Raiders of the lost archives

ABSTRACT

Fantastic Man (2014) and Searching for Sugar Man (2012) mobilize tropes of discovery occurring in the filmed process of collecting and curating the work and identities of two reluctant, elusive, and resistive figures. These documentaries are part of a discourse of collectability marked by the urge to discover and narrate a “quest” that has its precedents in record collecting as obsessive cultural practice and in the fetishizing of obscurity. Furthermore, they can be seen as “performances” of the artiste and repertoire (A&R) process but for a “post-rock” era in which the customary roles of A&R have largely been eclipsed by social, economic, and technological changes to the music industry: the “(re-)discovery” of Onyeabor and Rodriguez exemplifies an increasingly common fusion of, rather than oscillation between, novelty and nostalgia in the music industry, as “old” artists are “newly” discovered through practices of media archaeology aimed at unearthing artifacts of cultural and economic value from an ever bigger and denser digital archive.     

Evaluating legacies: Research,evidence and the regional impact of the Cultural Olympiad

From the bidding stage onwards, the London 2012 Olympics has been framed by an explicitly instrumental agenda, with objectives including increasing participation in sport in the UK and economic and physical regeneration in host sites, through investment in the Olympic Park and its surrounding infrastructure. The bid also signalled the ambition that London 2012 should be the first Olympics to deliver legacy through a nation-wide cultural programme in the build up to and alongside the Games [Kennell, J. & MacLeod, N. (2008, November 6–8). A memetic framework for the conceptualisation and evaluation of the Cultural Olympiad of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Paper presented at the 2nd Bi-annual International Tourism Studies Association conference in Shanghai, China. Retrieved from http://gala.gre.ac.uk/3951/], deliberately putting in place infrastructure for each English region and nation, shortly after the bid's success was announced. The ensuing national Cultural Olympiad, part funded by Legacy Trust UK, was evaluated through a series of research exercises which aimed to document the legacy and impact of the cultural programme. Through the case study of a regional programme in the North West of England, “We Play”, this article considers how evaluation research has been used locally to develop policy stories and legacy narratives which interpret and interact with the changing landscape of arts funding and cultural policy in the UK.     

Mapping Educational Equity and Reform Policy in the Borderlands: LatCrit Spatial Analysis of Grade Retention

The purpose of our study is to investigate reform policy, specifically a proposed third grade reading retention policy within the Borderlands. Under this policy, students not performing proficiently on the third grade reading standardized exam will be automatically retained in the third grade. The research methods and approach used in this study include an equity analysis formed by combining two steps across a Borderland county in New Mexico. The first step is a regression analysis to answer if access to early childhood education and access to highly qualified teachers inform differences in third grade reading scores, and the second step uses a LatCrit informed Spatial Analysis to create an equity index, to see how equity varies across the spaces of elementary schools. This allows us to essentially map Third Grade Reading Retention Reform Policy in the Borderlands. The setting of the study is in the U.S. Southwest Borderlands, specifically Doña Ana County, which borders Texas and Mexico, in southern New Mexico. Up to a quarter of the population is under the age of 18, two thirds (66.6%) of the population is Latino, and half of the population speaks a language other than English at home. Implications from this study include, for policy makers, policy considerations that come from a non-deficit thinking perspective and focus on systemic considerations to improving educational equity. Given that the setting demographically mirrors much of the state of New Mexico, as well as demographic shifts across communities throughout the U.S., this study provides further considerations for key systemic changes to improving academic measures like reading scores.     

Drowsing: toward a concept of sleepy screen engagement

Sleep frequently intersects with media technologies in routinized yet unpredictable ways. This article proposes a concept of “drowsing” to describe how sleepiness occurs and persists across aspects of banal media life. Focusing on nighttime tablet use and blue light engagement, we argue that sleep requires a multidimensional and embodied account of how cultural practices, biological rhythms, and incidental occurrences interact. Ultimately, focusing on sleep suggests the contradictory roles that technologies play within the duration of everyday life—both providing a sense of calmness and deceleration, even as they accelerate life or contribute to long-term bodily harm.     

Undergraduate Laboratory Exercises Specific to Food Spoilage Microbiology

Food spoilage has an enormous economic impact, and microbial food spoilage plays a significant role in food waste and loss; subsequently, an equally significant portion of undergraduate food microbiology instruction should be dedicated to spoilage microbiology. Here, we describe a set of undergraduate microbiology laboratory exercises that focus specifically on food spoilage which were taught in 2 lab periods as part of the undergraduate food microbiology lab curriculum at Cornell University. The lab was broken down into 3 exercises. Two exercises lead students to determine the likely source of contamination in a canned salsa through (exercise 1a) plating and observation of colony morphology and (exercise 1b) determination of the thermal resistance for those isolates. The final exercise (2) involved detection of the spoilage bacterium Alicyclobacillus in apple juice. Spoiled juice demonstrations were also prepared in this exercise for students to observe sensorial changes resulting from spoilage, emphasizing that spoilage is not always visually detectable. Students were able to successfully determine the source of contamination based on the results of their laboratory findings, which they used to make recommendations for production to reduce microbial food spoilage in the canned salsa product. Based on student answers to discussion questions provided following lab exercises, participants were able to (a) identify the significance of microbial spoilage and how spoilage is principally different from food safety, (b) describe varying sensorial changes associated with microbial spoilage, and (c) employ methods and analysis to evaluate sources and type of contamination. Downloadable handouts and stepwise instructions are available as supporting information.     

The Science of a Sundae: Using the Principle of Colligative Properties in Food Science Outreach Activities for Middle and High School Students

The opportunities for outreach activities for professionals and academics in food science are extensive, as too are the range of participants’ experience levels and platforms for delivery. Here, we present a set of activities that are readily adaptable for a range of students (ages 10 to 18) in multiple platforms (demonstration table and hands‐on workshop). Our activity, collectively called “The Science of a Sundae,” has three units, one for each of the three parts of a sundae: the caramel sauce, the cherry, and the ice cream. In each unit we use these familiar food items to illustrate how colligative properties (or, simply, “solutions” for younger students) impact the chemical, microbiological, and sensorial properties of food. We have used these activities to present to over 1000 students and their parents/chaperones. Grade levels of student participants have ranged from 5th grade through high school, and these activities have been presented in the form of a demonstration table at science events as well as a set of three 45‐minute workshops in a classroom setting. Educational impact of these activities was evaluated with 7th grade students (n = 77) who participated in the 3‐phase workshop. On average, students who took the posttest (after participation in the workshop) scored 36% higher than students who took the pretest (prior to participation in the workshop). These results and instructor observations suggest the merit of this lesson and its adaptability among ages and platforms.     

Bidirectional Relations between Parenting Practices and Child Externalizing Behaviors in Formerly Homeless Families: A Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Analysis

SYNOPSIS

Objective . This study examined the bidirectional relations between effective parenting practices and externalizing problems in children in homeless families. Design . The sample comprised 223 children (M = 8.12 years) in 137 families living in temporary supportive housing, who participated in the Early Risers conduct problems prevention program lasting 2 years. Video-recorded observations of parent-child interactions were collected and rated by trained observers to assess effective parenting practices. Child externalizing problems were reported by their school teachers. Both variables were assessed at baseline prior to intervention and at 1- and 2-year post-baseline. Results . Child externalizing problems at baseline were negatively associated with effective parenting from baseline to year 1 as well as from year 1 to year 2. Observed effective parenting practices at year 1 were negatively associated with child externalizing problems from year 1 to year 2. Conclusions . These findings underscore the presence of bidirectional influence processes between parents and children in high-risk families. Implications for intervention programs for high-risk families are discussed.