bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Response to the Presidential Address to the American Studies Association, Hartford, Connecticut, October 17, 2003
Authors: Giles Paul
Published: January 2007

This response applauds Kaplan's address for establishing a new internationalist agenda for the American Studies Association, though it suggests that those living outside the United States tend to understand American imperialism less as a consequence of political choice than of wider developments within the world system. Consequently, it suggests how attempts to internationalize American Studies on the part of the ASA lie in uneasy parallel to attempts by U.S. government agencies to disseminate American values abroad. This response suggests instead the possibility of an internationalist approach based not upon a politics of representation but upon a theoretical analysis of difference, where the intellectual recognition of various forms of friction across different cultures might open up illuminating points of cross-cultural contact. It also suggests how conventional structural oppositions between the national and the international have been superseded by the repositioning of American Studies within a global framework.
Hawaiians on Tour: Hula Circuits Through the American Empire
Authors: Imada Adria L. (Adria Lyn)
Published: January 2007

"Hawaiians on Tour: Hula Circuits Through the American Empire" discusses how Hawaiian hula performances helped to broker the expansionist needs of the U.S. as Hawai'i was transformed from a minor tropical colony to an American tourist and military stronghold. Hula dancers from Hawai'i began performing across the U.S. continent in middlebrow American nightclubs in the 1930s and 1940s. Heralded in the Hawai'i media as "hula queens" and "cinderellas," Hawaiian women who joined hula circuits served as ambassadors of aloha for the territory. Their commercial performances produced what I call an Ôimagined intimacy' between Hawai'i and the United States, a fantasy of reciprocal attachment that enabled Americans to possess their island colony physically and figuratively. American audiences indulged in a feminized and eroticized version of Hawai'i on stage: the islands as a different but welcoming place, willing to submit to American tourist and military advances. While elevating Native Hawaiians as the principal agents of Hawaiian culture, live hula performances simultaneously helped to erase the presence of large numbers of Asians who lived in Hawai'i. This article also foregrounds the experiences of entertainers who developed Hawaiian communities and performance networks across metropolitan areas. Hawaiian women were sophisticated travelers and settlers who took advantage of broader educational and employment opportunities available on the U.S. continent. During a time when many women found work in plantation and service industries, these hula circuits led them to lives and careers inside and outside of entertainment.
Medical History for the Masses: How American Comic Books Celebrated Heroes of Medicine in the 1940s
Authors: Hansen Bert
Published: January 2007

When comic books rose to mass popularity in the early 1940s, one
segment of the industry specialized in "true adventures," with stories
about real people from the past and the present—in contrast to
competing books that offered fantasy, science fiction, superheroes,
detectives and crime, funny people, or funny animals. This study examines
the figures from both medical history and twentieth-century medicine
who were portrayed as heroes and role models in these comic books:
first, to call attention to this very popular, if unknown, genre of
medical history, and second, to illustrate how medical history was used
at that time to popularize scientific and medical ideas, to celebrate
the achievements of medical research, to encourage medical science as a
career choice, and to show medicine as a humane and noble enterprise. The
study explains how these medical history stories were situated in American
popular culture more generally, and how the graphic power of comic books
successfully conveyed both values and information while also telling a
good story. Attention to this colorful genre of popular medical history
enriches our picture of the mid-twentieth-century public's enthusiasm
for medical progress.
Eugenics, Medical Education, and the Public Health Service: Another Perspective on the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
Authors: Lombardo Paul A , Dorr Gregory M
Published: January 2007

The Public Health Service (PHS) Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Male Negro (1932–72) is the most infamous American example of medical research abuse. Commentary on the study has often focused on the reasons for its initiation and for its long duration. Racism, bureaucratic inertia, and the personal motivations of study personnel have been suggested as possible explanations. We develop another explanation by examining the educational and professional linkages shared by three key physicians who launched and directed the study. PHS surgeon general Hugh Cumming initiated Tuskegee, and assistant surgeons general Taliaferro Clark and Raymond A. Vonderlehr presided over the study during its first decade. All three had graduated from the medical school at the University of Virginia, a center of eugenics teaching, where students were trained to think about race as a key factor in both the etiology and the natural history of syphilis. Along with other senior officers in the PHS, they were publicly aligned with the eugenics movement. Tuskegee provided a vehicle for testing a eugenic hypothesis: that racial groups were differentially susceptible to infectious diseases.
Autobiography and the Autobiographical in the Bill Douglas Trilogy
Authors: Barefoot Guy
Published: January 2007

Through an examination of the production and reception of Bill Douglas's "autobiographical trilogy," and a comparison with Douglas's written description of his childhood, this article explores the problems of discussing film as autobiography, and differences between literary autobiography and autobiographical film, but also how the autobiographical remains central to our understanding of these particular films.
The Immigrant Experience in Jonas Mekas's Diary Films: A Chronotopic Analysis of Lost, Lost, Lost
Authors: Cuevas Efren
Published: January 2007

The article examines Jonas Mekas's immigrant experience through a close analysis of his diary film Lost, Lost, Lost (1976). After explaining Mekas's diary film practice, it studies the narrative of his American immigrant experience, helped by the chronotopic approach to literary analysis proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin.
The Black, Brown, White, and Red Blues: The Beating of Clarence Clemons
Authors: Lambertson Ross
Published: January 2007

A number of recent works have dealt with 'human rights history,' concentrating upon the efforts of groups to improve protection for human rights in the immediate postwar period. This paper deals with one aspect of this history. However, while earlier publications have often examined developments in Ontario and at the national level, this paper investigates human rights history in British Columbia, although also demonstrating that the Vancouver human rights community had close ties to Ontario groups and national human rights organizations. To do this, the paper presents a case study ­ the beating (by the police) and subsequent death of a black longshoreman in 1952. The case was, for awhile, a minor cause célèbre in Vancouver, but it is difficult to conclude that justice was served by the efforts of the human rights community, for local activists were badly fragmented by racial, class, and ideological divisions, as well as by the reluctance of most 'respectable' Vancouverites to admit that racism was a serious issue. If Canada since the war has been transformed by a 'rights revolution,' in the early fifties the process had just begun.
Du peche au traumatisme : L'inceste, vu de la cour des jeunes delinquants et de la cour du bien-etre social de Montreal, 1912-1965
Authors: Cliche Marie-Aimee
Published: January 2007

La protection des enfants négligés et en danger faisait partie des attributions de la Cour des jeunes délinquants et de la Cour du bien-être social de Montréal. Un échantillon de 251 dossiers familiaux a permis d'étudier le problème de l'inceste en milieu urbain. Les statistiques confirment la prédominance des liaisons entre pères et filles. L'approche qualitative révèle différents types d'inceste, causés soit par une organisation familiale patriarcale; un désir de substitution, de compensation, d'initiation sexuelle; la pédophilie ou l'homosexualité. Une évolution se produit dans la réaction des intervenants : juges, officiers de probation, psychiatres et psychologues. Au début, ils perçoivent l'inceste comme une faute morale (décennies 1910 et 1920). Puis, à partir de 1930, ils s'inquiètent de ses répercussions sociales. Enfin, vers 1950, ils découvrent le traumatisme psychique causé par l'abus sexuel.

The protection of neglected children and those in peril was assigned to both the Juvenile Court and the Social Welfare Court of Montreal. In order to examine the problem of incest in an urban setting, 251 family case files were used as a study sample. Statistics confirm the prevalence of father/daughter sexual relations. The qualitative approach used in the study reveals differing types of incest caused by a number of factors: the patriarchal family unit; the desire for substitution, compensation, or sexual initiation; pedophilia; or homosexuality. The way in which those associated with the courts or those who became involved in these cases – judges, probation officers, psychiatrists, and psychologists – respond to incest slowly evolves: from perceiving incest as a moral sin (1910s and 1920s), to worrying about the social repercussions of incest (1930s), and finally to discovering the psychological trauma caused by sexual abuse (1950s).
Vital Signs at Play: Objects as Vessels of Mother-Daughter Discourse in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women
Authors: Blackford Holly Virginia
Published: January 2007

Using play theory, this essay argues that in Little Women young readers encounter the tremendous value of girlhood play and objects that simultaneously symbolize mother and self, a process that allows the growth of the female artist—housewifely and literary. Within each little woman's relationship to the object-world lies a subtext of mother-daughter communion that paradoxically contains and releases the daughter's self.
Modernity and Louisa May Alcott's Jo's Boys
Authors: Eiselein Gregory
Published: January 2007

Jo's Boys is Alcott's "modern" novel. Taking modernity as its setting, the novel highlights the present's separation from the past and espouses progressive, feminist social ideals. Alcott also embraces the alienation characteristic of modern life in Jo's Boys as a way to endorse the freedoms she associates with modernity.
Kennst du das Land? : Learning the Language of Landscape in Little Women
Authors: Johnson Nicholas
Published: January 2007

This essay traces the landscape aesthetics of Little Women to argue that Alcott trains her readers in "domestic" eyesight--domestic as opposed to "public" and as opposed to "foreign." Alcott thereby influences the way her readers see the world, and the places they might occupy within it.
Democratic Values among Chinese Peasantry: An Empirical Study
Authors: Zhong Yang
Published: January 2007

This paper attempts to assess Chinese peasants' democratic culture by�drawing on findings from a survey conducted in southern Jiangsu Province, one of the most developed rural areas in China. Support for key democratic values in this area is fairly strong and does not lag far behind that in the cities. Even though the findings from this survey cannot be said to represent those in all
Love and Desire in the Cinema
Authors: Grodal Torben Kragh
Published: January 2007

This essay compares romantic films with pornographic films
and argues that the former focus on the establishment of personalized,
exclusive relations—bonds of love—whereas the latter focus on
anonymous desire. In addition, the article examines the evolutionary roots
of love and desire and compares the explanatory value of evolutionary
psychology with psychoanalysis for film studies.
Restaging the War: The Deer Hunter and the Primal Scene of Violence
Authors: Chong Sylvia Shin Huey
Published: January 2007

The Deer Hunter's controversial representation of the Vietnam War reveals how violence figures an imaginary relationship between the American subject and its Oriental other. This article examines the film's reception and relationship to media images of the war, particularly Eddie Adams's photograph Saigon Execution.
Quine on Explication and Elimination
Authors: Gustafsson Martin
Published: January 2007

In section 53 ofWord and Object,Quine argues that the set-theoretical explications of the concept of the ordered pair of f ered by mathematicians such as Wiener and Kuratowski give us a model for the clarification of philosophically troublesome ideas. According to Quine, ordered pairs might seem indispensible in science. But at the same time they have appeared unclear to many philosophers, who have argued that an extensional treatment of the logic of relations can be satisfactory only to the extent that we can give a transparent and substantial explanation of what an ordered pair really is. Quine cites Peirce as someone who tries to meet this sort of demand. The explanation Peirce offers is mentalistic, but it is not the mentalism that Quine regards as the most fundamental problem with Peirce's account.
Whakapapa as a Maori Mental Construct: Some Implications for the Debate over Genetic Modification of Organisms
Authors: Roberts Mere , Haami Bradford , Benton Richard Anthony , Satterfield Terre , Finucane Melissa L , Henare Mark , Henare Manuka
Published: January 2007

The use of whakapapa by New Zealand Maori is most commonly understood
in reference to human descent lines and relationships, where it functions
as a family tree or genealogy. But it also refers to an epistemological
framework in which perceived patterns and relationships in nature
are located. These nonhuman whakapapa contain information concerning
an organism's theorized origins from supernatural beings, inferred
descent lines, and morphological and ecological relationships. In this
context whakapapa appear to function at one level as a "folk taxonomy,"
in which morphology, utility, and cultural considerations all play
an important role. Such whakapapa also function as ecosystem maps of
culturally important resources. More information and meaning is provided
by accompanying narratives, which contain explanations for why things came
to be the way they are, as well as moral guidelines for correct conduct.
Renewed interest in the whakapapa of plants and animals has arisen
from concerns raised by Maori in regard to genetic modification,
particularly the transfer of genes between different species, as
this concept is frequently invoked by those who oppose transgenic
biotechnology. Informed dialogue on this subject requires an understanding
of the structure and function of nonhuman as well as human whakapapa and
their underlying rationale, as well as the nature of the relationships
among the things included in nonhuman whakapapa. Of additional interest
and relevance is the relationship of whakapapa to modern scientific
concepts of taxonomy based on phylogeny and the species concept.
In this paper we describe and interpret the whakapapa of an important
food plant, the sweet potato or kumara, in terms of its apparent
functions and underlying rationale. We also discuss how the whakapapa
and its associated narratives might contribute to the current debate on
genetically modified organisms in New Zealand.
Academic and Cocurricular Involvement: Their Relationship and the Best Combinations for Student Growth
Authors: Huang Ya-Rong , Chang Sheue-Mei
Published: January 2007

This study poses two questions that grow out of the student involvement theory: First, what is the relationship between different forms of involvement? Second, what are the optimal amounts and combinations of different forms of involvement for students' cognitive and affective growth? Involvement in academic work and involvement in student clubs and organizations are used to explore these two questions. The participants are 627 third-year college students in Taiwan. The results show that the correlation between academic and cocurricular involvement is positive and linear. Also, to maximize cognitive and affective growth, students should be involved in both academic and cocurricular activities as much as possible.
An Investigation of Personality Traits in Relation to Intention to Withdraw From College
Authors: Lounsbury John W , Saudargas Richard A , Gibson Lucy W
Published: January 2007

We examined the Big Five(De Raad, 2000) personality traits of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Extraversion, and Openness, plus the narrow personality traits of Aggression, Career-Decidedness, Optimism, Self-Directed Learning, Sense of Identity, Tough-Mindedness, and Work Drive in relation to intention to withdraw from college. Among 233 university freshmen, all of the traits except Tough-Mindedness and Openness were significantly related to withdrawal intention, with three traits—Sense of Identity, Emotional Stability, and Work Drive—accounting for 22% of the variance in intention to withdraw. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.
Meaning-Making Capacity and the Dynamics of Lesbian College Students' Multiple Dimensions of Identity
Authors: Abes Elisa S , Jones Susan R
Published: January 2007

Narrative inquiry methodology was used to investigate self-perceived identities among 10 lesbian college students. Analysis of data from in-depth, open-ended interviews revealed the role of meaning-making capacity in determining the extent to which contextual influences shaped self-perceptions of sexual orientation identity and its relationship with other identity dimensions. Strategies for increasing meaning-making capacity in the context of sexual orientation identity are discussed.
Stress, Social Support, and Health Among College Students After September 11, 2001
Authors: MacGeorge Erina L , Samter Wendy , Feng Bo , Gillihan Seth J , Graves Angela R
Published: January 2007

The current study was designed to examine associations among stress due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, social support, and health (depression and physical illness) in a college student sample. In December 2001, students from Eastern universities (N= 666; 482 women, 184 men; average age 19.5 yrs.) completed measures of stress from terrorism (developed by the authors), supportive behaviors received from friends and family (Experienced Support Scale; Xu & Burleson, 2001), symptoms of depression (Depression Anxiety Stress Scale; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), and illness (Pennebaker Inventory of Limbid Languidness; Pennebaker, 1982). The results indicate that even among college students with low exposure to the 9/11 attacks, terrorism-related stress was associated with greater depressive and illness symptoms (p < .05), and that emotional and tangible support were associated with fewer symptoms (p < .05). Findings are considered for their practical implications for college students and personnel.
When the Majority is the Minority: White Graduate Students' Social Adjustment at a Historically Black University
Authors: Hall Brenda , Closson Rosemary B
Published: January 2007

Comparing the experiences of White and Black graduate students illuminate various social adjustment challenges for White graduate students at historically Black colleges or universities (HBCUs) that are distinct from those challenges experienced by Black students on traditionally White campuses (TWIs). Findings in this exploratory and descriptive study indicate that while Black and White students report no stories of direct racism, there are expressions and concerns related to social exclusion, especially among the minority (Whites). Additionally, student expectations about entering a historically Black environment affect their perceptions about social climate.
Integrating Identities: The Relationships of Racial, Gender, and Ego Identities Among White College Students
Authors: Miville Marie L , Darlington Pat , Whitlock Brian , Mulligan Timothy
Published: January 2007

The authors proposed that racial and gender identities were related to ego identities based on common themes that exist across these different dimensions of identity. A sample of 300 White college students completed completed the White Racial Identity Attitude Scale (Helms & Carter, 199), the Womanist Identity Attitude Scale (Ossana, Helms, & Leonard, 1992) or Men's Identity Attitude Scale (Miville & Helms, 1996), and the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (Bennion & Adams, 1986). Multivariate multiple regression analyses revealed that all ego identity statuses were significantly related to gender and/or racial identity statuses for both women and men. Implications for practice, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.
Understanding the Role of Parents and Siblings as Information Sources in the College Choice Process of Chicana Students
Authors: Ceja Miguel
Published: January 2007

Guided by a social capital framework, this qualitative study examined the role of protective agents, namely parents and siblings, during the college choice process of 20 Chicana seniors attending a large urban high school in California. Despite previous research showing that Mexican parents hold a high value toward the importance of an education, this study shows that the role that parents were able to fulfill during the college choice process was greatly limited. The findings of this study also suggest that in many cases, siblings replaced parents as information sources when parents were not able to assist Chicanas with the college application process. These findings raise questions about the college information sources available to Chicanas outside the home, such as schools or community agencies.
Individual Differences in Academic Growth: Do They Exist, and Can We Predict Them?
Authors: Shivpuri Smriti , Schmitt Neal , Oswald Frederick L , Kim Brian H
Published: January 2007

College admissions tests predict college performance well, particularly first year grade point average (GPA; Kuncel, Hezlett, & Ones, 2001, 2004). However, noncognitive measures may add to the incremental validity of cognitive measures in that they will assess a broader range of college performance dimensions and reduce racial subgroup differences in performance. Beyond predicting first year GPA, no studies, to our knowledge, have addressed patterns of academic growth across time. This paper reports data that demonstrate individual differences in academic growth patterns and variables that predict them. Results indicate that noncognitive predictors add to the prediction of GPA beyond traditional college admissions tests for our sample of freshmen students. Implications for student affairs professionals are discussed.
Swimming Against the Tide: Educational Problems and Coping Strategies of Rural Female Students in Ethiopia
Authors: Mulugeta Emebet
Published: January 2007

Literature on girls' education in developing countries mostly focuses on
identifying and describing constraints girls encounter in terms of
accessing and succeeding in education, and it is thus problem oriented.
What is lacking is the other half of the picture, that is, stories and coping
strategies of successful female students. With this in mind, the current
study attempted to describe some problems of girls' education, but gave
emphasis to the personal and social resources girls access and utilize in
order to succeed. Qualitative data analysis based on Reinharz's feminist
ethnography was used. Some of the constraints identified include;
poverty, school distance and cultural practices, such as early marriage
and marriage by abduction. Regarding coping, though there are several
facilitating factors such as support from parents and teachers, and
models/mentors, many of the girls in the study indicated that in the final
analysis, the student herself would take responsibility for her success or
failure. Her aspiration and faith determines how much work she puts
into her education. The more a girl aspires the harder she works, and the
more chance she will have to succeed. Hard work when combined with
success earns the girls recognition and support both from families and
school. These factors, i.e., hard work, success, recognition and support
the girls get from others feed into each other increasing the likelihood of
girls succeeding in their education. As the findings show there are a lot
of constraints that discourage the girls from attending their classes
properly and succeeding in their education. However, many of the
respondents resisted the pressures from different directions in various
ways including; fighting back, ignoring or manipulating. As Reyes put
it, "Their lives, however, were empowered through the will not to give
up just because things do get a little hard," (1996, 24).
Amelia Opie's "Maid of Corinth" and the Origins of Art
Authors: King Shelley
Published: January 2007

In "The Maid of Corinth" Amelia Opie takes as her topic Pliny's myth of the origin of painting, a popular subject for artists in Britain in the eighteenth century. Reading the poem in the context of a contemporary iconography that sometimes rendered the artist a mere instrument of Cupid's design, this article demonstrates Opie's insistence on both the original creativity of the woman artist, and the public role of creative women, situating the art arising from private feminine desire in the context of public discourse of civic virtue. In so doing the poem challenges contemporary readings of female creativity as secondary to masculine artistic genius, and thus transforms the myth from the origin of art to the origin of the female artist.
Infant Academies and the Childhood of Art: Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun's Julie with a Mirror
Authors: Rosenthal Angela
Published: January 2007

At the 1787 Paris Salon Elisabeth Vig�e-Lebrun exhibited her exceptional portrait of her seven-year old daughter Julie, gazing into a mirror. This paper examines the complex, layered meaning of this work, emphasizing the visual and symbolic significance of the mirror. Considered in relation to popular imagery of children performing the tasks of adult artists (here called the "infant academy") and framed as an allegory of Sight, the painting not only offers a novel rendition of eighteenth-century childhood, but also forwards a powerful meta-critical discourse on the art of painting itself. It is argued that in staging her daughter's "na�ve" and "childlike" vision as a metaphor for her own natural creative abilities to mimic and emulate, Vig�e-Lebrun also comments on her particular placement as woman artist within an artistic world dominated by the academy.
The Coiffure of Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Authors: Cavanaugh Alden
Published: January 2007

This essay seeks to understand the significance of Jean-Baptiste Greuze's unusual hairdo, which was a topic of discussion in several accounts as well as obsessively illustrated in several images of the artist, by himself as well as others. By surveying the visual and verbal evidence of Greuze's coiffure, the author seeks to understand the construction of identities made possible by his unusual hairstyle. The article posits Greuze's apparent desire to use the coiffure to refer to a classical persona who exists outside of normal time, as well as an inspired creator. The most extensive account of the artist's coiffure, a reference to it in Charles Dufresne's Cahiers, refers to the origin of the hairstyle in terms of its significance to the artist's creative and social identities. Further, the art of hairstyling holds special significance as a symbol of artistic creativity in a larger sense.
Sentimental Cuts: Eighteenth-Century Mourning Jewelry with Hair
Authors: Holm Christiane
Published: January 2007

Mourning jewelry with hair enjoyed enormous popularity in eighteenth-century Europe. The special qualities of hair as a medium for remembrance lies in its metonymic condition and its narrative implications: its cut ends refer to the absent body. The forming and framing of hair in mourning jewels both reflects and produces tensions between presence and absence, and between showing and hiding.
The "Roman Hand": Women, Writing and the Law in the Att.-Gen v. Chatterton and the Letters of the Lady Arbella Stuart
Authors: Sale Carolyn
Published: January 2007

The essay focuses on the Lady Arbella Stuart's intervention into an early seventeenth-century ravishment trial. The surviving records for the trial show Stuart mounting a parallel investigation to the Attorney General's through which she liberated the female defendant in the case from charges of "felonious conspiracy." Stuart's intervention into the trial was not, however, the only instance in which she engaged with legal authority. The essay reads Stuart's actions in the trial in relation to her surviving letters to show how this early modern woman writer actively shaped her literary persona in relation to the law.
Early Childhood Care and Education: Effects on Ethnic and Racial Gaps in School Readiness
Authors: Magnuson Katherine A , Waldfogel Jane
Published: January 2007

The authors examine black, white, and Hispanic children's differing experiences in early childhood care and education and explore links between these experiences and racial and ethnic gaps in school readiness.

Children who attend center care or preschool programs enter school more ready to learn, but both the share of children enrolled in these programs and the quality of care they receive differ by race and ethnicity. Black children are more likely to attend preschool than white children, but may experience lower-quality care. Hispanic children are much less likely than white children to attend preschool. The types of preschool that children attend also differ. Both black and Hispanic children are more likely than white children to attend Head Start.

Public funding of early childhood care and education, particularly Head Start, is already reducing ethnic and racial gaps in preschool attendance. The authors consider whether further increases in enrollment and improvements in quality would reduce school readiness gaps. They conclude that incremental changes in enrollment or quality will do little to narrow gaps. But substantial increases in Hispanic and black children's enrollment in preschool, alone or in combination with increases in preschool quality, have the potential to decrease school readiness gaps. Boosting enrollment of Hispanic children may be especially beneficial given their current low rates of enrollment.

Policies that target low-income families (who are more likely to be black or Hispanic) also look promising. For example, making preschool enrollment universal for three- and four- year-old children in poverty and increasing the quality of care could close up to 20 percent of the black-white school readiness gap and up to 36 percent of the Hispanic-white gap.
Low Birth Weight and School Readiness
Authors: Reichman Nancy E
Published: January 2007

In the United States black women have for decades been twice as likely as white women to give birth to babies of low birth weight who are at elevated risk for developmental disabilities. Does the black-white disparity in low birth weight contribute to the racial disparity in readiness?

The author summarizes the cognitive and behavioral problems that beset many low birth weight children and notes that not only are the problems greatest for the smallest babies, but black babies are two to three times as likely as whites to be very small. Nevertheless, the racial disparities in low birth weight cannot explain much of the aggregate gap in readiness because the most serious birth weight-related disabilities affect a very small share of children. The author estimates that low birth weight explains at most 3-4 percent of the racial gap in IQ scores.

The author applauds the post-1980 expansions of Medicaid for increasing rates of prenatal care use among poor pregnant women but stresses that standard prenatal medical care cannot improve aggregate birth outcomes substantially. Smoking cessation and nutrition are two prenatal interventions that show promise. Several early intervention programs have been shown to improve cognitive skills of low birth weight children. But even the most promising programs can narrow the readiness gap only a little because their benefits are greatest for heavier low birth weight children and because low birth weight explains only a small share of the gap.

The author stresses the importance of reducing rates of low birth weight generally and of extending to all children who need them the interventions that have improved cognitive outcomes among low birth weight children. But because black infants are more likely to be born at the lowest birth weights, preventing low birth weight—when researchers learn how to—is likely to be more effective than early intervention in narrowing birth weight-related racial gaps in school readiness.
The Market in Male Bodies: Henry James's The American and Late-Nineteenth-Century Boxing
Authors: Clymer Jeffory A
Published: January 2007

This essay argues that male bodies became a literary and cultural site for projecting and psychically processing contradictions in the late-nineteenth-century American economy that were generated by the financial chaos of a rapidly capitalizing, industrial nation, on the one hand, and the simultaneous trend toward business incorporation and greater rationalization, on the other. It focuses on Henry James's novel, The American, and on the emergence of boxing as a commercially successful spectator sport, which together demonstrate how late-nineteenth-century capitalism influenced conceptions of male bodies and how the body itself was used to represent economic shifts in American culture.
Teacups and Love Letters: Constance Fenimore Woolson and Henry James
Authors: Coulson Victoria
Published: January 2007

This article explores the textual relationship between Woolson and James and the trope of the tea ceremony in their texts (including The Portrait of a Lady and Woolson's surviving letters to James) in order to identify the characteristic gestures of realist representation. Realism is a gendered structure of signification which thrives on a disavowal of symbolic meaning: this makes it an ideal form for mediating covert relations of power and desire. Topics addressed include Barthes's "reality effect," the theoretical assumptions of "reconstructive" biographers such as Leon Edel, James's Partial Portraits assessment of Woolson's fiction, and critical interpretations of Woolson's suicide.
James's Spectacles: Distorted Vision in The Ambassadors
Authors: Hutchison Hazel
Published: January 2007

In his use of pictorial themes and framing motifs, Henry James explores the possibilities of sight and visual distortion. This paper shows that James's interest in this theme was intensified by the deterioration in his own eyesight. It also examines James attitude to vision in The Ambassadors (1903). In this novel James deals with problems of appearance and perspective, and presents a range of spectacle-clad characters, each with their own optical idiosyncrasies. This paper probes the connection between James's novel and Hans Holbein's painting The Ambassadors (1533) and argues that for James the distorted vision can offer the keenest insight.
Platonic Recollection and Mental Pregnancy
Authors: Rawson Glenn
Published: January 2007

Plato's founding position in the tradition of epistemological nativism has been underestimated. In addition to his notorious, naively non-dispositional model of learning as recollection, Plato offers several neglected dispositional models of innate ideas, including Diotima's model of mental pregnancy in the Symposium, in which maturing mental embryos begin not with the actual content of the knowledge to be acquired, but with a specific potentiality that must be actualized through series of specific kinds of experience and mental activity. A survey of dialogues from Meno to Phaedrus shows that Plato typically favors such dispositional models, and that he raises doubts about the non-dispositional details of the recollection model where it occurs.
Is Thomas Reid a Mysterian?
Authors: Copenhaver Rebecca
Published: January 2007

Some critics find that Thomas Reid thinks the mind especially problematic, "hid in impenetrable darkness". I disagree. Reid does not hold that mind, more than body, resists explanation by the new science. The physical sciences have made great progress because they were transformed by the Newtonian revolution, and the key transformation was to stop looking for causes. Reid's harsh words are a call for methodological reform, consonant with his lifelong pursuit of a science of mind and also with his frequent (though overlooked) optimism about such a science.
Thomas Reid's Notion of Exertion
Authors: Hoffman Paul David
Published: January 2007

Thomas Reid uses the notion of exertion in various ways that have not been distinguished in the secondary literature. Sometimes he uses it to refer to the exercise of a capacity or power, sometimes to the turning on or activitating of a capacity or power, and still other times to the attempt to activate a capacity or power. Getting clear on Reid's different uses of the term 'exertion' is essential to understanding his account of the sequence of events in human action. It is also helpful in defending Reid against the objection that his account of action is subject to an infinite regress.
Descartes on the Principle of Alternative Possibilities
Authors: Ragland C. P.
Published: January 2007

The principle of alternative possibilities (PAP) says that doing something freely implies being able to do otherwise. I show that Descartes consistently believed not only in PAP, but also in clear and distinct determinism (CDD), which claims that we sometimes cannot but judge true what we clearly perceive. Because Descartes thinks judgment is always a free act, PAP and CDD seem contradictory, but Descartes consistently resolved this apparent contradiction by distinguishing between two senses of 'could have done otherwise.' In one sense alternative possibilities are necessary for freedom and in another they are not. I discuss three possible interpretations of the two senses.
Collaborative/Participatory Research
Authors: Washington William N
Published: January 2007

Collaborative (or, participatory) research involves a working relationship between at least one academic institution's research unit and one community-based organization. The community-based organizations of interest are those from and representing underserved communities. Barriers to collaboration, approaches to overcoming such barriers, and principles for the maintenance of good collaborative research relations are given. Representatives of the underserved and academic research units tend to interact in a collaborative/participatory relationship by means of formal committees. How the degrees of power of the underserved on such committees might be understood is discussed in terms of a model from Arnstein's 1971 article and the value of participation for the underserved is discussed.
Colorectal Cancer Screening among a Sample of Community Health Center Attendees
Authors: Christman Lisa K , Abdulla Rania , Jacobsen Paul B , Cantor Alan (Alan B.) , Mayhew Dionne Y , Thompson Keva S , Krischer Jeffrey P , Roetzheim Richard G
Published: January 2007

To determine the rate of colorectal cancer screening in patients attending a sample of community health centers, medical records of 1,176 patients from eight community health centers were abstracted. Among the patients studied, 43.8% of patients had undergone at least one of the three colorectal screening tests (fecal occult blood test, colonoscopy, or flexible sigmoidoscopy) in the recommended interval. Colorectal screening in this community health center population was predicted by male gender, being African American, older age, having a greater number of chronic illnesses, a family history of colorectal cancer, and by having engaged in other preventive cancer screenings in the previous year. Although screening rates certainly were not optimal, they compare favorably to rates reported in national surveys for the general population. Our results add to a growing body of evidence that community health centers, despite serving disadvantaged populations, are able to deliver preventive care at rates comparable to health facilities used by the general population.
The Limitations of Good Intentions: Prescribing Medications for the Uninsured
Authors: Sorensen Todd D , Song John , Westberg Sarah M
Published: January 2007

Identifying affordable drug therapy options for individuals who lack prescription drug insurance is a problem frequently encountered by prescribers. Medication samples and manufacturer-sponsored assistance programs represent sources often used to address affordability issues. However, these sources have the potential to introduce health disparities through various mechanisms, including reduced access to the drug of choice, consistencies with access, and drug regimen complexities that adversely affect adherence. Prescribers should consider all sources of affordable medications and openly discuss treatment options and the anticipated outcomes of each with patients to ensure the prescribing of agents that optimize outcomes while balancing patient affordability.
Medical Debt and Consumer Credit Counseling Services
Authors: Gurewich Deborah , Prottas Jeffrey , Seifert Robert W , Seager Susan
Published: January 2007

Medical debt, often the result of seeking costly needed care, has recently been identified as a barrier to care as well as a threat to families' financial well-being. Surveying households that seek credit counseling services, the authors offer new insight into the financial consequences of medical problems and the conditions under which they occur. They find that almost 40% of households seeking credit counseling services report that a medical problem contributed to their debt problem. They also find that single-female headed households and older households are more likely to have a medical problem that had financial consequences, and that having heath insurance does not necessarily protect households from burdensome health care costs. The authors conclude with policy recommendations for improving this situation, including better health insurance coverage and better understanding of the rules and regulations under which providers operate.
Structural Violence and Racial Disparity in HIV Transmission
Authors: Lane Sandra D , Rubinstein Robert A , Keefe Robert H , Webster Noah , Cibula Donald A , Rosenthal Alan , Dowdell Jesse
Published: January 2007

Abstract Among women of color in the United States, infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is rising. Most of the research on this topic, however, has focused on individual-level risk factors, which do not fully explain racial or ethnic differences in infection rates. This article uses structural violence as a conceptual framework to examine ecological-level risk factors leading to disparate rates of heterosexually transmitted HIV among women of color in Syracuse, New York. Three ecological pathways to disproportionate infection are discussed: community rates of infection, concurrent partnerships, and increased vulnerability. The discussion of the pathways considers the following macro-level risk factors: disproportionate incarceration rates of African American men, residential segregation, gang turf, constraints on access to sexually transmitted disease services, an African American sex ratio in which women outnumber men, social norms stigmatizing homosexuality, and commercial sales of douching products. The authors argue that health care providers and policy analysts must address ecological-level risk factors for HIV transmission in underserved communities.
Availability of and Access to Medical Services Among HIV-Infected Inmates Incarcerated in North Carolina County Jails
Authors: Rosen David L , Golin Carol E , Schoenbach Victor J , Stephenson Becky L , Wohl David A , Gurkin Brett , Kaplan Andrew H
Published: January 2007

This study assessed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related services in county jails and staff perceptions of HIV-infected inmates and their care. A statewide telephone questionnaire was administered to detention officers and health care workers providing medical services in North Carolina jails. Eighty-five percent of participating facilities employed one or more on-site medical personnel, including physicians (51%), physician assistants (14%), and nurses (71%). Only 25% of jails tested more than one inmate for HIV per month. In 75% of jails, initial medical screening was performed in a common area. Officers administered medical screening forms at 93% of jails and distributed medications at 81%. Ninety-three percent of officers and 94% of medical staff agreed with this statement: "If an inmate is taking medications in jail, other inmates will know about it." Overall, our data indicate that few North Carolina jail inmates are tested for HIV. Greater protection of confidentiality may improve screening and treatment of HIV-infected inmates.
Access for Pregnant Women on Medicaid: Variation by Race and Ethnicity
Authors: Adams E. Kathleen , Gavin Norma I , Benedict M. Beth
Published: January 2007

Disparities in early and adequate prenatal care and infant/maternal outcomes still exist between white and nonwhite populations. Although Medicaid expansions were intended to improve outcomes, eligible women often delay enrollment and access barriers remain.This study examines racial disparities among pregnant women in Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, and Texas. The disproportionate location of minorities enrolled in Medicaid in urban areas with greater physician supply was not found to increase office-based prenatal care among blacks. More local physicians, especially foreign medical graduates, sometimes increased access, largely for Hispanics. The presence and use of safety net providers did increase prenatal care use among minorities. This evidence lends support to policies to maintain safety net providers, which are perhaps better equipped than others to serve low-income populations. However, policies should encourage participation extending to all racial/ethnic groups by office-based physicians. The role of foreign medical graduates, who are more likely to participate in Medicaid, should be considered.
HIV Risk Reduction among Young Minority Adults in Broward County
Authors: Hlaing WayWay M , Darrow William W
Published: January 2007

We examined changes in perceptions of HIV risk, abstinence, condom use, and intentions to use condoms for disease protection among African American, Hispanic, Haitian, and Afro-Caribbean unmarried and married men and women living in Broward County, Florida. Data were collected through computer-assisted telephone interview surveys conducted during 2001, 2002, and 2003 with cross-sectional probability samples of 18–39 year old residents of 12 high AIDS incidence ZIP code areas. Perceptions of HIV risk increased over time for men, but not for women. Unmarried Haitian women 18–22 years old were most likely to report abstinence. Condom use during the last 12 months increased among sexually active respondents. Among residents reporting exposure to project interventions, condom use increased from 53.6% in 2001 to 64.7% in 2002 and 71.6% in 2003. HIV-prevention programs should (1) consider locally collected data; (2) take into account cultural, living situation, and other significant differences; and (3) be evaluated to assess differentiated impact.