Reading the image of Rigoberta Menchu: Undecidability and language lessons

This essay frames issues of historical truth, interpretation, and translation in reading I, Rigoberta Manchu in terms of the analysis of qualitative data. Using Walter Benjamin's work on translation and historiography, posited lessons include: to read for difference rather than the same; to focus on what is becoming in the data; to probe the price people pay to tell the truth about themselves; to attend to how stories are told; and to situate interpretation as supplement rather than mimesis, both inadequate and necessary. Such lessons are endorsed toward the goal of what Gayatri Spivak terms a "knowledgeable Eurocentrism" rather than a naive one in first-world dealings with third-world texts.     

2007 Kneller Lecture,AESA Getting Lost: Social Science and/as Philosophy

This article probes how philosophical structures are immanent in empirical work and how philosophy might be understood when it is within the precincts of science. My interest is in both opening philosophy to disruption by a science that knows itself as inside history and opening science to the costs of its inability to tolerate the necessary lack in any determinism. Against the more typical focus on how philosophy provides the reason of science, here the task is to rethink the relation between empirical work and philosophy in a way that posits an engagement with not knowing as an ethical and political move. The goal of such a project is a double(d) science that works the necessary tensions that structure contemporary social science as fertile ground for the production of new practices where theoretical complexities are used as tools to make a material difference in terms of “what works” in the public interest.     

Muscle Dysmorphia,Gender Role Stress,and Sociocultural Influences

Abstract

Our study explored the contribution of gender role stress (GRS) and sociocultural appearance demands to symptoms of muscle dysmorphia (MD) in a college sample of 219 women and 154 men. For women, five GRS subscales, sociocultural appearance demands, age, and frequency of aerobic exercise predicted MD symptoms (model R² = .33; F(8,210) = 12.81, p < .001); for men, only one GRS subscale, age, and sociocultural appearance demands predicted MD symptoms (model R² = .40; F(3,150) = 9.52, p < .001). Post hoc analyses revealed that a small number of items explained a substantial portion of the variation, suggesting that MD may be more related to specific perceptions of pressure to attain an attractive body than to global gender role stress.     

Subpoenas and library operations: rules and recourse

The subpoena process represents a legal obligation and duty of citizenry and is becoming a fact of life in the operations of many libraries. Regardless of whether a library is directly involved in litigation, the library director may be faced with adjusting operations to compensate for the loss of personnel, collection materials, or other resources in order to accommodate the demands of a subpoena. This paper outlines the formal subpoena process and highlights a number of scenarios by which the library may become a part of the process. The area of computer law, in particular, may present a "growth phase" in library litigation. In addition, recommendations to minimize the service interruptions caused by the subpoena are offered. The director must assist library counsel in formulating a response to challenge, modify, or quash (throw out) the subpoena. Efforts to quash the subpoena require proof that the materials requested are irrelevant to the case, not subpoenaed for "good cause," or that compliance would be unduly oppressive and burdensome. In any case, the library director must be fully prepared to educate counsel on the potential impact of the subpoena.     

Ascertaining teachers’ perceptions of working with adolescents diagnosed with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder

There are few studies that have directly examined teachers’ perceptions of children with ADHD, particularly children in the adolescent age range. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of general‐education ninth through twelfth grade teachers regarding working with adolescent students with ADHD. Sorted responses from a sample of 100 general‐education high school teachers were analysed and then represented visually using a concept‐mapping technique. The final concept map suggests that teachers perceive adolescents with ADHD along two dichotomies of thematic clusters on an orthogonal axis. Clusters at the top area of the concept map suggest perceptions related to high confidence and willingness, while clusters at the bottom suggest perceptions related to uneasiness and frustration. Clusters along the left side of the concept map suggest perceptions related to behaviour issues, while clusters along the right side suggest perceptions related to classroom teaching issues. Central to the vertical and horizontal dichotomies is a solitary central dimension, which highlights training as an important component of teachers’ perceptions of adolescents with ADHD.