The Spartan Mirage; A Study into Spartan Women

A myth has been perpetuated about the Greek city-state of Sparta which has shrouded it in a mirage. This mirage can make it difficult to determine what Sparta was truly like, which includes the reality of its women. Scholars tend to present Spartan women within extremes that either showcase them as no different from other women or as the ones holding all the power. Spartan women were key in passing on important values to their children such as to die bravely in battle or not come home at all. By looking into Spartan women, we can find strong evidence that they were different from women at that time, but we must look closer to see what “different” truly implies. For this paper, I plan to closely examine sources to draw the strongest conclusions about what it meant to be a Spartan woman and peel back the Spartan mirage

A Grotesque Beacon of God’s Grace in “A Temple of the Holy Ghost”

The faith of Flannery O’Connor, a Catholic writer, creates a unique tension within her short stories, between the grotesque aspects of the natural world and the sanctity of the divine. Her work “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” exemplifies this tension as a young female narrator encounters an unexpected transformative experience after her two cousins see a “hermaphrodite”[1] at a local “freak show.” In “A Temple of the Holy Ghost,” Flannery O’Connor employs the hermaphrodite character as a vessel for the narrator to explore the mysterious virtue of purity as she matures both literally and spiritually. In doing so, O’Connor calls readers to adopt a perception of sacramentality upon the physical world

Repairing Activist-Academic Relationships: Defining Methods to Improve Reciprocity and Movement Building in Degrowth

The degrowth movement, advocating for an eco-socialist restructuring of world economies, has failed to find a political foothold in American politics. This is despite growing support in Europe and positive, yet limited, reception in Canada. Previous literature diagnoses the American degrowth movement with confused and ineffective rhetoric, inhospitable intramovement politics, and too little scholarly support. In this article, I argue differently. I focus on the relationships between academics and activists within American degrowth, understanding academic-activist relationships to be historically extractive but also generative and didactic. Using semistructured interviews with academics and activists, and discourse analysis of the press coverage of degrowth, I define the state of academic-activist relationships as severely underdeveloped and uncooperative. Finally, I find that significant reforms to higher education’s opacity, exclusivity, and extractive productivity, and that encouraging activists to proactively center their narratives in the movement, may improve the lax reciprocity and slow movement building of American degrowth

ChatGPT and Biblical Studies

The use of computers in the study of theology has a long and positive history, yet the level of concern in response to the latest AI chatbots is understandable. This article explores how education and preaching need to adapt to this new technology and what its limitations are, as well as how it may make a positive contribution. The study concludes with a brief exploration of the kinds of sermon materials GPTs produced for the author when given prompts about the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4

Impacts of a Yoga and Mindfulness Course on High School Students

This research investigates the impact of a yoga and mindfulness (YM) course taught by a high school counselor in the United States to address student anxiety, stress, and coping skills. Pre- and post-tests administered to participants and a control group indicated significant reductions in anxiety and stress among class participants, suggesting YM interventions can effectively enhance student wellbeing in school settings. Implications for educators include integrating YM practices into a comprehensive program to support holistic student wellbeing

Cultural Health Benefits and Challenges of Food Preparation and Consumption: A Comparative Study of The United States, Italy, and Norway

This study aims to investigate the cultural health benefits and challenges associated with food preparation and consumption in the United States, Italy, and Norway, with a particular focus on citizens in lower socioeconomic levels. By examining the dietary habits, social structures, and health outcomes in these three countries, this research aims to uncover broader insights into the health status and well-being of their respective populations. The study will employ secondary data analysis approach examining existing research on cultural practices and social support systems. The findings of this research will contribute to a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between food culture, socioeconomic status, and health outcomes, potentially informing policy decisions and public health initiatives in these countries and beyond

GUBIC: The global urban biological invasions compendium for plants

Abstract Urban areas are foci for the introduction of non-native plant species, and they often act as launching sites for invasions into the wider environment. Although interest in biological invasions in urban areas is growing rapidly, and the extent and complexity of problems associated with invasions in these systems have increased, data on the composition and numbers of non-native plants in urbanized areas remain scattered and idiosyncratic. We assembled data from multiple sources to create the Global Urban Biological Invasions Compendium (GUBIC) for vascular plants representing 553 urban centres from 61 countries across every continent except Antarctica. The GUBIC repository includes 8140 non-native plant species from 253 families. The number of urban centres in which these non-native species occurred had a log-normal distribution, with 65.2% of non-native species occurring in fewer than 10 urban centres. Practical implications: The dataset has wider applications for urban ecology, invasion biology, macroecology, conservation, urban planning and sustainability. We hope this dataset will stimulate future research in invasion ecology related to the diversity and distributional patterns of non-native flora across urban centres worldwide. Further, this information should aid the early detection and risk assessment of potential invasive species, inform policy development and assist in setting management priorities

Sociocultural Influence on Attitude Formation Toward Critical Race Theory

This study explores the influence of political and parental beliefs, location, and social upbringing on perceptions of critical race theory (CRT) among undergraduate college students above 18 years old. This study had 179 participants who submitted an online survey completing the Highly Sensitive Person Scale, Perceptions of Parents Scales: The College-Student Scale, Experience with Diversity Survey, Social and Economic Conservatism Scale, and Resistance to Change-Beliefs Scale. Participants were also asked questions about their perceptions of CRT, including their feelings about CRT, their support of teaching CRT, how they believed their parents felt about CRT, how confident they were in their understanding of CRT, if they were taught CRT in school, and what age they would prefer for CRT to be taught. Participants’ feelings toward CRT were significantly correlated with parental feelings of CRT. There is a significant correlation between the Social and Economic Conservatism Scale and participants’ perceptions of CRT. There is a significant correlation between the Resistance to Change Beliefs Scale and participants’ feelings toward teaching CRT, with the belief that CRT should be taught at the college level