Meridians 3:2

To assume the editorship of Meridians is to assume stewardship of a venue for creative and scholarly exchange long in the making; it is, in my mind, to assume the position of a midwife of sorts to deliver the voices and visions of women of color whose works in progress reflect the lives of other women, though no longer of this earth, who have provided the sacrificial blood for each our own making....https://scholarworks.smith.edu/meridians/1035/thumbnail.jp

Meridians 4:2

We are living in an age when it is now more possible than it ever was to overcome barriers of language, culture, distance to communicate both to strangers and to loved ones. Information proliferates and is disseminated at light speed in a dizzying zigzag of advanced Internet and telecommunications. And yet, at the same time, the global community is perhaps more divided today than it ever was and those who suffer most are not surprisingly the poor and the dispossessed....https://scholarworks.smith.edu/meridians/1033/thumbnail.jp

Atlantic Legacies: Free Women of Color And The Changing Notions Of Womanhood In The Long Nineteenth Century

This dissertation focuses on three free-born African-descended women who defied expectations and prejudices to live previously unthinkable lives in the nineteenth century. The project uses their biographies to illustrate how, as black and mixed-ancestry émigrés from the Americas living in Europe, they adopted and adapted the evolving notions of ideal womanhood. As a result they expanded who could be identified as a true, redemptive or new woman. The project shows how they used the tenets of these ideals to live life on their terms. The dissertation is set in an era dominated by white males, and defined by the enslavement and marginalization of African-descended people who were deemed to be intellectually and morally inferior. The project approaches its subjects’ adoption of the social mores of the dominant society as a denial of subordination and an autoethnographic expression. By engaging with the norms of the dominant culture they practiced a type of marronage. While typically used in terms of enslavement, when looked at as a form of resistance and as a way of gaining independence and self-determination, marronage is applicable to these subjects who used established structures to break the old order. The project demonstrates how three African-descended Euro-American women live the life they wanted and left an Atlantic legacy that paved the way for subsequent generations of Atlantic women to do the same

Meridians 4:1

This issue of Meridians was born during a long, harsh, and gray New England winter. Nestled in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, so named for the early colonists who sought either riches or freedom from religious persecution as they left European shores for the unknown, our offices are housed in a pristine college town where it would be easy to lose oneself in the flamboyance of the autumn foliage, the daily chirping of birds at the break of dawn during any season, the lush green of the rolling hills and verdant forests, the soft trickle of old, worn rivers, a land redolent with history, thick with the poetry and puritan themes of Dickinson and Hawthorne....https://scholarworks.smith.edu/meridians/1034/thumbnail.jp

The Fashion of Frill: The Art of Impression Management in the Atlanta Lolita and Japanese Street Fashion Community

The Atlanta Lolita and Japanese Street Fashion Community is a multifaceted fashion community that developed in the early 2000s. The majority of the members wear Lolita fashion which is a fusion of Victorian era dress, Rococo costume, and various Japanese street fashions. Lolita fashion developed on the streets of Tokyo Japan in the 1990s and has since spread across the world. The Atlanta Lolita and Japanese Street Fashion Community heavily relies on the building and maintenance of impressions by its members. In this thesis, I analyze face-to-face and virtual community organization, fashion, and photography to illustrate how members of the community build their impressions, how they are maintained, or how they are threatened

Feeling Beyond Words: Exploring the Relationship between Mothers with Eating Disorders and their Toddlers

Literature on mothers with an eating disorder diagnosis has focused almost exclusively on identification of deficits, for both the mother and the infant. This literature suggests that, from conception through to the postnatal period, a mother with an eating disorder may experience challenges. These may be difficulty conceiving or problems with mood and eating disorder behaviours, both in the pre- and post-natal period. However, few studies provide a context in which to understand the challenges identified for mothers and their infants. This study aimed to counter this by exploring the intersubjective experience of the relationship between mothers with eating disorders and their toddlers. This qualitative psychosocial study conducted three in-depth case studies with mothers with eating disorders and their toddlers. Using psychoanalytic research methods, two infant observations and one free association narrative interview were analysed and interpreted against the backdrop of a robust supervision structure. The case study findings suggest that each mothers’ eating disorder can be understood as a response to relational isolation early in life. Despite these difficulties, each mother found ways to cope with motherhood, and to maintain a ‘good enough’ relationship with their toddlers. Specific aspects of parenting appeared difficult for mothers. These related to underlying difficulties manifested in their eating disorder presentation, and were often seen in interactions around food. These findings have clear clinical implications to rethink training for health professionals as well as supporting the benefits of taking a holistic and inclusive family focused approach to interventions for the treatment of eating disorders

Meridians 5:1

The time has come to offer my parting words as the editor of Meridians as I close the final issue of the journal under my supervision on a warm spring day in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts....https://scholarworks.smith.edu/meridians/1032/thumbnail.jp

Intergenerational Community Engagement Strategy to Minority Families in Urban Housing Developments Suffering from Generational Issues in the Pioneer Homes and Central Village on the Southside of Syracuse, New York

Problem In the Seventh-day Adventist Churches Fundamental Beliefs, Fundamental Belief #13 The Remnant and Its Mission, pages 168-178 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual (Church Manual, 172), there is no mention pertaining to the closing versus of Matthew 28. Yet within the evangelism endeavors, there is a lack of the elements of intergenerational ministry to families in low-income housing as a methodology in which to fulfill this mission. While the adage If we get the children, we will get the parents has been used in attempts to do ministry among low-income households, the lack of a systematic intergenerational evangelistic method to reach the entire family in a low-income neighborhood is lacking. This ever-present struggle to minister to the families in these low-income households in urban America will continue to have negative impacts upon the growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the urban regions of the United States of America unless intergenerational ministry is conducted outside of the church. Method The project was completed in five phases. The first phase dealt with creating two intergenerational groups of six people each, with three males and three females in per group. Additionally, each group had a mixture of generations, which included Baby Boomers, Generation Xers (Gen X), and Millennials. The second phase involved a PowerPoint presentation to the Mount Carmel Seventh-day Adventist Church body for the purpose of intergenerational ministry in the church and as an effective tool for community engagement. The third phase involved the training of two small intergenerational groups of six people each, which are the two groups created from phase one, through the North American Division (NAD) training modules, entitled Community Services and Urban Ministry Certification Program. The fourth phase of the project involved an intergenerational group of five people who were responsible for assessing the work being done with the families. This intergenerational focus group was comprised of four generations: Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Generation Z. The fifth and final phase involved the small intergenerational groups of six going door to door as a unit into the low-income housing projects to locate families with which to work for a period of 30 days. Results The study revealed that intergenerational learning and ministry to families in low-income housing developments can be effective. Regarding the learning aspect of the groups, the generations were able to work and learn together in a manner that caused each person to have a shift in one\u27s thinking, seeing ministry concepts from varying generational lenses and perspectives. Secondarily, the study revealed that when families in a low-income housing development are engaged by a family unit to be a family within a family and assist with basic needs, there is more friendship, connection, and positive synergy transpiring. Conclusions Each church functioning in an urban center among low-income residents should train their members in intergenerational small-group ministry to work with families in an intergenerational manner alongside partner families. Additionally, the church should research low-income housing neighborhoods near the church to effectively assign intergenerational small groups to various houses within that community