‘A menace to England’: The egg collector as arch-villain in two 1940s bird novels

This paper examines the figure of the egg collector as an arch-villain in two novels about rare birds that were published in the 1940s: Adventure Lit Their Star by Kenneth Allsop, and The Awl Birds by J.K. Stanford. Drawing on insights from birdwatching literature published in the same period, I demonstrate that the extreme vilification of the egg collector in both texts represents a dramatic change in attitude towards a pastime that was previously considered beneficial for both adults and children. This reversal, I suggest, can be explained by reading the desperate rush to protect the birds’ eggs as an expression of deep contemporary anxieties over the future of Britain after the Second World War, and in particular a concern that the failures of the period after World War I should not be repeated

Beyond the Dark, Satanic Mills: An ecocritical reading of 'A Kestrel for a Knave'

Barry Hines’ 1968 novel A Kestrel for a Knave is justly celebrated for its depiction of work- ing-class life in an English mining village. However, false assumptions about the role of ‘nature’ in the working-class experience have led critics to overlook the significance of the bird at the centre of the novel and the descriptions of the surrounding environment. A reading that foregrounds these aspects offers new insights, revealing a prescient anxiety about the way capitalism weakens relationships between human and nonhuman. The book is shown to be ahead of its time in its understanding that human flourishing depends on meaningful connection with the more-than-human world

New Silhouettes of African Women: How Women in Botswana Juggle Work and Home-Based Roles

Global discourse on Africa largely fails to recognize the important and transformative roles of women working in professional careers. This thesis uses life history and ethnography to document the lives of women in Botswana who are juggling paid employment and raising children. The culturally-specific ways in which they negotiate work and home-based roles have much to contribute to larger understandings of women, work, and motherhood. I argue that a new faction of Botswana’s middle class is emerging among women in Gaborone. The women in this case study exemplify this new group. Members of this class are characterized by their tertiary education and full-time careers that are driven by these women’s aspirations and personal goals. This thesis charts their path to their current middle-class status. The roles of motherhood and heading a household are sources of empowerment and remain key elements of the hybrid identities of Batswana women working careers in Gaborone

Embodied Community Engagement: Is a University-Based Program in Dialogue and Civic Engagement a Site of Transformational Learning?

Recently, a mid-sized Canadian university launched a unique certificate program in dialogue and civic engagement. Taught by academics and practitioners, the program aims to synthesize diverse concepts and practices from a variety of disciplines related to civic engagement. The goal is to offer learners a mix of conceptual and practical knowledge that empowers them to become civic engagement leaders in their own communities or practice settings

Nesting in English fields : bird narratives and the re-imagining of post-war Britain

This thesis explores what a reading of bird narratives from the mid-twentieth century reveals about contemporary anxieties around human identity. Starting from the assumption that people often use animals to say things they cannot otherwise articulate, it investigates whether readings that foreground the representation of the more-than-human world in both familiar and unfamiliar texts can shed new light on a period of British history that was characterised by radical social change. The texts are examined using insights from historical contextualisation, ecocriticism and animal studies. The period is known as one in which previous ideas about human identity were being destabilised by new thinking around issues such as gender, race and sexuality. However, my readings show all the texts examined to be dominated by a single, overarching question, namely whether humans are capable of creating and sustaining a world worth living in. In The Awl Birds by J.K. Stanford (1949) and Adventure Lit Their Star by Kenneth Allsop (1949) the answer is yes, but this positive response is premised on two very different constructions of national identity and of the type of country that Britain should become after the Second World War. In the 1960s texts, The Peregrine by J.A. Baker (1967) and A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines (1968), the answer is an unequivocal no. My readings demonstrate a close connection between the pessimism of these books and the profound changes in agriculture that were underway during the period. This research is important in demonstrating how readings that foreground the more-than-human world can offer new insights into both the texts under discussion and also the culture in which those texts were produced. In addition, in the current era of anthropogenic ecological crisis, they add to our understanding of what lies behind the way that humans interact with the more-than- human world. Without such an understanding, efforts to solve the crisis are unlikely to succeed

The zircon (U-Th)/He thermochronometer: development and application of thermochronometers in igneous provinces

This study presents a detailed consideration of the effects of geometry, U- and Th-zonation and diffusion on zircon (U-Th)/He ages. The errors introduced by assuming homogeneity are quantified, and the difficulties associated with the characterisation of U and Th zonation in zircon samples are addressed in a qualitative and quantitative assessment. When these issues are fully considered, the (U-Th)/He age distribution of unknown samples can be understood, and (U-Th)/He ages can be interpreted with confidence. Using these more rigorous interpretive techniques, it has been possible to accurately determine the (U-Th)/He ages of zircons from the Palaeogene Hebridean Igneous Province. This data has been used in conjunction with apatite thermochronometry (fission track and (U-Th)/He) to constrain the low temperature cooling history of the region. In the Hebridean Igneous Province denudation has removed much of the basaltic lava pile and has exposed the plutonic complexes emplaced at its base. This thermochronological investigation of these plutonic sequences shows that the initial cooling was very rapid. This is consistent with field evidence for shallow level emplacement, accompanied by extensive hydrothermal activity and syn-, and post-intrusive denudation. The new data from the zircon (U-Th)/He, apatite fission track, and apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronometers identifies a previously unresolved pulse of magnetic activity that occurred at approximately 47 Ma, significantly after the initiation of rifting, and the cessation of voluminous shallow level intrusion in the Hebridean Igneous Province. The timing of a short-lived low temperature event observed in the plutonic units on the islands of Rum (80 - 90°C peak temperature), and Skye (120 - 180°C peak temperature), correlates with a cooling episode of more than 200°C at the St Kilda Central Complex, 100 km further to the west

Categorisation of continuous risk factors in epidemiological publications: a survey of current practice

BACKGROUND: Reports of observational epidemiological studies often categorise (group) continuous risk factor (exposure) variables. However, there has been little systematic assessment of how categorisation is practiced or reported in the literature and no extended guidelines for the practice have been identified. Thus, we assessed the nature of such practice in the epidemiological literature. Two months (December 2007 and January 2008) of five epidemiological and five general medical journals were reviewed. All articles that examined the relationship between continuous risk factors and health outcomes were surveyed using a standard proforma, with the focus on the primary risk factor. Using the survey results we provide illustrative examples and, combined with ideas from the broader literature and from experience, we offer guidelines for good practice. RESULTS: Of the 254 articles reviewed, 58 were included in our survey. Categorisation occurred in 50 (86%) of them. Of those, 42% also analysed the variable continuously and 24% considered alternative groupings. Most (78%) used 3 to 5 groups. No articles relied solely on dichotomisation, although it did feature prominently in 3 articles. The choice of group boundaries varied: 34% used quantiles, 18% equally spaced categories, 12% external criteria, 34% other approaches and 2% did not describe the approach used. Categorical risk estimates were most commonly (66%) presented as pairwise comparisons to a reference group, usually the highest or lowest (79%). Reporting of categorical analysis was mostly in tables; only 20% in figures. CONCLUSIONS: Categorical analyses of continuous risk factors are common. Accordingly, we provide recommendations for good practice. Key issues include pre-defining appropriate choice of groupings and analysis strategies, clear presentation of grouped findings in tables and figures, and drawing valid conclusions from categorical analyses, avoiding injudicious use of multiple alternative analyses

Transcending Boundaries: The Acousmatic Story in the Anthropocene

The multiple crises of the Anthropocene include a crisis in sto- rytelling. Amitav Ghosh, for example, has claimed that not only is literary fiction incapable of representing climate change, it is also complicit in its concealment in the broader culture (2016). Ghosh suggests the increasing entwining of image and text brought about by the Internet could lead to a hybridity of form that will free readers from the unhelpful logocentrism of re- cent times. While agreeing with him on both the need for new forms and the importance of hybridity, we argue that he has overlooked the power of sound in storytelling. Drawing on a collaborative work-in-progress about birdsong and loss, we propose the acousmatic story as a response to the challenges of the age and also to an emerging understanding that all sto- ries are entangled in a vast mesh of agencies, both human and other-than-human