Looking Back, or Re-visioning: Contemporary American Jewish Poets on “Lot’s Wife”

Although mentioned only twice in Genesis (19:17, 26), Lot’s wife has been a topic of much discussion amongst both traditional and modern commentators and exegetes. The traditional midrashim seek to explain why she chose to disregard the instructions she was given and the nature of her punishment. In doing so, they follow two principal directions, representing her a) negatively as a wicked sinner, a Sodomite who acted as such even before disobeying the divine decree not to look backwards—thus linking her disobedience with her intrinsic character (e.g., curious, greedy, inhospitable, faithless); or b) positively as a loving mother and daughter. However, as opposed to the androcentric traditional midrash, the Jewish American women poets, who write midrashic-poetry, re-read the biblical story with a feminine/feminist lens, making what Alicia Ostriker calls “revisionist mythmaking.” As such, they very rarely take the first route, almost always highlighting Lot’s wife’s positive—female—aspects. In this article, I shall analyze nine poems written by American Jewish women poets from the 1980s until 2015, who draw on the biblical text in order to deal with contemporary issues or contextualize it in the modern period

Awakening social work to the human/nature relationship: A proposed university education framework

The social work profession has traditionally concerned itself with a wide variety of issues pertaining to human health and well-being. However, the importance of the human/nature relationship has long been ignored, despite the field’s purported dual commitment to both ‘person’ and ‘environment.’ While recent literature challenges this tendency, minimal attention focuses on the role of social work university education in making a paradigm shift toward natural-environmental concerns. This thesis is a theoretical examination of how existing social work university education could be re-envisioned to more fully integrate natural-environmental values and issues into its core curriculum and overarching educational philosophy. Several meta-theories provide a conceptual foundations for the incorporation of natural-environmental concepts into social work. Case examples reinforce how social and natural-environmental phenomena are integrally connected, and how examining them conjointly is fundamental to social work. A comprehensive rationale for the development of an alternative, natural-environmentally-attuned social work university education framework is outlined, followed by the presentation of a unique education model that is comprised of 7 specific topics. Hypothetical plans for implementing the model, which include a sample curriculum, as well as a five-year implementation strategy, are offered. Implications for the wide-scale operationalization of this model within social work university education are discussed with regard to both the social work profession, as well as for society at large. It is argued that re-orienting social work students toward a greater knowledge, awareness, and concern for natural-environmental issues has the potential to improve the efficacy of social work practice interventions, as well as help to address the global ecological crisis

Politics and the Representation of Women in the Nibelungenlied

Dieser Artikel überprüft die Art und Weise, wie die weiblichen Figuren im Nibelungenlied dargestellt sind. Sie sind in zwei Gruppen unterteilt: die traditionellen Frauen, welche ihre sozial festgelegte Stellung akzeptieren und die Manner unterstützen; und die Frauen, welche gegen diese Tradition rebellieren und versuchen, ein Teil der Männerwelt zu werden, und die damit die Grenzen der Tradition überschreiten. Dieser Artikel legt nahe, dass die beiden Frauengruppen im Nibelungenlied die Kirche und die Männer des Kaiserreichs repräsentieren. Die Gruppe der traditionellen Frauen repräsentiert die Kirche vor dem Ausbruch des historischen Konflikts mit dem Reich; die Gruppe der rebellierenden Frauen symbolisiert die Kirche in der Periode des fortgeschrittenen Konflikts

A general system theory approach to understanding and changing the college classroom.

PsychologyDoctor of Philosophy (PhD

SharePoint as enabler for collaboration and efficient project knowledge sharing

Abstract: Background: Cutting-edge web technology applications have improved the manner in which business is conducted, allowing organisations to deliver business projects effectively. There is an untapped potential to power up SharePoint as a business application platform for content management, knowledge sharing and collaboration within organisations

On misunderstanding Heraclitus: The justice of organisation structure

Writers on organisational change often refer to the cosmology of Heraclitus in their work. Some use these references to support arguments for the constancy and universality of organisational change and the consignment to history of organisational continuity and stability. These writers misunderstand the scope of what Heraclitus said. Other writers focus exclusively on the idea that originated with Heraclitus that the universe is composed of processes and not of things. This idea, which has been particularly associated with Heraclitus’s thought from the time of Plato, does indeed provide a rich source of insights into organisational analysis, not least the current trends towards giving proper attention to processual studies of organisational change. Yet there is some uncertainty as to whether Heraclitus actually said that the universe was composed exclusively of processes rather than things, and even if that was what he thought, he intended his ideas on flux to be understood not in isolation but in the context of other aspects of his cosmology. Writers on organisational change seldom make reference to this wider context. Heraclitus was a rational but also a religious thinker. A central element in his thought was the notion of divine Justice, which to a Greek of his era meant the order of the universe. Remote as his Olympian theology may seem today, it sets a crucial and entirely rational context for understanding his ideas about flux. It means that ideas about continuity and stability were quite as important in Heraclitus’s cosmology as his more commonly quoted ideas about change. This paper sets out an overview of Heraclitus’s philosophy, insofar as it appears to have potential relevance to organisational analysis, and discusses how far it supports or contradicts the ideas that organisational change scholars have drawn from it

Antenatal and perinatal factors influencing neonatal blood pressure: a systematic review

Objective A comprehensive understanding of the factors contributing to perinatal blood pressure is vital to ensure optimal postnatal hemodynamic support. The objective of this study was to review existing literature on maternal and perinatal factors influencing blood pressure in neonates up to 3 months corrected age. Methods A systematic search of published literature in OVID Medline, OVID Embase and the COCHRANE library identified publications relating to maternal factors affecting blood pressure of neonates up to corrected age of 3 months. Summary data were extracted and compared (PROSPERO CRD42018092886). Results Of the 3683 non-duplicate publications identified, 44 were eligible for inclusion in this review. Topics elicited were sociodemographic factors, maternal health status, medications, smoking during pregnancy, and cord management at birth. Limited data were available for each factor. Results regarding the impact of these factors on neonatal blood pressure were inconsistent across studies. Conclusions There is insufficient evidence to draw definitive conclusions regarding the impact of various maternal and perinatal factors on neonatal blood pressure. Future investigations of neonatal cardiovascular therapies should account for these factors in their study design. Similarly, studies on maternal diseases and perinatal interventions should include neonatal blood pressure as part of their primary or secondary analyses