Situated Spirituality: The Application of Yoga and Meditation Techniques on and off the Mat

Research consistently shows that in times of stress, exercise and spirituality are two places where people look to improve their physical and mental wellbeing. In particular, clinical and psychological research suggest that mindfulness practices help relieve stress in both daily life and following traumatic events. Through the analysis of yoga and meditation practitioners’ contemplative experiences, this study further investigates the relationship between distress and spirituality, identifying the ways in which yoga and meditation not only exercise the physical body but the mind. Practitioners suggest that yoga released their mental tension by first releasing physical tension. At the same time, mindfulness and meditation teach mantras that encourage self-love and acceptance. Using the strategies from these two areas, practitioners applied their physical and mental techniques to mitigate specific stressful situations off the mat. It is important to note that practitioners said yoga and meditation did not get rid of their stress, but rather showed them different ways of approaching and responding to their stress. Furthermore, people who cited extreme stress or trauma spoke about yoga and meditation as spiritual practices that helped them feel connected in their beliefs and work through times of struggle. Contemplative practices however did not directly result in a connection to spirituality or promote specific religious beliefs

Salto Mortale: Narrative, Speculation, and the Chance of the Future

"Salto Mortale: Narrative, Speculation, and the Chance of the Future," reads contemporary American fiction and economic form. The present market crisis has revealed that the last three decades of American economic life have been dominated by finance capital. But we have not yet realized how profoundly finance has changed our sense of history itself. I argue that "speculative" capitalism has transformed how we relate to the past and how we imagine the future.In a metaphor borrowed from Kant's account of speculative philosophy, Marx describes financial speculation as a "fatal leap" into the unknown. Marx's appropriation suggests that speculation engineers a future both uncertain and imminent, both risky and foreseeable. In our own moment of volatile finance, the future is commodified by derivatives, quantified by risk models, and preempted in military strategy. Brief, knowable, and instrumentalized, the financialized future is no longer connected to the past and no longer promises utopian possibility.As a mode of linking the present with the to-come, speculation is also an imaginative act. My dissertation considers how speculation has defined contemporary narratives and how those narratives challenge finance capital's historical ideology. In Chapter 1, I look at contemporary apocalyptic fiction and film and argue that these narratives derive their temporality and their politics from financial derivatives. Chapter 2 locates a more critical response to late postmodernity in the popular genre of counterfactual history. Iraq War counterfactuals (Paul Auster's Man in the Dark and Richard Kelly's film Southland Tales) index the traumas of the first fully privatized war, while post-9/11 counterfactuals by Michael Chabon and Philip Roth register neoliberalism's negation of liberal democracy. In Chapter 3, I read 9/11 fiction alongside the doctrine of preemption, arguing that both post-9/11 literature and post-9/11 politics struggle to comprehend an event both familiar and unpredictable. I conclude by considering cultural representation in a moment of economic crisis. I examine the ways that horror film associates the financialization of risk with the temporality of suspense; connecting these films to terrorism novels and films, I discover a mode of speculative allegory that illuminates the relationship between finance, violence, and literary form

How Do We Win? Factors and Definitions of Success in Division III Athletics at a Competitive, Liberal Arts College

Building on group performance research and the sociology of sport, in this study I compare how two varsity basketball teams competing at the DIII level at Hamilton College strive to succeed together. In examining how small groups work together and manage themselves, I contribute to understandings of how group dynamics and cultures affect collegiate athletic “success.” Many things affect athletic teams: coaching, membership changes, resources, and talent. Through interviews with coaches and players, ethnographic observation, and statistical data from both teams’ upcoming season, I show what really matters to be a winning team. Results suggest that success is interpreted by teams relative to their prior achievements, both good and bad. To achieve important goals, team leadership must consider the lifestyle and priorities of players. Lastly, while winning is not essential to team cohesion, it can serve as a mechanism to improve group bonding and respect

A framework to assess national level vulnerability from the perspective of food security: the case of coral reef fisheries

Measuring the vulnerability of human populations to environmental change is increasingly being used to develop appropriate adaptation policies and management plans for different economic sectors. We developed a national-level vulnerability index that is specific to food security policies by measuring nations' relative vulnerabilities to a decline in their coral reef fisheries. Coral reef fisheries are expected to decline with climate and anthropogenic disturbances, which may have significant consequences for food security. The vulnerability measure was composed of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity indicators specific to fisheries, reef management, and food security. The vulnerability index was used to evaluate 27 countries, as data required to fully populate the theoretical framework was limited. Of these, Indonesia and Liberia were identified as most and Malaysia and Sri Lanka as least vulnerable nations. Our analysis revealed two common national vulnerability characterizations: low income countries with low adaptive capacity and middle-income countries with higher adaptive capacity but high sensitivity. These results suggest developing context-specific policies and actions to build adaptive capacity in the low-income countries, and to decrease sensitivity in middle-income countries. Comparing our food security evaluation to a more general vulnerability approach shows that they produce different priority countries and associated policies

Modern alongside traditional taxonomy-Integrative systematics of the genera Gymnangium Hincks, 1874 and Taxella Allman, 1874 (Hydrozoa, Aglaopheniidae).

We studied the diversity within the former genus Gymnangium in the South West Indian Ocean by using an integrative approach of both traditional (morphology-based) and modern molecular taxonomy. Nine species were recorded in the material collected. A total of 97 16S mitochondrial DNA sequences and 54 Calmodulin nuclear sequences from eight Gymnangium/Taxella species were analyzed. We found both morphological and molecular differences in the studied Gymnangium species that make it necessary to split the genus. It is proposed to revalidate the genus Taxella which is currently regarded as a synonym of Gymnangium. Two species of the genus Taxella (T. eximia and T. gracilicaulis), until now regarded as distinct species based on morphological characteristics, cluster together in one phylogenetic clade. Possible explanations are discussed. Two species from Madagascar new to science are herein described and rare species from the Indian Ocean islands are re-described