Learning Commons Collaborations [ALA, June 2007]

Discusses the collaboration at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst between the library, information technology, the writing center, advising, mentoring, and dining services to create a collaborative facility for students

Allegory and the Art of Memory

Scholars of early modern literature often consider allegory inherently idealist, particularly in its exploitation of visual description, which, they argue, produces a spurious vividness that tries to pass off the schematic and the ideal as natural. Critics who subscribe to this view often celebrate Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590/96) as both a pinnacle of the genre and a skeptical anatomy of it—a great allegory that is great because it exposes allegory's illusions. As the argument goes, Spenser reveals the false visuality at the heart of allegory by complicating his imagery with naturalistic description. By turning allegorical images against themselves, the poem prevents allegory from subordinating the world of matter and appearances to a timeless conceptual order.This dissertation, Allegory and the Art of Memory, offers an alternative framework for understanding allegory's visuality and Spenser's use of it: the mental visualization techniques of the classical and medieval memory arts. Because these mnemonic methods draw mental imagery into the service of memorizing words and ideas, they too have been accused of visual bad faith, but recent scholarship has excavated the practical and philosophical contexts in which these methods were used, and this visual regime gives us a new way to think about allegorical imagery as well. I argue that in adapting the memory arts to narrative poetry, medieval allegorists did not aspire to impress an idealist image of cosmic harmony upon the empirical world but to lead readers through a voluntary and collaborative process of composing meditative imagery. In the following pages, I analyze three pre-Spenserian allegorical poems particularly engaged with the theory and practice of memory: Guillaume de Deguileville's Le Pèlerinage de la Vie Humaine (1330-32), Olivier de la Marche's Le Chevalier Délibéré (1483), and Stephan Batman's loose adaptation of Le Chevalier Délibéré into The Trauayled Pylgrime (1569). I use these analyses to illuminate crucial episodes of The Faerie Queene to show that, rather than revealing the fissures in the earlier poems' methods, The Faerie Queene continues their project by adapting allegory to the transformed media environment of sixteenth-century England, where the visual mnemonics of the memory arts had mostly been discarded. The pre-Spenserian poems I analyze borrow formal elements from mnemonic techniques while critically evaluating the practices and the role of memory in human life. The Faerie Queene, I argue, follows their trajectory into the age of print. Whereas the older poems treat their imagery as a script for composing mental images, Spenser uses the formal tropes of the memory arts—image (imago), place (locus), and order (ordo)—to represent memory-processes, not just of the individual but of an entire culture, a collective record that is both analogous to memory and radically unaccommodating to the human mind

Bangor Public Library: A Photographic Tour

Bangor Public Library founded in 1883 opened its doors on Harlow Street on December 20, 1913. The main building houses three public service departments: Circulation, Children\u27s and Reference. Behind the scenes departments include Office personnel, Accessions and Classification Department, Catalog Department, Periodicals and Binding Department and Extension Department. The stacks are located at the rear of the building.https://digicom.bpl.lib.me.us/books_pubs/1034/thumbnail.jp

Tending to the wound: Understanding the functions of cutting as a coping mechanism for adolescent females

This research project details cutting as a coping mechanism for adolescent females, specifically looking at the functions of cutting, e.g. affect regulation, anti-dissociation, and self-punishment. Self-injury manifested in cutting is essentially different from suicidal gesturing in that the self-injurer is attempting to avoid death. Despite the vast amount of research encouraging therapists to hear the pain behind the scream, many clinicians focus on the behavior itself, neglecting the layers of meaning beneath the cutting. Paralleling the literature review is the case study of Artemis, an adolescent female. Presented in detail are her experiences and utilization of cutting. Implications and recommendations for mental health professionals working with adolescent females who cut are presented

Looking for Remnants of Rice Cultivation at Manchester State Forest Through the Use of LIDAR

Recently, archaeological and historical preservation studies have looked into identifying and preserving the remnants of rice cultivation left on the modern landscape. This work resulted in guidelines for identifying and evaluating these remnants for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places. Further, these guidelines made a clear distinguish between two types of rice cultivation; tidal and inland rice cultivation. Still, this research focused on the identification and evaluation of rice cultivation remnant in areas of where the majority of rice cultivation place in South Carolina: along the Atlantic Coast. This study examines one parcel of land with possible rice remnants located in southwest portion of Sumter County, South Carolina. In order to examine these features, LIDAR data from the Digital Coast portion of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), was utilized in Geographic Information Systems ArcMap 10.2 to create a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) in order to look at the possible remnants of rice cultivation on the parcel of land. In order to identify if the features seen on in the DEM were remnants of rice cultivation, as well as which type of rice cultivation these remnants represent, a second DEM was created from LIDAR data from the same website representing an area of known rice cultivation along the Atlantic Coast

Making A Difference : Ways Of Teaching And Learning In General National Qualifications

There is growing evidence of the positive affects of General National Vocational Qualifications on students and widely held views, almost assumptions, on appropriate teaching and learning styles. As these are not explicit in any form of the specifications it is postulated that it is the mediating influence of teachers which will determine the extent to which GNVQs are student-centred in learning and assessment, and how successful any course is in terms of levels of achievement by students. By following multiple lines of evidence in three advanced courses in one institution a comprehensive and robust picture is built up which illustrates the journey through a course of study for students and their teachers. Diverse aspects of the teaching and learning process drawn from differing perspectives, a variety of research reports of GNVQ courses, and the relationship of the significant role of formative and summative assessment in motivation and learning were considered in the literature review. The strands in the research methodology were also drawn together from lines of pursuit suggested by the literature. Data were gathered through student questionnaires, interviews with teachers and students, classroom observations and the scrutiny of students' work, assignments and various other documents. A synthesis of several seemingly disparate theoretical models of teaching and learning is provided leading to a conclusion that there is a much richer and more subtle range of activities occurring in student-centred teaching and learning than is readily explained by any one model. There is persuasive evidence emerging in a small context of current practice in Advanced GNVQ teaching that has resonance with wider studies of effective teaching. This has implications in contemplating the changes in post-16 education consequent upon the introduction of Curriculum 2000, both at institutional level and perhaps nationally

THE RISE AND FALL OF JUAN DOMINGO PERON: FASCISM , VIOLENCE, AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY ARGENTINA

In the 1920s and 1930s, the Catholic Church sought to increase its involvement in public life, politics, and social issue throughout Latin America. In Argentina, this desire led to the Churches involvement—both directly and indirectly—in a series of coups, revolutions, and counter revolutions. At the same time, a fascist, nationalist movement began to form in Argentina, inspired in part by European fascists, though distinct in its deep-seated connection with Catholicism. This ideological movement, called nacionalismo, often conflated fascism with Catholicism, and posited violence as the ultimate expression of these beliefs. Nacionalista religious violence would not fully actualize until decades later during and in the years preceding Argentina’s Dirty War, but traces of it can be seen throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. In the 1940s, Juan Peron rose to power on a wave of fascism, however his increasingly populist and secularist leanings ultimately put him at odds with both the nacionalistas and the Catholic Church. His removal from office in 1955—orchestrated by Catholics in the military and supported by the Church—demonstrates the significant amount of influence Catholicism held in Argentina. The combination of the Catholic Churches growing political power and the innately violent nature of nacionalismo can help explain many of the social and political upheavals that occurred in Argentina throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. The emergence of this Catholic-fascist kinship contributed significantly to the overthrow of Peron in 1955 and the state terrorism that occurred during Argentina’s Dirty War in the 1970s, giving insight into the role that religion plays in government, politics, and revolution. The growing strength of both the Catholic Church and nacionalismo in twentieth century Argentina—fortified by their sympathetic, even cooperative relationship with each other—are essential components of both the rise and fall of Juan Domingo Peron, perhaps the country’s most influential politician of all time. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, the Catholic Church worked to increase its influence and involvement in public life, politics, and social issues in Argentina, following a global trend of Catholic revival. Meanwhile, the fascist nacionalismo movement, fundamentally linked to the Catholic faith, also began to form in Argentina—again following wider trends of fascism, particularly in Europe. Although not all clergymen were nacionalistas—indeed Catholicism often enabled leftist action like the labor movement—most nacionalistas used Catholicism to justify and support their actions, at times with clear endorsement and encouragement from the Church. The movement reached its height in the early 1940s, when Peron rose to power with the support of the Church and a legacy of fascist sympathies. However, his focus on social welfare and his popularity among the working classes quickly distanced him from the nacionalistas, and his burgeoning authoritarianism and secularism ultimately alienated the Catholic Church as well. The events leading up to Peron’s removal from office in 1955, which was orchestrated by nacionalistas in the military and supported by the Church and Catholic laymen, demonstrate the significant influence of Catholicism and fascism in Argentina. These two elements—Catholicism and fascism—were an underlying current, always moving and shaping the country in some way, and even coming to define Argentina’s fraught twentieth century

THE POLITICS OF GARBAGE: MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE IN OAXACA, MEXICO

This dissertation analyzes the politics of garbage in Oaxaca, Mexico. In particular, it explores the tactics used by a marginalized colonia near the dump to affect waste management and local development. This colonia provokes garbage crises by blocking the metropolitan areas access to its dump. As a result, garbage builds up in the city and public officials are forced to negotiate with colonia residents. I argue that two prior processes are essential to the success of this strategy. First, the mid-sized city in southern Mexico implemented many new waste management practices during the latter half of the 20th century and the first few years of the 21st in order to produce an image of a clean and modern city for residents and tourists. While the city tried to modernize by increasing the level of sanitation, a concomitant increase in consumerism meant that it was impossible for this clean and modern city to be produced on the ground. Nevertheless, these contradictory processes made cleanliness the marker of urban modernity. Therefore, garbage in the city can undermine the legitimacy of modern urban institutions, as it does in the case of the garbage crises. Second, a process of modern citizen-formation was underway wherein an association with garbage identified one as outsider. In this way, garbage crises are struggles over citizenship and belonging