Critical Reception Studies: the White Feminism of Feminist Reception Scholarship

This chapter explores the ideological function of the dominant frameworks of “revision” and “empowerment” in feminist classical reception scholarship. The chapter argues that the paradigm of revisionary empowerment is a manifestation of the dominance of “white feminism” in classical reception studies, a feminism that facilitates the discipline of Classics’ evasion of a sincere engagement with its historical and ongoing implication in white supremacism, classism, and misogyny. Crucially, white feminist analyses fail to incorporate a reflexive analysis of the scholar’s own acculturation into the discipline and her complicity in the reproduction of cultural, institutional, and discursive power. The first half of the chapter uses the classicising poetry of Sylvia Plath—an early and pre-eminent example of a “revisionary” poet—as a case study to expose the false premise upon which the narrative of subversive empowerment has been built. The second half of the essay turns to examine discourses of white feminism in contemporary public-facing feminist classical reception scholarship, using Mary Beard’s Women & Power: A Manifesto (2017) and Helen Morales’ Antigone Rising: The Subversive Power of the Ancient Myths (2020) as case studies

Identification of rhizome-specific genes by genome-wide differential expression Analysis in Oryza longistaminata

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Rhizomatousness is a key component of perenniality of many grasses that contribute to competitiveness and invasiveness of many noxious grass weeds, but can potentially be used to develop perennial cereal crops for sustainable farmers in hilly areas of tropical Asia. <it>Oryza longistaminata</it>, a perennial wild rice with strong rhizomes, has been used as the model species for genetic and molecular dissection of rhizome development and in breeding efforts to transfer rhizome-related traits into annual rice species. In this study, an effort was taken to get insights into the genes and molecular mechanisms underlying the rhizomatous trait in <it>O. longistaminata </it>by comparative analysis of the genome-wide tissue-specific gene expression patterns of five different tissues of <it>O. longistaminata </it>using the Affymetrix GeneChip Rice Genome Array.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A total of 2,566 tissue-specific genes were identified in five different tissues of <it>O. longistaminata</it>, including 58 and 61 unique genes that were specifically expressed in the rhizome tips (RT) and internodes (RI), respectively. In addition, 162 genes were up-regulated and 261 genes were down-regulated in RT compared to the shoot tips. Six distinct <it>cis</it>-regulatory elements (CGACG, GCCGCC, GAGAC, AACGG, CATGCA, and TAAAG) were found to be significantly more abundant in the promoter regions of genes differentially expressed in RT than in the promoter regions of genes uniformly expressed in all other tissues. Many of the RT and/or RI specifically or differentially expressed genes were located in the QTL regions associated with rhizome expression, rhizome abundance and rhizome growth-related traits in <it>O. longistaminata </it>and thus are good candidate genes for these QTLs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The initiation and development of the rhizomatous trait in <it>O. longistaminata </it>are controlled by very complex gene networks involving several plant hormones and regulatory genes, different members of gene families showing tissue specificity and their regulated pathways. Auxin/IAA appears to act as a negative regulator in rhizome development, while GA acts as the activator in rhizome development. Co-localization of the genes specifically expressed in rhizome tips and rhizome internodes with the QTLs for rhizome traits identified a large set of candidate genes for rhizome initiation and development in rice for further confirmation.</p

Organizing rhetoric: situation, ethos, identification, and the institution of social form

This project theorizes the relationship between ethos, situation, and identification at the site of organizations. Specifically, it focuses on the rhetoric's constitutive role in organizations. The study of rhetoric in organizations is longstanding, but little if any attention has been paid to the social consequences of this specific rhetorical relationship. The project's theoretical base employs frameworks from the fields of rhetoric, sociology, communication, and management science. Rhetorical theory, in particular the Aristotelian view of ethos and Burke's concept of identification, as well as structuration theory, dialogic theory, sensemaking theory, and actor-network theory, all contribute to the project's conceptual structure and approach. The project uses a rhetorical analysis of public texts--documents, artifacts, public displays--to demonstrate how organizational rhetoric promotes direction, alignment, and commitment among organizational members and affiliates. This project finds evidence that motive in organizational rhetoric defines situations and thereby influences ethos, and that identification is a strategy of sustainability. The project also finds theoretical support for the claim that social forms, such as organizations, are instituted discursively. The project's theory promotes ethos as social recognition, which is extended, through a process of identification, to encourage the association of diverse interests and contribute to organizational durability