Narrating Trauma and Suffering: Towards Understanding Intersubjectively Constituted Memory

Erinnern ist ein komplexer und fehleranfälliger Prozess, dies teilweise auch, weil es sich nicht um einen ausschließlich individuellen Akt handelt. Nicht nur der Gegenstand des Erinnerns, sondern auch die Art und Weise, wie wir erinnern, sind eingebettet in spezifische soziale Kontexte und Teil ko-konstruierter Weltsichten einerseits und Ausdruck persönlicher Bedürfnisse und Perspektiven andererseits. In Forschungsinterviews ist zusätzlich die Beziehung zwischen der interviewten und der interviewenden Person wichtig für die Frage, wie Erlebtes erinnert und erzählt wird. All dies verdient Beachtung wenn wir als Sozialwissenschaftler/innen versuchen, den Sinn und die Motive "hinter den Erzählungen" zu entziffern. In diesem Beitrag zeigen wir, wie Interviewte, die über längere Zeiträume traumatischen Erfahrungen ausgesetzt waren, ihre Leidensgeschichte reflektieren und artikulieren. Um nachvollziehbar zu machen, wie persönliche Erinnerungen gelebter Erfahrung mit sozial und kontextuell vermittelten Werten und Beziehungen interagieren, greifen wir auf die Erzählungen früherer politischer Gefangener in Südafrika und in der ehemaligen Tschechoslowakei zurück; zusätzlich auf die Erzählungen südafrikanischer Straßenkinder und Frauen mit HIV/AIDS. Indem wir deren Erinnerung über ihr Leidenserleben interpretieren, versuchen wir zu zeigen, welche hermeneutische Herausforderung aus der besonderen Natur des Erinnerns erwächst. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0902144El recuerdo es un proceso complejo y notablemente falible. Esto es en parte porque la memoria no es un acto exclusivamente individual. No solo lo que recordamos sino la forma en la que recordamos es influenciada por circunstancias sociales y visiones del mundo co-construidas, así como por nuestras necesidades y perspectivas personales. En el contexto de la investigación con entrevista, la relación investigador-participante también interviene en como la experiencia es recordada y narrada. Todos estos factores necesitan ser tomados en cuenta cuando, como investigadores sociales, intentamos revelar los significados y motivos que subyacen en lo que los participantes dicen. Este artículo pretende mostrar cómo los entrevistados que han soportado experiencias traumáticas por períodos de tiempo prolongado recuerdan, reflexionan y articulan su sufrimiento. Para ilustrar cómo las memorias personales de las experiencias reales vividas se entrecruzan con valores y relaciones social y contextualmente incrustadas, recurrimos a las narrativas de ex prisioneros políticos en Sudáfrica y de la antigua Checoslovaquia. Presentamos también narrativas de niños de la calle sudafricanos y de mujeres que viven con VIH/SIDA. Cuando interpretamos los datos en profundidad, que muestran cómo los participantes recuerdan sus experiencias de sufrimiento, encontramos que la verdadera naturaleza de la memoria plantea un desafío hermenéutico. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0902144Remembering is a complex and notoriously fallible process. This is partly because memory is not an exclusively individual act. Not only what we remember, but the way we remember is influenced by social circumstances and co-constructed worldviews, as well as by our personal needs and perspectives. In the context of the research interview, the researcher-participant relationship also mediates how experience is re-membered and narrated. All these factors need to be taken into account when, as social researchers, we attempt to unpack the meanings and motives that underlie what research participants say. This paper aims to show how interviewees who have endured traumatic experiences for prolonged periods of time remember, reflect on and articulate their suffering. To illustrate how personal memories of lived, real experiences intertwine with socially and contextually embedded values and relationships we draw on the narratives of former political prisoners in South Africa and in erstwhile Czechoslovakia. We also present narratives of South African street children, and women living with HIV/AIDS. When interpreting the in-depth data that show how participants remember their experience of suffering, we find that the very nature of memory poses a hermeneutical challenge. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs090214

Training for Advanced Research in the Narrative Study of Lives Within the Context of Political and Educational Transformation: A Case Study in South Africa

Es un hecho ampliamente aceptado que las letras y las ciencias sociales en Sudáfrica se han estancado desde el fin de la lucha anti-apartheid en este país. Este artículo argumenta que un programa en El estudio narrativo de la vida ofrece una plataforma para establecer y fortalecer un componente significativo de la capacitación de científicos sociales y humanos. Su esencia está relacionada epistemológicamente al conocimiento indígena, a la transmisión cultural y al compromiso comunitario y por eso puede contribuir a la democratización del conocimiento. El programa está situado en un ambiente de aprendizaje participativo y la meta de los supervisores para los estudiantes es que asimilen nuevo conocimiento en un nivel profundo, se involucren de modo crítico con él y lo apliquen en formas que demuestran su entendimiento sólido del contenido y de los processos de investigación. Además de este enfoque sobre la tesis como producto, la supervisión también se preocupa por la persona como producto.El programa tiene como meta la construcción de la capacidad de los estudiantes para manejar y aplicar metateoría, teoría sustantiva y metodología cualitativa. La epistemología del Programa en el estudio narrativo de la vida está basada ampliamente en la tradición fenomenológica/interpretativa y opera en su mayor parte en el contexto de una teoría idealista del conocimiento. El programa subraya, empero, la necesidad de superar los antagonismos a menudo irresolubles entre sujeto y objeto, micro y macro, objetivista y constructivista, y estructura y agencia. Por esta razón, se sensibiliza a los estudiantes para discernir entre contextos biográficos, institucionales/organizacionales y contextos sociales en los que se deben analizar las narrativas.URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs130285Es kann inzwischen als hinreichend belegt gelten, dass die Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften in Südafrika seit dem Ende der Anti-Apartheid-Kämpfe in diesem Land stagnieren. In diesem Beitrag vertreten wir die These, dass es mit dem Ph.D.-Programm zur narrativen Untersuchung lebensgeschichtlicher Erzählungen gelungen ist, eine Plattform zu schaffen, mit der ein wesentlicher Aspekt der Ausbildung von Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaftler/innen implementiert und gestärkt wird. Epistemologisch bestehen Verbindungen zu indigenem Wissen, kultureller Weitergabe und gemeinschaftlichem Engagement. Auf dieser Grundlage kann das Programm zu einer Demokratisierung des Wissens in Südafrika beitragen. Das Programm ist in einer partizipatorischen Lernumgebung angesiedelt. Die Betreuenden verfolgen das Ziel, die Studierenden beim Wissenserwerb auf einer tiefen Ebene zu unterstützen, sich mit diesem Wissen kritisch auseinanderzusetzen und es so anzuwenden, dass ihr Verständnis der Inhalte und der Forschungsprozesse deutlich wird. Weiterhin bezieht sich die Betreuung nicht nur auf die Abschlussarbeit als Produkt, sondern hat ebenso die Persönlichkeit der Forschenden im Blick.Ziel des Programms ist es, den Studierenden metatheoretisches, fachlich-theoretisches sowie qualitativ-forschungsmethodisches Wissen zu vermitteln und sie bei der Anwendung dieses Wissens zu unterstützen. Das Programm zur Untersuchung lebensgeschichtlicher Erzählungen basiert im Kern auf der phänomenologisch-interpretativen Tradition und operiert innerhalb einer idealistischen Wissenstheorie. Zugleich betont das Programm die Notwendigkeit, die Gegensätze zwischen Subjekt und Objekt, Mikro- und Makroebene, Objektivismus und Konstruktivismus, Struktur- und Handlungsebene zu überwinden. Entsprechend werden die Studierenden dafür sensibilisiert, zwischen den biografischen, den institutionellen bzw. organisatorischen und den sozialen Kontexten zu differenzieren, innerhalb derer die Analyse von Erzählungen stattfindetURN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs130285It is widely accepted that the humanities and social sciences in South Africa have stagnated since the end of the anti-apartheid struggle in this country. This article argues that a programme in The Narrative Study of Lives provides a platform for establishing and strengthening a significant component of the training of social and human scientists. Its essence is epistemologically related to indigenous knowledge, cultural transmission and community engagement, and it can therefore contribute towards a democratisation of knowledge. The programme is situated in a participatory learning environment and the supervisors aim for students to assimilate new knowledge at a deep level, engage critically with it and apply it in ways that demonstrate their solid grasp of content and research processes. In addition to this focus on thesis-as-product, supervision is also concerned with the person-as-product.The programme aims at building students' capacity to master and apply metatheory, substantive theory as well as qualitative research methodology. The epistemology of The Narrative Study of Lives programme is largely based on the phenomenological/interpretivist tradition and it largely operates within an idealist theory of knowledge. The program does emphasise, however, the need to straddle the often-irresolvable antagonisms of subject and object, micro and macro, objectivist and constructivist, and structure and agency. For this reason students are sensitised to distinguish between the biographical, institutional/organisational and the societal contexts within which narratives should be analysed.URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs13028

TOPICAL REVIEW: Current status and outlook of computational materials science education in the US

We examine the current state of computational materials science education based upon information compiled from top universities in materials science and engineering (MSE). We find that there is a large variation in the emphasis on computational modelling between universities. It is reported that a relatively large course offering is the result of changes in the curriculum made in the last five years, showing a rapid pace in the implementation of computational courses at these departments. We also collected information from industry and national labs regarding their current and future needs in MSE graduates, and the results are summarized. This paper also provides a list of resources that are currently used in computational materials science education.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/49085/2/msmse5_2_R01.pd

Self-driven lattice-model Monte Carlo simulations of alloy thermodynamic

Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of lattice models are a widely used way to compute thermodynamic properties of substitutional alloys. A limitation to their more widespread use is the difficulty of driving a MC simulation in order to obtain the desired quantities. To address this problem, we have devised a variety of high-level algorithms that serve as an interface between the user and a traditional MC code. The user specifies the goals sought in a high-level form that our algorithms convert into elementary tasks to be performed by a standard MC code. For instance, our algorithms permit the determination of the free energy of an alloy phase over its entire region of stability within a specified accuracy, without requiring any user intervention during the calculations. Our algorithms also enable the direct determination of composition-temperature phase boundaries without requiring the calculation of the whole free energy surface of the alloy system

Atomic-scale structure of the SrTiO3(001)-c(6x2) reconstruction: Experiments and first-principles calculations

The c(6x2) is a reconstruction of the SrTiO3(001) surface that is formed between 1050-1100oC in oxidizing annealing conditions. This work proposes a model for the atomic structure for the c(6x2) obtained through a combination of results from transmission electron diffraction, surface x-ray diffraction, direct methods analysis, computational combinational screening, and density functional theory. As it is formed at high temperatures, the surface is complex and can be described as a short-range ordered phase featuring microscopic domains composed of four main structural motifs. Additionally, non-periodic TiO2 units are present on the surface. Simulated scanning tunneling microscopy images based on the electronic structure calculations are consistent with experimental images

Microscopic Modeling of the Growth of Order in an Alloy: Nucleated and Continuous Ordering

We study the early-stages of ordering in $Cu_3 Au$ using a model Hamiltonian derived from the effective medium theory of cohesion in metals: an approach providing a microscopic description of interatomic interactions in alloys. Our simulations show a crossover from a nucleated growth regime to a region where the ordering does not follow any simple growth laws. This mirrors the experimental observations in $Cu_3 Au$. The kinetics of growth, obtained from the simulations, is in semi-quantitative agreement with experiments. The real-space structures observed in our simulations offer some insight into the nature of early-stage kineticsComment: 13 pages, Revtex, 3 postscript figures in a second file

Study of defectoscopy of partially biodegradable LDPE films

Physical characteristics of the loaded new developed partially biodegradable LDPE polymeric films (containing sorbit, molasses and chitosan additives) with defects and without have been investigated experimentally by using the method of projection moiré. The first eigenmodes are analysed, graphical results of their investigation are presented. It was determined that the shape of the first vibrations eigenmode and the characteristics of vibrations have changed when the polymeric film had a tear defect. The results obtained could be applied for the determination of characteristics and qualities of new developed LDPE polymeric films

Neuropsychological parameters indexing executive processes are associated with independent components of ERPs

AbstractLesion studies have indicated that at least the three executive processes can be differentiated in the frontal lobe: Energization, monitoring and task setting. Event related potentials (ERPs) in Go/NoGo tasks have been widely used in studying executive processes. In this study, ERPs were obtained from EEG recorded during performance of a cued Go/NoGo task. The Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) and P3NoGo waves were decomposed into four independent components (ICs), by applying Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to a collection of ERPs from 193 healthy individuals. The components were named IC CNVearly, IC CNVlate, IC P3NoGoearly and IC P3NoGolate according to the conditions and time interval in which they occurred. A sub-group of 28 individuals was also assessed with neuropsychological tests. The test parameters were selected on the basis of studies demonstrating their sensitivity to executive processes as defined in the ROtman-Baycrest Battery for Investigating Attention (ROBBIA) model. The test scores were categorized into the domain scores of energization, monitoring and task setting and correlated with the amplitudes of the individual ICs from the sub-group of 28 individuals. The energization domain correlated with the IC CNVlate and IC P3NoGoearly. The monitoring domain correlated with the IC P3NoGolate, while the task setting domain correlated with the IC CNVlate. The IC CNVearly was not correlated with any of the neuropsychological domain scores. The correlations between the domains and ICs remained largely unchanged when controlling for full-scale IQ. This is the first study to demonstrate that executive processes, as indexed by neuropsychological test parameters, are associated with particular event-related potentials in a cued Go/NoGo paradigm

Nucleation of Al3Zr and Al3Sc in aluminum alloys: from kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to classical theory

Zr and Sc precipitate in aluminum alloys to form the compounds Al3Zr and Al3Sc which for low supersaturations of the solid solution have the L12 structure. The aim of the present study is to model at an atomic scale this kinetics of precipitation and to build a mesoscopic model based on classical nucleation theory so as to extend the field of supersaturations and annealing times that can be simulated. We use some ab-initio calculations and experimental data to fit an Ising model describing thermodynamics of the Al-Zr and Al-Sc systems. Kinetic behavior is described by means of an atom-vacancy exchange mechanism. This allows us to simulate with a kinetic Monte Carlo algorithm kinetics of precipitation of Al3Zr and Al3Sc. These kinetics are then used to test the classical nucleation theory. In this purpose, we deduce from our atomic model an isotropic interface free energy which is consistent with the one deduced from experimental kinetics and a nucleation free energy. We test di erent mean-field approximations (Bragg-Williams approximation as well as Cluster Variation Method) for these parameters. The classical nucleation theory is coherent with the kinetic Monte Carlo simulations only when CVM is used: it manages to reproduce the cluster size distribution in the metastable solid solution and its evolution as well as the steady-state nucleation rate. We also find that the capillary approximation used in the classical nucleation theory works surprisingly well when compared to a direct calculation of the free energy of formation for small L12 clusters.Comment: submitted to Physical Review B (2004