bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
“No Intention of Deserting”: Escaping Camp and Taking Leaves of Freedom
Authors: Lande Jonathan
Published: September 2024

This chapter explores the reasons why formerly enslaved soldiers decamped during the US Civil War. It compares the experiences of white and Black men as well as the distinct experiences of those who had been enslaved. It shows that while white and Black men left for similar reasons, including the chance to care for kin or escape abusive or unjust officers, those who had been enslaved saw their actions squarely within their prewar experiences in bondage. These enlisted freedom seekers responded to restraints and impositions they thought unfair just as enslaved men and women had during slavery—they ran. These soldiers did so because they continued seeing their actions as political efforts to shape their lives. The once-enslaved men decamped, or took “leaves of freedom,” and thus escaped unacceptable labor conditions. In so doing, the men attempted to define military service and their liberation.
“Establish My Innocence”: Defending Flight and Freedom in the Courts-Martial
Authors: Lande Jonathan
Published: September 2024

This chapter examines formerly enslaved soldiers’ responses to courts-martial prosecution. The soldiers adapted quickly to the army’s legal system, not unlike enslaved men and women in courts before the war. In the courts-martial, the men defended their actions, changing their legal strategies throughout the war. The soldiers first pointed to their lives in slavery and wartime difficulties. They contended that they should not be held accountable under such circumstances. Later, they argued that they left to help family, an appeal undoubtedly meant to evoke sympathy, but in making such appeals, the men also enunciated relationships they valued more than their military service to the US Army. By war’s end, they contested the legitimacy of their enlistment contracts. As they argued their cases, the soldiers challenged the military justice system, insisting they should be permitted to leave if they wished. In making these various arguments before the courts-martial, the formerly enslaved soldiers kept fighting to be free.
The Other Bouazizis of Our Times
Authors: Bargu Banu
Published: September 2024

This chapter offers an overview of the two main theoretical displacements that the book makes. The first is the excavation of a different history that has been occluded, distorted, repressed, or marginalized by teleology; the second is the interrogation of the dominant conception of political agency—the “subject”—in modern, Western philosophy to show its limits. The chapter theorizes the global, subterranean, and subversive history of self-directed violence, left out of the celebratory narrative that centers on the “subject” and its historical achievements (freedom, equality, democracy) as an alternative legacy of modernity. It reformulates the Kantian concept of “disembodiment” on a materialist register whose center is bodily agency, displacing “suicide” and the theoretical-normative apparatus around it. Drawing on Ernst Bloch, it suggests an alternative, expansive way of thinking about human dignity whose breach is otherwise seen as the ultimate secular grounds for the prohibition of self-destruction.
Throwaway Bodies
Authors: Bargu Banu
Published: September 2024

This chapter samples different forms of corporeal critique from the Global South to explore the ways in which the body constitutes the elementary reservoir of critique, while invoking alternative conceptions of being human. It offers further theoretical elaboration of the concept of corporeal critique by drawing from performance studies; specifically, the study of gesture. The chapter broadens the conventional conception of gesture to include disruptive acts in which the agency of the body irrupts against composure and dissolves the existing relation between self and body, as well as between self and the world. The chapter also expands the conception of crisis from colonial domination to neoliberal capitalism to discuss how current conditions, which manifest unevenly as precarity, disposability, and dispossession, create an invisible war against the oppressed that undergirds their everyday life and becomes conducive for the manifestation of resistance and refusal in unconventional forms.
Success in Circuit
Authors: Campbell Mary
Published: September 2024

This chapter turns to photographs to treat gendered space both within and outside the frame. Using a single photograph of Brigham Young’s daughters and a treasure trove of primary sources, the chapter unpacks a complicated family tree, gender and sexuality, and the politics of polygamy in the nineteenth century. With Latter-day Saint worries about government meddling, perhaps even incarceration, portrayals of polygamous families seem (perhaps deliberately) incomplete by often excluding the many wives. The aesthetic choice to both capture and conceal shaped a Mormon photographic style that spoke to a historical, theological, and cultural context that seems to have inspired and constrained what was done with the camera.
“Draw All Men unto Him”
Authors: Wecker Menachem
Published: September 2024

This chapter narrates the development of the Art and Belief movement in the second half of the twentieth century. Led by Gary Smith, Dennis Smith, Dale Fletcher, and Trevor Southey, this movement highlights the tensions of believing creators and constraining aesthetic norms within Utah Mormon culture. Although the movement was groundbreaking and exciting, its potential ripple effect was muted and soon washed out. The Art and Belief movement was too religious for the secular art world to appreciate and too edgy for the Mormon culture or the Latter-day Saint Church to appreciate. Revisiting the conflict and drama of this period offers an opportunity to assess its legacy and potential to provoke passionate, even if contrasting, views on Mormon art.
Race and Latter-day Saint Art
Authors: Reeve W. Paul
Published: September 2024

With keen attention to the way notions of race have inflected Mormon artistic productions, from lithographs to paintings, the chapter shows how whiteness was implied as the default natural order, often associating any other race or ethnicity with deterioration or even a curse. Images not only played a significant role in representing race in biased and skewed ways but also became pedagogical aids in an attempt to bolster conversion in missionary work, solidify early church history, and, later, to shift dominant narratives. The chapter ends by highlighting more recent art that seeks to remedy this trend and contribute diverse ethnic and racial perspectives.
Native Americans, Mormonism, and Art
Authors: Constantino Carlyle
Published: September 2024

This chapter turns to representations of Native Americans in art by Latter-day Saints from the nineteenth century to the present, with an effort to emphasize the many intricacies and sensitivities that come with such an examination. It highlights the change in authenticity and power once Latter-day Saint Native Americans move from romanticized or threatening figures in art by others to more fully developed self-representations in their own creations. By illustrating how Native Americans shifted from being the “viewed/object” to becoming the “viewer/creator,” this chapter seeks a renewed appreciation for and scrutiny of art production as it intersects with subjectivity, identity, and Indegeneity.
Being Relevant
Authors: Coats Sato Analisa
Published: September 2024

This chapter looks at art exhibited at a distinct location: the Brigham Young University art department in Provo, Utah. Using a site-specific lens to analyze the work of two graduate students, Gi Huo and Dalila Sanabria, the chapter argues that such art represents an important shift at BYU away from narrative representationalism and toward conceptual work. The exhibitions of work by Huo and Sanabria reveal the artists’ minimalist approach, emphasis on fragility, and deeply personal stories. The exhibitions open up interpretive space to consider latent religious connotations and the artists’ specific experiences as women of color at a predominantly white university.
An Afterword
Authors: Allred Hurtado Laura
Published: September 2024

This chapter reflects on the contributions of Latter-day Saint Art: A Critical Reader through the lens of individual and collective as they relate to Mormon identity. Beginning with her personal relationship with the Latter-day Saint faith and her larger contributions based on her impressive curatorial and publication history, Allred Hurtado examines the complexity of belonging in light of a spectrum-like emergence of defining what it means to be “Mormon.” Both personal narrative and document of the years in which she acted as the art acquisitions specialist for the Mormon church, this chapter offers a nuanced look at what it means to write about, worship, participate, and act on the margins of a religious faith, while also asking provocative questions about the nature of institutions, expression, and self-exploration.
Mindfulness-Based Forgiveness Group for Older Adults
Authors: Foulk Mariko A. , Ingersoll-Dayton Berit , Fitzgerald James T.
Published: September 2024

Forgiveness can play a vital role in resolving past hurts and preserving mental health in later life. This chapter describes a Mindfulness-Based Forgiveness (MBF) group that integrates forgiveness skills with mindfulness approaches, including self-compassion. The group was developed to help older adults forgive others as well as themselves. This is a program with eight weekly group sessions; each session is structured with a theme and task, with experiential exercises described in the chapter. The program also encourages participants to engage in home practice between sessions. It combines psychoeducation with an experiential approach to forgiveness by integrating relaxation and visual imagery techniques with cognitive restructuring and mindfulness exercises.
Experiential Group Work with Adult Survivors of Relational Trauma and Childhood Sexual Abuse
Authors: Giacomucci Scott , Briggs Haydn
Published: September 2024

Action methods in group work are uniquely positioned to provide adult survivors of relational trauma and childhood sexual abuse with opportunities for connection, restoration, and post-traumatic growth. The experiential nature of sociometry, psychodrama, and other action methods helps to renegotiate the pervasive impacts of trauma and complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) within the body, brain, and psyche. This chapter outlines the rationale for using experiential methods in group work, as well as caveats and considerations for employing these group processes with trauma survivors. Three experiential sociometry tools from the field of psychodrama are introduced with case examples—Circle of Strengths, Step-in Sociometry, and Floor Checks. Attention is given to the importance of group development stages, trauma-informed principles, social justice, and self-care.
Group Work with Survivors of Sex Trafficking
Authors: Roe-Sepowitz Dominique , Dominguez Ezequiel Y.
Published: September 2024

This chapter describes group work with survivors of sex trafficking, offering insights into effective intervention strategies. Focused on group structure and dynamics, the chapter explores the complex interplay of past and present trauma, anger, aggression, grief, loss, trust, and intimacy among survivors. Emphasizing practice principles, the authors highlight the significance of education, mutual aid, shame reduction, and cultivating a culture of safety within the group setting. Drawing from a trauma-informed perspective, the intervention section outlines methods to address ambivalence about change while maintaining flexibility in adapting to individual needs. Notably, the inclusion of survivors in group facilitation plays a pivotal role in promoting empowerment and healing. The chapter concludes by examining the crucial stages of termination and evaluation, underscoring the value of comprehensive, survivor-centric assessment for sustained recovery and growth.
Place-Based Group Work
Authors: Meyer Megan , Denlinger Jonalyn
Published: September 2024

This chapter examines group work at the level of a geographic community or neighborhood. Scholars and practitioners have labeled this type of group work as practice in “place-based community-building initiatives.” The chapter describes the history of place-based initiatives in the United States, and typical goals and structures adopted in these initiatives. It also discusses the variety of challenges that practitioners commonly confront in this type of group work. The group work skills and challenges highlighted in the chapter include negotiating power differentials among initiative stakeholders; embracing diversity to foster both bridging and bonding social capital; establishing effective and shared decision-making practices among stakeholders; and managing both group members’ and workers’ expectations, conflict, retention, and burnout.
Pop Filipino-ness
Authors: Gabrillo James
Published: September 2024

This chapter examines the mainstream pop movement dubbed P-Pop that emerged in 2020 featuring music acts that converged indigenous, folksy, colonial, postmodern, and futurist aesthetics, while adopting the successful musical, stylistic, and presentational template of K-Pop. Key case studies feature the P-Pop groups BGYO, Bini, SB19, Alamat, and a coda on the P-Pop actualization engendered by performances on Drag Race Philippines. It chronicles how the P-Pop movement materialized and continue to operate primarily within the digital, virtual, and mobile spheres—across social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and the local app Kumu—due to the circumstances engendered by a global pandemic, manufacturing a framework for contemporary pop stardom and spectatorship. Ultimately, P-Pop’s foregrounding of indigenous and folk imagery in their musical, instrumental, ornamental, and presentational ideas is critiqued as strategic multimedia enterprise and nostalgic (yet ultimately flawed) depiction of Filipino-ness—conflating the real and the imaginary through musical performance.
Introduction
Authors: Rushton Cynda Hylton
Published: September 2024

The personal and professional journey of the book author and editor is chronicled to provide the background for the book. The contours of the book are elaborated and include: the nature of moral suffering; moral distress as a type of moral suffering, a pathway for examining moral adversity as the instigator of moral stress, which unrelieved can lead to moral suffering including moral distress, moral outrage and moral injury and the role of moral resilience including moral repair; the concept of integrity as the core of moral resilience; the dimensions of resilience that inform the concept of moral resilience; individual strategies to cultivate moral resilience and restore integrity; and applying the Conscious Full Spectrum Response as a template for moral resilience and ethical practice.
Conceptualizing Moral Resilience
Authors: Rushton Cynda Hylton
Published: September 2024

Understanding moral resilience, the ability of an individual to preserve or restore integrity in response to moral adversity, benefits from targeted scholarship of the broader concept of resilience in other contexts. Building on definitions in the literature and qualitative analysis of clinicians’ definitions of moral resilience, this chapter outlines the key attributes of moral resilience. The foundation of moral resilience is personal and relational integrity. The attributes of self-regulation and self-awareness—including mindfulness, buoyancy, moral efficacy, and self-stewardship—support the preservation or restoration of integrity. These attributes are defined and illustrated with quotes from interprofessional clinicians. Taken together, these attributes constitute a conceptual basis for moral resilience.
Building the Evidence Base for Moral Resilience
Authors: Nelson Katie , Brewer Katherine (Katie) , Holtz Heidi , Heinze Katherine
Published: September 2024

The concept of moral resilience has gained increased interest. It has been included in various studies in which most of the researchers examined moral resilience among a health-oriented caregiving population. Without a valid and reliable measure of moral resilience, it would neither be possible to gauge the existing level of moral resilience among healthcare professionals nor to measure the effectiveness of interventions designed to enhance moral resilience in this population. The need to measure moral resilience in an empirically sound manner led to the development of the Rushton Moral Resilience Scale (RMRS). This chapter reviews the development of the RMRS scale, examines evidence derived from studies using it, and proposes future directions.
Creating a Culture of Moral Resilience and Ethical Practice
Authors: Rushton Cynda Hylton , Sharma Monica , Brewer Katherine (Katie) , Fitzgerald Heather
Published: September 2024

Large-scale change is not possible without aligning individual and collective values, wisdom, and commitment to the architecture needed to support ethical practice. The process required for designing a system that supports ethical practice on a moment-to-moment basis involves synergistic operational strategies. These include personal transformational learning, information for decision-making, supporting principled change makers and risk takers, and creating an enabling work environment. Transformational design and action involve using practices, techniques, and methods that source inner capacity at every step of planning and implementation and embodying foundational values. It leverages key elements of co-creating new patterns, developing new norms and systems for sustainable change, transcending disempowering patterns, and creating a new narrative.
Expressing Faith at Work
Authors: Ecklund Elaine Howard , Daniels Denise , Scheitle Christopher P
Published: September 2024

Workers express their faith at work in different ways. Some expressions of faith are more overt, like talking about one’s faith. Other faith expressions may be less obvious, such as prayer, displaying religious symbols, or wearing religious clothing. In the United States, evangelical Christians tend to be the most overt in talking about their faith, which sometimes creates challenges for those from different or no faith traditions. Organizational leaders need to ensure that overt expressions of different faith traditions are encouraged in ways that respect all employees, regardless of their religious perspective. When there is no marginalization, expressions and discussions of faith at work can lead to happier and more productive workers, deeper relationships at work, and more inclusive and diverse workplaces.
Ways Forward for Religion at Work
Authors: Ecklund Elaine Howard , Daniels Denise , Scheitle Christopher P
Published: September 2024

A positive approach to faith at work allows employees to express their faith at work in ways that are important and valuable to them, while also showing consideration for coworkers with different belief systems. Organizational leaders can create faith-friendly organizations by addressing biases and discrimination and protecting those—including the nonreligious—who may experience others’ sincerely held beliefs as dismissive or denigrating. This is especially important as the US workplace becomes increasingly religiously diverse. Workplace leaders who take the time to understand and attend to the impacts and outcomes of religion at work make the workplace more supportive for all.
The Case as Episode
Authors: Evans Catherine L.
Published: September 2024

This chapter examines the British Empire and the multiple discourses that have constituted it, using the prism of seemingly the smallest of things: a case about an attack on a pig-keeper in late nineteenth-century Australia. It directly challenges several well-known boundaries that organize historical scholarship, such as those that separate the new global history and the familiar microhistory, and those that mark off novel approaches to transnational history from the history of the irrepressibly local. In this account, the global and transnational can be viewed through the most local of practices, in particular through the use of law to discipline violence within the British Empire. In this story, a criminal trial prompted by an attack on Chinese migrants became a vehicle for extended commentary, within British Australia, on what it means to travel from other parts of the empire (such as Ireland or Tasmania) to Australia, on the status of white Australians within a global empire, and on the translation of Chinese migrants’ testimony in the courts of the British Empire and in the imaginations of white Australians. The chapter is also making a subtle point about time, and about the contradictory futures that the actors in this story imagine for British law—that it might be extended throughout the empire and incorporate various peoples, and simultaneously that the passage of time might be stopped and British law preserved from further change.
Roosters and Resistance
Authors: Ponsa-Kraus Christina D.
Published: September 2024

This chapter takes as its methodological challenge the writing of the history of an absence, in this case the social history of the American territory of Puerto Rican in the absence of empire. The idea for this chapter occurred after its author went looking for the sound of roosters while visiting Puerto Rico. Taking as her subject the legality of cockfighting, a popular pastime in Puerto Rico since at least the eighteenth century, the author tells the story of her search for a way of writing the history of this phenomenon, but also asking “[W]here would I find a description of cockfighting in Puerto Rico that wasn’t about Puerto Rico being a colony?” The author’s story is, in the end, about the power of the received bounds of a particular historical enterprise—in this case the history of empire—to overwhelm even the capacity of the historian to bring alternative methods to bear on her subject. In the context of Puerto Rico, the author argues that the law of empire seems to dominate such that it is difficult to get beyond its bounds. The answer to the question, the chapter concludes, is “Nowhere.”
The Genetic Connection
Authors: Wallace Daniel J.
Published: September 2024

It is very possible—indeed probable—that in the next 30 years physicians will be able to identify patients at risk for developing SLE by using HLA testing or other methods, and they can then vaccinate them to prevent lupus. By that time, all lupus-causing genes will have been isolated and identified. Potentially this would allow the manipulation of these genes in patients with active SLE to turn off the disease process. Environmental, infectious and hormonal factors are also important.
Environmental Villains
Authors: Wallace Daniel J.
Published: September 2024

The environment is full of chemicals and microbes that can induce or aggravate autoimmune diseases. Sun exposure also plays a role, as does diet. Only a small percentage of individuals exposed to “lupogenic” materials develop the disease, suggesting that certain genetic signatures greatly augment risk factors. The amount of lupogenic material necessary to trigger the disease is not known, and not everyone at risk becomes symptomatic. It is important to emphasize that if you are genetically at risk, prudent precautions to avoid unnecessary exposure are advised, but you should try not to become so fearful of the environment that you cannot function socially.
Must We Draw Blood?
Authors: Wallace Daniel J.
Published: September 2024

Routine laboratory testing done in a health care setting can suggest the presence of lupus, but one must perform antibody testing in order to make the diagnosis. The presence of autoantibodies can suggest but not diagnose lupus. There are no specific tests for the disease, but a combination of abnormal tests are associated with an increased likelihood for diagnosing lupus. A specialist is usually consulted to confirm the diagnosis. Lupua is best diagnosed via a combination of symptoms, signs, physical examination in addition to laboratory findings.
Reactions of the Skin: Rashes and Cutaneous Lupus
Authors: Wallace Daniel J.
Published: September 2024

Lupus can affect the skin in many ways. It can be associated with specific lesions, usually in sun-exposed areas. Rashes can be associated with sun sensitivity, hives, changes in pigmentation, or ulcerations. Cutaneo-vascular lesions such as Raynaud’s, vasculitis, and livedoid changes can be generalized and are seen in lupus as well. Other rheumatic disorders can present with similar rashes. The most common lesions are chronic cutaneous lupus followed by subacute chronic cutaneous lupus.
How to Treat Lupus with Physical Measures
Authors: Wallace Daniel J.
Published: September 2024

A good deal of lupus treatment involves things in the environment that can be controlled. A lot can be accomplished by avoiding the sun, eating a healthy, well-balanced diet, engaging in a moderate amount of general strengthening and conditioning exercise, pacing oneself, and avoiding frequent changes in barometric pressure. This chapter continues the discussion of things patients can do for themselves. The chapter teaches patients how to cope better. It shows that the “head bone is connected to the immune bone” in that the mind body connection is a critical component of management. The sympathetic nervous system plays a key role and its implementation best varies from person to person.
Big Guns and Magic Bullets: Disease-Modifying Drugs
Authors: Wallace Daniel J.
Published: September 2024

Antimalarials are prescribed for non-organ-threatening disease and to relieve skin, joint, pleural, and fatigue symptoms. The author gives them to all newly diagnosed lupus patients without organ-threatening disease. Corticosteroids are used in high doses for critical organ disease; otherwise, function in that organ might be lost. They can be prescribed for mild to moderate disease, but antimalarials, NSAIDs, and methotrexate should be started at the same time, allowing steroids to be discontinued as soon as possible. Chemotherapies and immune suppressives are used for patients with serious, active disease. They work with corticosteroids in decreasing disease activity and also allow steroid doses to be tapered. Corticosteroids and immuno-suppressives are very toxic, and careful monitoring during their use is necessary. A variety of new promising biologics and small oral agents are being studied for SLE.
Other Treatment Options: Treatments Occasionally Used to Manage Lupus
Authors: Wallace Daniel J.
Published: September 2024

Even though NSAIDs, antimalarials, corticosteroids, and chemotherapy account for the overwhelming majority of all lupus therapies, other treatments are occasionally useful. Antileprosy drugs help resistant skin lesions and joint inflammation; retinoids are also useful for refractory skin rashes. These preparations are only helpful temporarily and act as an adjunct to antimalarials. The only hormones that have a role in SLE are danazol for low platelet counts and certain anemias and postmenopausal estrogen replacement therapy. Immune stimulants are disappointing. Gamma globulin helps fight immune deficiencies that promote infection, and it can raise low platelet counts. Machines can act as artificial kidneys or can be used to remove antibodies, cells, or proteins from the body. The role of maintenance dialysis is firmly established, but many uses of apheresis are still controversial.
Economic Impact of Lupus, Disability Issues, Racial and Social Disparities
Authors: Wallace Daniel J.
Published: September 2024

Lupus patients report significant physical and mental impairment with symptoms such as fatigue, chronic pain, decreased exercise capacity, brain fog, depression, and anxiety. This can alter but does not eliminate one’s ability to work. One-third of all lupus patients in the United States are African American. One in 70 members of the Sioux nation have lupus as opposed to one in 10,000 Caucasian males. Hispanics have 3 times as much lupus as do Caucasians. Patients of color, those experiencing poverty, and other marginalized populations often face multiple barriers to care, leading to worse lupus outcomes. Lupus advocacy organizations such as the Lupus Foundation of America, Lupus Research Alliance, and the Arthritis Foundation all have initiatives that focus on the unique challenges these groups face. Lupus-specific coordinated care models can potentially limit the impact of lupus on a patient’s quality of life and risk for disability.
Clinical Trials, New Therapies for Lupus, and Future Directions
Authors: Wallace Daniel J.
Published: September 2024

Lupus is characterized by “dyslexic T cells,” which lead to alterations in immune trafficking. In addition to the biologics being studied, several other investigational lines are under scrutiny. These include antibodies or blockers of an array of cytokines, agents that block adhesion molecules (the cellular glue that attracts inflammatory factors to cells from blood). A class of medicines that “tolerize” the body and prevent patients from making antibodies to themselves is being studied. Small oral molecules targeting genes in the human kinome interacting with cell surface receptors are available for rheumatoid arthritis and are under intense study in lupus. Additional approaches include small molecules (peptides), antibodies against antigen-binding sites (anti-idiotypic antibodies), and T cell receptors. Special vaccines with specifically designed payloads not only can alter immunity as we know it, but also can create new immune environments.
Introduction
Authors: Fiss Owen
Published: September 2024

Democracy vests power in the ruled to choose their rulers and to hold them accountable and thus endows the American people as a people with political freedom. This chapter introduces the theme of the book: namely, that the American Constitution promises a democratic system of government and endows the American people, as a people, with political freedom. It outlines the elements of that freedom—to choose rulers and hold them accountable through periodical elections with a broad franchise and with each vote counting as much as another—and how those are established in the Constitution.
The Constitutional Character of Our Democracy
Authors: Fiss Owen
Published: September 2024

This chapter considers democracy as a guiding ideal of the American Constitution, established by the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. From the perspective of the Constitution, democracy is both a mandate and an aspiration. It sets the standard for judging the governmental structure under which we live, both state and federal, and at the same time projects into the future what that structure should be. The chapter reviews amendments to the Constitution that protected and extended its democratic character, in particular the Fourteenth Amendment, the first to explicitly refer to the “right to vote.” The chapter goes on to consider a number of Supreme Court decisions that impact the right to vote.
Extending the Franchise
Authors: Fiss Owen
Published: September 2024

The freedom that democracy promises arises only when those who are ruled are allowed to elect their rulers. Thus, this chapter argues, democracy itself, as a guiding ideal of the Constitution, creates a dynamic that leans toward extending the franchise to all who are ruled. Democracy gives rise to the principle of coextensionality—all who are ruled must be allowed to vote—which is expressed in several amendments to the Constitution, beginning with the Fourteenth. It provides the basis for opposing laws that disenfranchise ex-felons as well as the residents of Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico.
The Equality of Votes
Authors: Fiss Owen
Published: September 2024

The freedom that democracy generates belongs to the American people as a collectivity. Democratic principles also require that the ballots be allocated to individuals who are free to decide for whom they vote and who are assured that the vote of one individual will count as much as that of any other. The rule requiring the equality of votes governs the tabulation of votes and has been construed to require that electoral districts for selecting representatives to the legislature contain equal numbers of voters. This chapter reviews Supreme Court decisions that have affirmed the equality of votes and thus the way in which collective freedom is generated.
Conclusion
Authors: Fiss Owen
Published: September 2024

All three branches of government are charged with the duty of protecting the constitutional promise of democracy. During the 1960s, the Supreme Court handed down three decisions that set aside laws of the states that compromised the democratic ideal: Reynolds v. Sims (1964), announcing the one person-one vote rule; Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966), barring the poll tax; and Williams v. Rhodes (1968), allowing a third party to be given a place on the presidential ballot. These landmark decisions remain deeply entrenched in our jurisprudence and have played a crucial role in the genesis of this book and the emergence of what has been referred to as the law of democracy. In terms of results, these decisions have shaped and continue to shape American electoral processes, but the grounds upon which they rest—equal protection or freedom of speech—seem contrived and unpersuasive and, as a result, their authoritativeness is compromised. In many respects, this book constitutes a call to abandon the pretense represented by these three key decisions: to avoid the practice of clause-parsing and to view the Constitution as a whole and as the basis for the democratic ideal and a federal right to vote.
The Bright Side of Stories
Authors: Reese Elaine
Published: September 2024

Stories from books, TV, movies, video games, theatre, and real life help social understanding, health, and thriving. Reading and watching fiction, and playing video games with a storyline, benefit empathy, emotional understanding, theory of mind, perspective-taking, and prosocial behavior and attitudes. These effects are stronger for romance, domestic/literary, and suspense genres, and weaker for science fiction. Watching narrative films containing health messages also promotes healthy behavior more than fact-based advice. Telling life stories about negative and positive events with themes of redemption, growth, and agency is linked to improved mental health and well-being, even after accounting for personality traits. Finally, expressive writing about difficult or traumatic events benefits physical health, mental health, and quality of life, although culture may moderate these effects. The underlying neural process is similar activation of the brain’s default network during remembering and imagining, with distinct patterns for action-packed stories versus those with social content.
The Gender Gap in Stories
Authors: Reese Elaine
Published: September 2024

Women read and talk about fiction in book clubs more often than men; women also have slightly better empathy and theory-of-mind skills. Most men who read instead prefer nonfiction; men also watch more TV than women. The personality trait of agreeableness is linked specifically to a preference for fiction. Yet the primary contributor to these gender differences in story preferences is argued to be a predilection for mental simulation of remembered and imagined events, which is also evident in the vividness with which women encode and narrate their autobiographical memories. The default network is activated when engaging in mental simulation, and women experience greater connectivity of the default network than men. Atypicality of the default network is a neural signature of autism spectrum disorder. However, men and women both benefit to the same degree from reading and viewing fiction, and from writing about their personal experiences.
The Dangers of Fictional Stories
Authors: Reese Elaine
Published: September 2024

Stories from books, TV/movies, and video games can cause aggression, prejudiced attitudes and behaviors, and inaccurate beliefs. Children learn less effectively from picture books with anthropomorphic content; for adults, the invented details in historical fiction can be absorbed as misinformation. Violent, sexist, and racist content, regardless of media type and across ages, leads to increases in aggressive and stereotyped thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. For young children, low-quality and fantastical screen time also leads to decreases in self-regulation, perhaps via overtaxing the prefrontal cortex. For teens and young adults, a heavy diet of violent video games disrupts communication between prefrontal regions and the limbic system, leading to desensitization. Excessive gaming is now considered an addiction (Internet gaming disorder), according to the World Health Organization. Binge-watching TV, however, may have advantages and disadvantages, but the research base needs to be expanded.
The Story Delivery System
Authors: Reese Elaine
Published: September 2024

Do stories from books, TV/movies, video games, and real life differ in their benefits for learning, social understanding, and well-being? Empirical research so far does not show strong differences by media platform, and different story forms activate the default network in similar ways. However, fictional media has not yet been compared to real-life stories. Both audiobooks and virtual reality technology are promising and increasingly popular ways to experience stories, particularly for people who have dyslexia, autism, or poor mental imagery skills. Rereading and rewatching stories can deepen learning and enhance well-being for most children and for some adults. Mental imagery promotes immersion into stories, which leads to greater benefits from stories across platforms. Mental imagery can be fostered through remembering and imagining events at all ages. The best story delivery system is likely to differ for individuals and across the lifespan.
Dignity and Judicial Authority
Authors: Bayefsky Rachel
Published: September 2024

“Dignity” is a rallying cry of social and political movements worldwide. It also appears in legal doctrine and scholarship. But the meaning of dignity and its legal implications are deeply contested. What is dignity, and which concrete legal outcomes does it support? Dignity and Judicial Authority focuses on the role of dignity in courts in the United States. It offers a theory of dignity that emphasizes respect for status, nondomination, and control over self-presentation to others. It then explains how courts can recognize dignity as legally actionable harm and how they can provide remedies for this harm. In applying these ideas, the book explores such topics as constitutional standing doctrine, the “dignitary torts,” and court-mandated apologies. The book’s inquiry sheds light not only on the nature of dignity but also on the power of courts and their proper function in a constitutional democracy. How can judges decide whether dignity has been violated, especially when these decisions risk embroiling judges in contentious social disputes? Will accepting dignitary claims burst open the proverbial “floodgates of litigation”? The book shows how courts can productively integrate dignity into legal determinations. More generally, the book brings together theoretical analysis and detailed doctrinal discussion. It demonstrates the connections between dignity and subjects such as jurisdiction and remedies, which help to delineate the bounds of judicial authority.
The Enlightenment's Most Dangerous Woman
Authors: Janiak Andrew
Published: September 2024

The Enlightenment’s Most Dangerous Woman: Émilie Du Châtelet and the Making of Modern Philosophy introduces the work and legacy of philosopher Émilie Du Châtelet. As the Enlightenment gained momentum throughout Europe, Châtelet broke through the many barriers facing women at the time and published a major philosophical treatise in French. Due to her proclamation that a true philosopher must remain an independent thinker rather than a disciple of some supposedly great man like Isaac Newton or René Descartes, Châtelet posed a threat to an emerging consensus in the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment’s Most Dangerous Woman highlights the exclusion of women from colleges and academies in Europe and the fear of rupturing the gender-based order. The men who created the modern philosophy canon eventually wrote Du Châtelet out of history.
Understanding Media’s Role in January 6, 2021
Authors: Costley White Khadijah , Kreiss Daniel , McGregor Shannon C. , Tromble Rebekah
Published: September 2024

The introduction to the volume lays out the core arguments of the book and summarizes the main contributions of its chapters. It details the origins and normative orientation of the volume toward the furtherance and protection of multiracial democracy. The introduction also synthesizes the points of intersection within the volume’s chapters. Contributors share the view that January 6, 2021, was an attempted coup; that it was grounded in the political interests of the president, his supporters, and members of his party; and that communication, media, and rhetoric were central to laying the groundwork for January 6th to occur and the events on the day itself. This includes the president and his party’s strategic attempts to delegitimize the election and mobilize and coordinate political insurrectionists through media.
Not Just Higher Truths
Authors: Nadler Anthony
Published: September 2024

This chapter argues that in the wake of the January 6th attacks on the U.S. Capitol, critical media scholars must develop more compelling, more historically and sociologically informed, and more rigorously scrutinized accounts of right-wing media cultures and communication strategies. While the study of conservative and right-wing news cultures has expanded in recent years, critical media scholars need to push beyond the prevailing but limited framework of disinformation studies. This chapter makes a case for pursing five goals for critical scholarship on U.S. conservative media: (1) more analysis of popular conservative media, (2) simultaneously studying transformations and continuities in conservatism and in conservative news cultures, (3) more rigorously analyzing relationships between conservative narratives and cultural resentments, (4) examining the circulation of conservative media among diverse communities, and (5) integrating normative and descriptive modes of analysis while making normative claims explicit.
Epilogue
Authors: Kreiss Daniel , McGregor Shannon C. , Tromble Rebekah , Costley White Khadijah
Published: September 2024

This chapter provides a post-script to the volume after the publication of The Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol and the leak of the special section on the role of social media on the violence at the Capitol. The chapter reviews key findings of these reports, including the role of social media in spreading disinformation and facilitating planning and organizing, platforms’ own culpability in their faulty content moderation and enforcement policies and processes, and the ways broadcast media help provide the context for political violence. It also points out that these reports overlook the role of white racial animus and white Christian nationalism in providing the context for January 6th. The chapter ends with a series of recommendations for news organization and platform companies to alert the public to democratic threats and check the power of political leaders to undermine their own electoral accountability.
Ardens evexit ad aethera virtus
Authors: Harness Kelley
Published: September 2024

Florentines witnessed the first of their city’s horse ballets in 1608, commissioned by Grand Duchess Christine of Lorraine to celebrate the marriage of her son Cosimo (who intended to ride in it) to Hapsburg archduchess Maria Magdalena. The grand duchess charged Lorenzo Franceschi with developing the theme (invention) of a work ultimately entitled Ballo e giostra de’ venti (Ballet and Joust of the Winds). This was choreographed by the prince’s riding master, Alfonso di Ruggieri Sanseverino, and performed in the Piazza Santa Croce on October 27. The Ballo included many of the features that would characterize subsequent works, such as equestrian maneuvers that visibly enacted control subduing frenzy, and an allegorical message that asserted the need to confront enemies of the Church. Because of the inaugural nature of the event, its preparations generated extensive correspondence—letters that reveal tensions between the competing imperatives of iconographical accuracy and rider safety.
Displacing Chivalry with Mythology
Authors: Harness Kelley
Published: September 2024

Mythological gods and goddesses emerged as the protagonists of Medici horse ballets in the second half of the century, beginning with Benedetto Rigogli’s Combattimento, e balletto a cavallo (1652) and Giovanni Andrea Moniglia’s Il mondo festeggiante (1661). Both works continued the tradition of commenting on the occasions for which they were composed, but they also prominently featured Hercules, fabled founder of Florence. Prince Cosimo III personified the demigod in the 1661 work, commissioned to celebrate his marriage to French princess Louise Marguerite. That work’s plot exposes conflicts between the four parts of the world, two of which (Europe and America) celebrate the impending marriage, while the other two (Asia and Africa) lament it. Hercules’s alliance with the joint European/American army ensures its victory in the staged combat. This chapter contextualizes this new focus on Hercules within the long, but continuing tradition of Medici rulers commissioning Hercules-themed art.
Empowering the Elected Members
Authors: Akbaruddin Syed
Published: September 2024

By design, the UN Security Council has an uneven playing field. The victors of World War II have special rights and permanent membership. The rest are “birds of passage,” elected for two-year terms. On account of the predominance of the five permanent members, the Council is termed as a mechanism of “Five to Rule Them All.” The high bar to effect UN Charter amendments has stalled structural reform. Hence, gradual change is being pursued by adjusting processes, shaping procedures to enhance accountability, improving transparency, and incrementally expanding the roles of elected members. Such efforts have resulted in modest improvements. However, they also entrench the anachronistic concert of powers and do not address the lack of representativeness that bedevils Council decision-making. Attempting to fix an inequitable power structure that has run its course is like trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again. It is time to think afresh and build anew.
Ensuring Criminal Accountability
Authors: Dieng Adama
Published: September 2024

This chapter explores how the Security Council may employ accountability and the rule of law as tools to prevent conflict and address violence. In recent years, the Council has increasingly invoked accountability and the rule of law to reaffirm international response to mass atrocities and gross human rights violations. For example, in the aftermath of mass atrocities, the Council has often established tribunals or peacekeeping missions to hold perpetrators accountable and restore the rule of law. The Council and UN member states should also use these tools for preventative—not only for reactive—purposes. States should commit to resolving their differences amicably through the International Court of Justice and ensure accountability through the International Criminal Court, Commissions of Inquiry, and other agreed-upon mechanisms. States should also pursue multilateral solutions, implement international and regional obligations in good faith, and build responsive rule of law institutions to hold accountable human rights violators.