareness of policy, and strong community involvement.
A Community-Engaged Approach to Select Geographic Areas for Interventions to Reduce Health Disparities
Authors: Cromley Ellen , Kleinman Lawrence C. , Ramos Michelle A. , Arniella Guedy , Viswanathan Nalini , Garel Mischka , Horowitz Carol R.
Published: February 2012

Background: While neighborhood-based approaches to eliminate health disparities are on the rise, there is little guidance on how researchers may engage with community partners to select geographic areas for interventions to reduce health disparities. We aimed to identify a small geographic area to target interventions to improve diabetes-related outcomes.
Objectives: We describe lessons learned from a community-engaged approach to specify the geographic area of focus.
Methods: A community-academic partnership of more than 20 organizations collaborated to develop and employ a 5-stage process to specify a target area for diabetes preventions and control activities.
Lessons Learned: A coalition with local knowledge and ties to the community can develop criteria and direct a process leading to selection of a geographic area, increased research capacity, and strengthened relationships among partners.
Conclusion: A participatory approach can be effective in defining a geographic area for targeting interventions to reduce health disparities.
Partnering with REACH to Create a “Diabetes-Friendly” Restaurant: A Restaurant Owner’s Experience
Authors: Chen Roxana , Carrillo Mayra , Kapp Janet , Cheadle Allen , Angulo Antoinette , Chrisman Noel , Rubio Ramiro
Published: February 2012

We describe a Latino restaurateur’s perspectives and partnership with Seattle-King County REACH to improve the healthfulness of his restaurant as a step toward tackling diabetes in his community. We interviewed the owner and reviewed other documentation to capture his perspectives and identify key elements in this restaurant intervention. The impact of diabetes in the owner’s family and Latino community motivated him to make changes at his restaurant. If changes were successful, he hoped this would motivate other Latino restaurateurs to make similar changes. At his request, REACH gathered consumer feedback, provided diabetes education and nutritional guidance, and worked with him to develop simple, economically feasible, healthier items. Positive consumer response and media coverage motivated the owner to explore additional changes at his restaurant and encourage other restaurateurs to make healthful changes. This intervention illustrates the potential for local businesses to collaborate with community partners, like REACH, to promote healthy food environments.
Environmental Influences on the Development of Female College Students Who Identify as Multiracial/Biracial-Bisexual/Pansexual
Authors: King Alissa R.
Published: February 2012

Using Renn's (2000, 2004) ecology of college student development model as a theoretical framework, I report and discuss the findings of my study involving 6 female college students who identify as multiracial/biracial-bisexual/ pansexual. I describe how these findings validate Renn's model, specifically discussing how the campus environment influenced the students' identity development in relation to three themes that emerged from my study: trying on, negotiating self, and finding fit. Finally, I discuss the implications of the results of my study for student affairs practice.
Risk and Protective Factors Associated With Asian American Students' Suicidal Ideation: A Multicampus, National Study
Authors: Wong Y. Joel , Brownson Chris , Schwing Alison E.
Published: February 2012

Risk and protective factors associated with suicidal ideation among 1,377 Asian American college students across 66 U.S. campuses were examined. The results indicated a variety of factors were associated with morbid thoughts: medication for mental health concerns, gender, GPA, undergraduate status, religious affiliation, living with a family member, living with a partner, and active participation in student organizations. Furthermore, some of these factors were related to serious consideration of suicide: medication for mental health concerns, undergraduate status, living with family, and active participation in student organizations. Among Asian Americans who seriously considered suicide in the past 12 months, recent family, academic, and financial problems were the top three most frequent significant events occurring before the development of suicidal ideation.
Domain Specificity and Generality of Epistemic Cognitions: Issues in Assessment
Authors: Owen Jesse J.
Published: February 2012

As administers in higher education search for learning outcome measures, the assessment of epistemic cognitions, or how students critically think and reason about real-world issues, is paramount. The current study examined if students’ expertise in a domain of study (i.e., domain specificity) influenced their scores on an empirically supported measure of epistemic cognitions: the Reasoning About Current Issues Test (RCI). Results showed that the graduate students (n = 110) exhibited more domainspecific epistemic beliefs than undergraduate students (n = 34) as evidenced by graduate students’ lower internal consistency scores and high mean scores on items in their field of study. These findings suggest that the RCI may be a useful measure for undergraduate students; however, it may be more limited as students gain more specific knowledge.
New Evidence on the Effects of Fraternity and Sorority Affiliation During the First Year of College
Authors: Martin Georgianna L. , Hevel Michael S. , Asel Ashley M. , Pascarella Ernest T.
Published: February 2012

We explored the effects of fraternity and sorority membership on first-year students’ development across various liberal arts educational outcomes at 11 institutions. Although many educators perceive fraternities and sororities as anti-intellectual organizations, fraternity and sorority members in this study did not differ from their unaffiliated peers on the educational outcomes explored.
Fundamentalist Demonstrations on the Liberal Arts Campus: Observations and Recommendations
Authors: Hyers Lauri L. , Cochran Kelly L. , Schaeffer Brooke A.
Published: February 2012

This article explores the impact on students when non–university-affiliated conservative fundamentalist Christian groups conduct provocative demonstrations on campus. As university administrators work to balance free speech rights with missions of civility and pluralism, there is a need to assess and address potential adverse impacts of these sensational events. Based on a survey of 97 public university students after a controversial demonstration, we found the most adverse impact to be on students’ emotions, followed by disruption to their routines, changes to their feelings of safety, and minor consequences on academic activities. Those closer in proximity to the demonstration reported more adverse effects, and there were small differences in effects as a function of student gender, sexual orientation, and Christian identity. Counter to the ostensibly conservative aims of the demonstration, students typically reported it had little affect on their attitudes or that the demonstration made them more in favor of abortion rights, more supportive of homosexuality, and more anti-Christian. In addition, the demonstration caused many to question free speech and First Amendment rights. Results are discussed with regard to minimizing negative effects on our campus communities through the intentional involvement of faculty, campus police, and mental health service providers.
Gender Differences in College Students’ Perceptions of Same-Sex Sexual Harassment: The Influence of Physical Attractiveness and Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men
Authors: Castillo Yenys , Muscarella Frank , Szuchman Lenore T.
Published: February 2012

This study examined college students’ perceptions of same-sex harassment as a function of the observer’s gender, the initiator’s physical attractiveness, and observers’ attitudes toward lesbians and gay men. Ninety-six college students read a scenario portraying a professor’s sexual advances toward a student. The Perception of Harassment Questionnaire and the Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men Scale were completed. Male and female students had similar perceptions of harassment. Unattractive professors were perceived to be more harassing, especially by male students. Students with negative attitudes toward homosexuality perceived higher levels of harassment. These results have important implications for charges of same-sex harassment in academia.
A Phenomenological Analysis of College Students' Spiritual Struggles
Authors: Rockenbach Alyssa Bryant , Walker Coretta Roseboro , Luzader Jordan
Published: February 2012

Through in-depth interviews with ten diverse participants, this phenomenological study explored the meaning, dimensions, and processes of spiritual struggle in college students' lives. The findings revealed that encountering contrast was the unifying dimension underlying students' spiritual struggle narratives. Contrast was apparent in students' efforts to manage possible selves (ideal/actual selves and revealed/concealed selves), navigate relationships between self and others, and make meaning of their lived experiences and realities.
First Impressions on the Scene: The Influence of the Immediate Reference Group on Incoming First-year Students' Alcohol Behavior and Attitudes
Authors: Hummer Justin F. , LaBrie Joseph W. , Pedersen Eric R.
Published: February 2012

This study examined incoming first-year students' normative perceptions of alcohol use and alcohol-related attitudes of other students of the same gender living on their residence hall floor. Male and female residents overestimated the alcohol use behavior and related attitudes among their floormates. Results also showed that perceived norms were strongly related to individual drinking behaviors and permissive attitudes toward drinking. Moreover, feelings of connectedness to one's residence hall were found to moderate this relationship. These findings identify a salient reference group to target in initiatives aimed at utilizing normative feedback to reduce alcohol-related risk in the first year of college.
Beyond The Consensus: Democrats Agree on How to Play Defense, but What Are They Fighting For?
Authors: Meyerson Harold
Published: February 2012

It's quiet out there, too quiet. Though Democrats suffered a shattering defeat in last November's election, they're not arguing with each other as they have after other devastating losses. On the plus side, that means that they're not as fiercely divided as they've been in years past. On the minus, that means that none of them has a clear idea of what to do.
Think Tanks and Family Values
Authors: Wisensale Steven K.
Published: February 2012

The focus on family values in political discussion is relatively new. Although William Safire has produced multiple editions of his Dictionary of American Politics, the term does not appear until the 1995 edition, when Safire includes a quote from the 1976 Republican platform: "Divorce rates, threatened neighborhoods and schools and public scandal all create a hostile atmosphere that erodes family structures and family values.
Hero, Failure, or Casualty?: A Peacekeeper's Experience of Genocide
Authors: Clark Phil
Published: February 2012

As Dallaire describes vividly in Shake Hands with the Devil, this blood—accompanied by an overwhelming sense of helplessness and guilt and the terrifying memories of the genocide—will stay with him forever. Shake Hands with the Devil records the horror of the genocide, as the Tutsi minority was engulfed in violence. Dallaire fought against the indifference and proceduralism of his superiors at UN headquarters in New York (several of whom lobbied for the disbanding of UNAMIR soon after the violence escalated) to save as many civilians as he could from the genocide and ultimately to save himself from going under.
Venezuela's 'Other Path'
Authors: Wilpert Gregory
Published: February 2012

It is difficult for casual outside observers to make sense of Venezuela. Most people who rely on mainstream media for their information will get contradictory accounts of the government of Hugo Chavez, its policies, and its confrontations with the opposition. On the one hand, publications such as the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post regularly publish strong criticism of the Chavez government. On the other hand, publications such as the New York Times or the Guardian present a more benign view. Of course, when one turns toward alternative sources of information, such as Web sites devoted to Venezuela, the image is even more dichotomized. The same goes, generally speaking, for academic publications on Venezuela.
Does Environmentalism Have a Future?
Authors: Meyer John M.
Published: February 2012

There is a paradox at the heart of contemporary American environmentalism. On the one hand, its organizations are generally larger, stronger, better funded, and more knowledgeable than ever before. Membership has grown in recent years; there are now more than eight million dues-paying members of the major national organizations-and many more in local and statewide organizations-compared to about two million in 1980. Moreover, polls consistently show very high levels of public support for environmental protection, levels that would be the envy of many progressive movements.
Biology, Destiny, and Bad Science
Authors: Barnett Rosalind C. , Rivers Caryl
Published: February 2012

There are ominous signs that new versions of biological determinism have returned, with the claim that women are not meant, by nature or by psyche, for achievement. Myths about gender difference now "prove" that women should be confined to jobs that use their special "relational" abilities, that women's brains are not designed for leadership, and that they "cheerfully choose" low-paying jobs. We hear that even when they do get good jobs, the smartest women reject them for home and hearth. The media have embraced this narrative with gusto, and there is a real danger that these ideas are seeping into law and public policy as well.
'Above All, Do No Harm': The War in Iraq and Dissent
Authors: Rule James B.
Published: February 2012

The ancients, to divine the course of events to come, sacrificed chickens and sheep. Slicing open the creatures' viscera, seers sought to read the future in entrails still trembling with recent life. [1] Twenty-first century America, by contrast, has sought to make its own future to order by tearing open a faraway country and laying bare that hapless land's innermost workings. But what Americans now see as they stare horrified into the jagged wound is not the trace of future events. Instead, in the flattened cityscapes, the dispossession of civilian populations, the ever-mounting deaths, the steady diet of lies and deceptions from its leaders, the degradation of its public discourse, and the reality of systematic torture as national policy, a sobered America now confronts its own reflection.
Flat Note from the Pied Piper of Globalization
Authors: Faux Jeff
Published: February 2012

Thomas L. Friedman's new book is one of those works that reveals more than the author seems to intend—or perhaps understands. For the past year or so, a new tone has seeped into the writings of Friedman and the other pundits who have promoted the protection system for transnational investors that we call globalization and the rest of the world calls "neoliberalism." In the past they have assured us that, whatever we call this process, it is a "win-win" for everyone, apparently the only exception to the dictum of another Friedman (Milton, no relation) that there is no free lunch.