A Tale of Two Conferences: On Power, Identity, and Academic Freedom

This article will examine the extent of the applicability of academic freedom in relation to scholarship on the Israeli‐Arab conflict. This will be done by comparing two conferences that took place in the same city at almost the same time, both dealing with issues pertaining to Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East conflict. The article will argue that in reality, academic freedom is relative. The level of protection in fact varies according to the power that interested parties wield and the identities at play, and the vulnerability of scholars is usually a reflection of the current power dynamics in the nonacademic world. This differential applicability of academic freedom is the result of uneven application of academic standards and sometimes the creation of standards that are expected to apply solely to scholarship on the Middle East and the Israeli‐Arab conflict that is not “pro‐Israel.” This uneven and differential protection may become a threat to academic freedom

Does the Prisoner's Dilemma Refute the Coase Theorem?

Two of the most important ideas in the philosophy of law are the “Coase Theorem” and the “Prisoner’s Dilemma.” In this paper, the authors explore the relation between these two influential models through a creative thought-experiment. Specifically, the paper presents a pure Coasean version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma, one in which property rights are well-defined and transactions costs are zero (i.e. the prisoners are allowed to openly communicate and bargain with each other), in order to test the truth value of the Coase Theorem. In addition, the paper explores what effect (a) uncertainty, (b) exponential discounting, (c) and elasticity have on the behavior of the prisoners in the Coasean version of the dilemma. Lastly, the paper considers the role of the prosecutor (and third-parties generally) in the Prisoner’s Dilemma and closes with some parting thoughts about the complexity of the dilemma. The authors then conclude by identifying the conditions under which the Prisoner’s Dilemma refutes the Coase Theorem

Gluon TMD studies at EIC

A high-energy Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) would offer a most promising tool to study in detail the transverse momentum distributions of gluons inside hadrons. This applies to unpolarized as well as linearly polarized gluons inside unpolarized protons, and to left-right asymmetric distributions of gluons inside transversely polarized protons, the so-called gluon Sivers effect. The inherent process dependence of these distributions can be studied by comparing to similar, but often complementary observables at LHC.Comment: 6 pages, no figures, contribution to the proceedings of the 6th International conference on Physics Opportunities at an ElecTron-Ion Collider (POETIC VI), \'Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France, September 7-11, 201

The STIN in the Tale: A Socio-technical Interaction Perspective on Networked Learning

In this paper, we go beyond what have been described as 'mechanistic' accounts of e-learning to explore the complexity of relationships between people and technology as encountered in cases of networked learning. We introduce from the social informatics literature the concept of sociotechnical interaction networks which focus on the interplay between participants, technology, learning artefacts and practices. We apply this concept to case material drawn from transnational trade union education to identify and to analyse three aspects of networked learning: the local sociotechnical networks of learners; the construction of an overarching, global sociotechnical network for learning; and the evolution of such networks over time. Finally we identify issues for further research highlighted by these models

Women, know your limits: Cultural sexism in academia

Despite the considerable advances of the feminist movement across Western societies, in Universities women are less likely to be promoted, or paid as much as their male colleagues, or even get jobs in the first place. One way in which we can start to reflect on why this might be the case is through hearing the experiences of women academics themselves. Using feminist methodology, this article attempts to unpack and explore just some examples of ‘cultural sexism’ which characterise the working lives of many women in British academia.This article uses qualitative methods to describe and make sense of just some of those experiences. In so doing, the argument is also made that the activity of academia is profoundly gendered and this explicit acknowledgement may contribute to our understanding of the under-representation of women in senior positions

Appendix A: Storytelling in the School Library Media Center: Bibliography and Resources

published or submitted for publicatio

Expressions, Spring 2017

College of Humanities and the Arts Newsletter, Volume 1

Call and response: Identity and witness in legitimating CSR

How do social actors adopt a path alien to their organizational environment and, against the odds, get that environment to accommodate them? This developmental paper sketches an approach to answering that question, building on evidence from a series of conferences of themes related to corporate social responsibility. We see these events as facilitating construction of an identity that shields the participants from backlash in a less than accommodating institutional setting. Drawing on the concept of witness in religious practice, it suggests that a purpose of the events is the ritual enactment of practices that reinforce that identity, providing protection against hostility in the work environment. This version of the paper concludes with indications of the direction of the development and a request for suggestion