Blood-Speak: Ward Churchill and the Racialization of American Indian Identity

After publishing a controversial essay on 9/11, Professor Ward Churchill's scholarship and personal identity were subjected to a hostile public investigation. Evidence that Churchill had invented his American Indian identity created vehemence among many professors and tribal leaders who dismissed Churchill because he was not a “real Indian.” This essay examines the discourses of racial authenticity employed to distance Churchill from tribal communities and American Indian scholarship. Responses to Churchill's academic and ethnic self-identification have retrenched a racialized definition of tribal identity defined by a narrow concept of blood. Employing what I term blood-speak, Churchill's opponents harness a biological concept of race that functions as an instrument of exclusion and a barrier to coalitional politics.     

Grassroots Strategic Planning: Involving Library Staff from the Beginning

This column focuses on the closely related topics of strategic planning and assessment in all types of libraries. The column examines all aspects of planning and assessment including (but not limited to) components, methods, approaches, trends, tools and training. Interested authors are invited to submit articles to the editor at wvdole@ualr.edu. Articles on both theory and practice and examples of both successful and unsuccessful attempts in all types of libraries are invited.

In this issue, Anne Marie Casey, Dean of Retention and Student Success at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, reminds us that real life challenges such as staff resistance and reallocation of campus space have serious impacts on planning. She presents a case study of one library's attempt to deal with these challenges by using a variety of methods, including active employee input, appreciative inquiry, and scenario planning to encourage staff buy-in. For the most part, these attempts proved successful.

Strategic planning is often considered a managerial tool. The management of an organization surveys the environment and develops a plan that they introduce to the organization as a whole. Most modern organizations seek employee involvement in the planning process and feedback to some degree with varied results. But for one academic library, employee involvement in the development and execution of the strategic plans has been a vital part of the processes. The Hunt Library at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has been developing strategic plans for several years with active input from the librarians and staff. This case study chronicles the different approaches the library staff have used to create new plans. One method was to hold a set of retreats where all library staff provided ideas for new initiatives to explore and old processes to retire. Another involved the SOAR approach, which uses appreciate inquiry to determine strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results. A third method employed scenarios to encourage staff input into the next strategic plan. Each of the different approaches yielded interesting results; some failures and many successes. Some processes were more positive than others but they all included mutually agreed-upon strategies that guided the library as it planned future innovations.     

Evidence of proteins,chromosomes and chemical markers of DNA in exceptionally preserved dinosaur cartilage

A histological ground-section from a duck-billed dinosaur nestling (Hypacrosaurus stebingeri) revealed microstructures morphologically consistent with nuclei and chromosomes in cells within calcified cartilage. We hypothesized that this exceptional cellular preservation extended to the molecular level and had molecular features in common with extant avian cartilage. Histochemical and immunological evidence supports in situ preservation of extracellular matrix components found in extant cartilage, including glycosaminoglycans and collagen type II. Furthermore, isolated Hypacrosaurus chondrocytes react positively with two DNA intercalating stains. Specific DNA staining is only observed inside the isolated cells, suggesting endogenous nuclear material survived fossilization. Our data support the hypothesis that calcified cartilage is preserved at the molecular level in this Mesozoic material, and suggest that remnants of once-living chondrocytes, including their DNA, may preserve for millions of years.     

Opening the Wrong Gate? The Academic Spring and Scholarly Publishing in the Humanities and Social Sciences

In this paper, I explore the ways in which the 2012 Elsevier boycott and resultant call for open access scholarship known as the ??academic spring?? have been taken up by scholars in the humanities and social sciences. I begin by reviewing the current state of affairs with regards to publishing and the academy, explicating the movement??s reasons for demanding change. From this, I identify two moral principles which emerge from its critique, and then I show how implementing the recommendations which have been circulated as alternatives to the status quo do not necessarily support the academic spring??s foundational principles. I conclude by suggesting a possible alternative direction of productive action and sounding a final word of caution.     

Meditation in Higher Education: Does it Enhance Cognition?

We predicted that students in a sociology course that included contemplative practices (i.e., mindfulness meditation) would show an increase in performance on higher level cognitive abilities (executive functions) over the semester compared to a control group of students. Change in executive functions performance was not significantly different between the two groups. However, when looking within the meditation group, the time spent meditating predicted the amount of executive function improvement, suggesting that the amount of time spent meditating is strongly related to the level of improvement. This finding provides preliminary support for benefits of meditation for students’ higher level cognitive abilities.