9 research outputs found
âThe Monstrous Anger of the Gunsâ: Critical Commentary on the War Poems of Gabriel Okara
Get PDFThroughout the Biafran War of Independence from Nigeria (1967-1970), Gabriel Okara remained a committed Biafran. But he was neither an iconoclastic secessionist (determined to wantonly wreck any well-founded order, including the subaltern state of Nigeria) nor a romantic revolutionary (dreaming of a postcolonial African utopia rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the failed postcolonial state of Nigeria), he was a Biafran at a higher level of philosophical and humanist reasoning as eloquently argued throughout his war lyrics discussed in the present paper, whose themes include: commitment, nationalism and pacifism as they pertain to his Biafran experience; modern warfare and the deleterious effects of weapons of mass destruction; death and human suffering in time of war); displacement, separation and exile; hunger, starvation and disease of malnutrition; the social and psychological wounds of war; the interface between religious faith and existentialist anguish; bystander apathy and the indifference of the global community; and the toll of questionable international humanitarianism, dehumanizing interventions and neo-colonialist conspiracies
Crust Punk: Apocalyptic Rhetoric and Dystopian Performatives
Get PDFThe main focus of this thesis is to understand the myriad ways in which crust punk as an expressive cultural form creates meaning, forms the basis for social formation (or music scene), and informs the ways in which its participants both interact with and understand the world around them. Fieldwork for this research was conducted during the summer of 2012 in Austin, Texas. Primary methodology included participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and online ethnography. Additional research data was collected over the last five years through my own personal involvement with the crust punk music scene.
The first section examines the ways in which crust punk as a genre both continues to evolve by avoiding and disavowing genre definitions and boundaries. The second section addresses my particular experiences with the Austin, Texas crust punk scene. I separate and examine the differences within the scene among and between differing levels of participation in various scene practices. These practices include the everyday practices necessary to maintain the music scene, as well as âanarchistâ practices such as squatting, train hopping, transiency, and refusal to work.
In the final section, I argue that in the crust punk scene dystopian performatives enable an apocalyptic and dystopic view of the world, building upon Jill Dolanâs theory of utopian performatives. I also outline my theory on how dystopian performatives and apocalyptic rhetoric work together to inflect crust punk structures of feelings and social imaginaries
Coaching in the Digital Age: How is Digitalisation Influencing Executive Coaching? A Grounded Theory Exploration
Get PDFtle:61986cc9-46fd-4b45-ab28-45f4fdde0229:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1Digitalisation forces emerging from the fourth industrial revolution significantly impact executive coaches and the coaching industry. However, executive coaching literature has historically failed to acknowledge the impact of socio-contextual factors on the practice. Resultantly, a research gap has emerged wherein a holistic exploration of the effects of digitalisation on executive coaching and coaches remains unaddressed. This qualitative study of 25 experienced executive coaches using an exploratory interpretive approach and a constructivist grounded theory found that digitalisation significantly impacts executive coaching, but most coaches struggle to understand it holistically. The findings suggest that coaches experience a loss of depth driven by a disturbed presence, loss of physicality and blurred boundaries in a video coaching setup. The study found that coaches encounter digitalisation-driven change both directly and indirectly. As coaches prepare to navigate the future through their actions, they simultaneously experience both fears of obsolescence and confidence of significance regarding the probable effects of digital advancements. This study positions digitalisation as a significant socio-contextual factor, and the four-winged framework provides a map and starting vocabulary to engage with the anticipated impacts of digitalisation. The study introduces a coaching continuum framework for coaches operating in the digital age to enable effective management of diverse digital mediums.
Keywords: digitalisation, executive coaching, socio-contextual factors, holistic exploration, constructivist grounded theory, coaching continuum framework, loss of depth, disturbed presence, loss of physicality, blurred boundaries, fears of obsolescence, the confidence of significance, anticipated impacts of digitalisatio
Six Years in Halifax: A Short History of the Henry Moore Studio, Dean Clough from 1986 to 1992.
Get PDFLooking back now over the course of my PhD study, which feels like it has been a
very long journey, it appears to me as a series of revolutions: that is, transformations
in my way of thinking (hard now to contemplate that I have come out the other end of
them) which completely changed my view, not just of my subject - the Henry Moore
Studio at Dean Clough - but the art world within which I was working, and the way I
wanted to write about it.
When I embarked on the study in 2016, I was working as a collections curator at
Leeds Art Gallery, based at the Henry Moore Institute. As the Institute is affiliated to
the Henry Moore Foundation, which is the parent body of the Henry Moore Studio, I
was â in theory - an insider to the project. In reality, the Studio had closed many years
before I arrived on the scene, and I had never met Robert Hopper or any of the core
group of people who worked there, so I came with little prior or special knowledge of
the organisation. However, that is not to say that I came to the project empty-handed.
Quite the opposite. As I see now (but only in retrospect), I was carrying around in my
head an encompassing view of the art world, which permeated my professional
practice. This did not relate to my work at the Institute or Leeds Art Gallery
specifically, but a career spent working in and around institutions: from my art
historical training (undertaken in a traditional university department), through several
years of curatorial practice, latterly within the framework of a municipal gallery and
specialist centre for the study of sculpture.
Essentially, my job at the time was to categorise, evaluate and document works of art;
then place them within the established canon of art history by displaying them in
thematic, chronological or genre-based configurations; and, initially, I intended to
explore the Henry Moore Studio in exactly this way. I wanted to define what it was,
then compare it with other similar art organisations and situate it within a particular
segment of art history, so that it could be better understood within my art world; and
possibly used to inform future practice. It was not that I felt this method would be best
particularly, but that I didnât really know any other way.
From reading around the subject, I knew that the Henry Moore Studio had been a
making and exhibition project, which generated a series of large-scale projects, in
which the site was often a key element. Whilst the Studio had been funded by the
Henry Moore Foundation, I understood that it had been run on the ground by a group
of artists, based at Dean Clough, Halifax, under the leadership of Paul Bradley, who
had been highly instrumental in the first project by Giuseppe Penone and
subsequently managed most aspects of its programme. As a project operated by artists
for other artists, under the auspices of an institution, I attempted to sketch a lineage
for the Studio amongst artist-led initiatives, as they had evolved in the post-war
period, specifically from the 1960s to the 1980s
âThe Monstrous Anger of the Gunsâ: Critical Commentary on the War Poems of Gabriel Okara
No full textThroughout the Biafran War of Independence from Nigeria (1967-1970), Gabriel Okara remained a committed Biafran. But he was neither an iconoclastic secessionist (determined to wantonly wreck any well-founded order, including the subaltern state of Nigeria) nor a romantic revolutionary (dreaming of a postcolonial African utopia rising like a phoenix from the ashes of the failed postcolonial state of Nigeria), he was a Biafran at a higher level of philosophical and humanist reasoning as eloquently argued throughout his war lyrics discussed in the present paper, whose themes include: commitment, nationalism and pacifism as they pertain to his Biafran experience; modern warfare and the deleterious effects of weapons of mass destruction; death and human suffering in time of war); displacement, separation and exile; hunger, starvation and disease of malnutrition; the social and psychological wounds of war; the interface between religious faith and existentialist anguish; bystander apathy and the indifference of the global community; and the toll of questionable international humanitarianism, dehumanizing interventions and neo-colonialist conspiracies
