Afro-American Women: A Brief Guide to Writings from Historical and Feminist Perspectives

Afro-American women historians have paid little heed to the issues raised by Black feminists, and Black feminists have paid little if any attention to the historical literature being produced specifically about Black women. The basic assumption of most of the work produced by historians of Afro-American women is that there is a large body of unexplored accomplishment that merely awaits those with the interest and resources to dig it out and write it up. They view Black women as being oppressed by a number of social forces such as racism and sexism. They do not see Black women as mere victims, or as being defeated by these forces. They assume that since Black people have not only survived but have contributed much to the world in which we live, Black women must have played a large role in those processes. Historians of Black women generally emphasize racial as opposed to sexual oppression, study Black women within the general context of the history of Black Americans, and pay little attention to matters of sexual preference or to the personal and private behavior of those they are studying. Black feminists, on the other hand, seem to come to the study of Black women with the concerns of the White feminist movement, most of whose participants share the racist attitudes of White males. Black feminists tend to emphasize issues of sexual preference and personal, private behavior, and give a much greater weight to the role of sexual oppression by Black males in determining the life chances of Black females. They assume, in many cases, that Black women were oppressed in much the same way as White women--i.e., were denied political and economic roles of significance. Black feminists, therefore, are very weak on the actual achievements of Black women throughout their history in the United States. They have a tendency to ignore the communal roots and context that enabled such figures as Bessie Smith and Zora Neal Hurston, for example, to accomplish what they did

Smart Sensor Demonstration Payload

Sensors are a critical element to any monitoring, control, and evaluation processes such as those needed to support ground based testing for rocket engine test. Sensor applications involve tens to thousands of sensors; their reliable performance is critical to achieving overall system goals. Many figures of merit are used to describe and evaluate sensor characteristics; for example, sensitivity and linearity. In addition, sensor selection must satisfy many trade-offs among system engineering (SE) requirements to best integrate sensors into complex systems [1]. These SE trades include the familiar constraints of power, signal conditioning, cabling, reliability, and mass, and now include considerations such as spectrum allocation and interference for wireless sensors. Our group at NASA s John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) works in the broad area of integrated systems health management (ISHM). Core ISHM technologies include smart and intelligent sensors, anomaly detection, root cause analysis, prognosis, and interfaces to operators and other system elements [2]. Sensor technologies are the base fabric that feed data and health information to higher layers. Cost-effective operation of the complement of test stands benefits from technologies and methodologies that contribute to reductions in labor costs, improvements in efficiency, reductions in turn-around times, improved reliability, and other measures. ISHM is an active area of development at SSC because it offers the potential to achieve many of those operational goals [3-5]

Black Studies in 21st Century Higher Education Webinar Video

Video, transcript, and promotional materials for a web-based seminar featuring Dr. Sonia Sanchez and Dr. John Bracey discussing Black Studies in 21st century higher education. The Black History Month program was hosted by the University of Maine Black Student Union, co-hosted by the UMaine Alumni Association

Pebbles and avalanches

This joint exhibition of ten artists from the University of Lincoln was curated by Clare Charnley and used artworks to draw attention to the complex dynamics of the two-way process of influence between teachers and students of art. This show included stills from one of my video pieces - ‘Domain of formlessness’, which was inspired by Steve Dutton whom I met whilst doing my Masters. The video relates (quite literally) to the notion of ‘avalanches’ in the title of this exhibition and the film stems from a conversation that started between Steve and myself (and continues to this day) about the catastrophes that result from trying to deal with landslides of material from abandoned artistic activities which often end up strewn chaotically across the studio. Dutton and Peacock made a film called ‘Plague-Orgy-Time’ in 1997 and I first saw it in their exhibition ‘Apocatropes’ at the Mappin Gallery in the same year. I was taken by their approach to a ‘series of accretions of things in a space punctuated by scattered evidence of artistic activity’ (Glover, I. 1997). My film deals with a similar issue but in this case the studio is reduced to a model and artistic activities are miniaturised in a series of ‘Gulliver-esque’ tableaux or enactments – each one punctuated by the close of a stage curtain. In a way my film consciously tends towards 'the reproduced', the constructed stage, film or theatre set in its depictions of a series of avalanches and visually references old slapstick humour films in a sequence of ‘vignettes’. The strange beauty of this apparently absurd process experienced in the studio is foregrounded in this 'homage'. References Izi Glover 1997 ‘Musée Imaginaire’ Frieze Issue 3

Carbon Meets Silicon

This exhibition was is in association with ITA(15), the 6th International Conference on Internet Technologies and Applications. The conference drew together researchers and developers from academia and industry across all fields of Internet computing, engineering and art and design. The inspiration for the title of this exhibition came from the work of Alan Turing and his exploration of artificial intelligence versus cognitive psychology. The key questions surrounding whether thoughts and consciousness can be produced by a mechanical systems have fascinated computer scientists, mathematicians, cognitive psychologists and artists since the 1950’s. Many thought that the difference between these two fields was concerned with whether the mechanical system in question was carbon based brain or silicon based computer (Sternberg, R.J. and Kaufman, J, C. (2013). How do we begin to explore these questions? According to Michael Polanyi (1962) ‘aesthetic insight motivates the early stages of much scientific research’. This exhibition offers tacit knowledge embodied in the artwork that may or may not question the above, but certainly explore the concept of carbon and silicon as metaphors for the changing face of art practice over the last fifty years. Carbon references the materiality of the art object, the tradition of art materials such as paint, bronze etc. and silicon references how this materiality is questioned in the light of new media utilizing the digital or the virtual bringing artists closer to scientists and engineers. When carbon meets silicon it creates silicon carbide, a compound that exists as artificial diamonds and star dust, a transformative process that is akin to the alchemy of making art. References Sternberg, RJ, and Kaufman, J, C. (2013) The Evolution of Intelligences, Psychology Press. Polanyi, M. (1962) Personal Knowledge: towards a post critical philosophy. London Routledge The exhibition has been curated by Dr Susan Ligget

Pharmacologic Inhibition of the TGF-β Type I Receptor Kinase Has Anabolic and Anti-Catabolic Effects on Bone

During development, growth factors and hormones cooperate to establish the unique sizes, shapes and material properties of individual bones. Among these, TGF-β has been shown to developmentally regulate bone mass and bone matrix properties. However, the mechanisms that control postnatal skeletal integrity in a dynamic biological and mechanical environment are distinct from those that regulate bone development. In addition, despite advances in understanding the roles of TGF-β signaling in osteoblasts and osteoclasts, the net effects of altered postnatal TGF-β signaling on bone remain unclear. To examine the role of TGF-β in the maintenance of the postnatal skeleton, we evaluated the effects of pharmacological inhibition of the TGF-β type I receptor (TβRI) kinase on bone mass, architecture and material properties. Inhibition of TβRI function increased bone mass and multiple aspects of bone quality, including trabecular bone architecture and macro-mechanical behavior of vertebral bone. TβRI inhibitors achieved these effects by increasing osteoblast differentiation and bone formation, while reducing osteoclast differentiation and bone resorption. Furthermore, they induced the expression of Runx2 and EphB4, which promote osteoblast differentiation, and ephrinB2, which antagonizes osteoclast differentiation. Through these anabolic and anti-catabolic effects, TβRI inhibitors coordinate changes in multiple bone parameters, including bone mass, architecture, matrix mineral concentration and material properties, that collectively increase bone fracture resistance. Therefore, TβRI inhibitors may be effective in treating conditions of skeletal fragility