Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement: Reflections on White’s \u3ci\u3eFreedom Farmers\u3c/i\u3e

First paragraphs: Landmark: 1. An object or feature of a landscape . . . that is easily seen and recognized from a distance, especially one that enables someone to establish their location. Synonyms: mark, indicator, guiding light, signal, beacon, lodestar. 2. An event or discovery marking an important stage or turning point in something. Synonyms: milestone, watershed . . . major achievement. (“Landmark,” n.d., para. 1 & 4) Dr. Monica White’s Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement stands literally as a landmark, ushering in a new era of community-based scholarship with and for agrarian justice. From here on out, scholars, activists, practitioners have a lodestar from which to research, practice, and advocate for food, farm, and racial justice: Dr. White’s framework of “collective agency and com­munity resilience” (CACR). Food studies scholars from across and beyond academic disciplines are in strong consensus as to the importance of this pivotal book—a manuscript that draws upon and advances rural sociology, history, agri-food studies, Black history, cooperative economics, and more. In this set of reflections on Freedom Farmers, McCutcheon lauds how the work is a “love letter” to past, present, and future Black farmers, and the powerful pedagogical potential of such celebration. Reese recounts how the book excavates the erased histories of Black women leaders and farmers, showing us how to “re/see the world” through this powerful lens. Babb calls the text a gift that “flips the script” to provide informative and inspirational narratives of food justice and food sovereignty in action. Hall commends how the book “pushes us to participate in the remaking of our communities with honesty, resilience, solidarity, and love.” Sarmiento notes how, even as the book critiques structural racism, it offers a generous, affirmative vision of resistance and agency. Wilson concurs that the book opens radical possibilities for hope, particularly in the classroom. I would also point readers to Cynthia Greenlee’s (2018) Civil Eats interview with Dr. White, which highlights how the book sheds light on the over­looked role of Black farmers in the Civil Rights movement, resurgence of Black agriculture and scholarship on it, and the ongoing necessity of affirming collective agency in the fight against racism at large..

Real-time prosodic aspects of text generated speech

The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of a text to speech (TTS) device that allows the user to manipulate pitch and volume as speech is being generated. This device was intended to facilitate the communicative needs of individuals with complex communication needs (CCN) as a result of acquired neurological conditions such as dysarthria. An Android touchscreen tablet with a built-in speech engine was used as the hardware for the TTS device, and a post-audio signal processing approach was utilized to program the TTS device. Results were collected in two separate phases: auditory and use-based. During the auditory phase, participants listened to audio samples from the thesis TTS device, a typical TTS device, and human speech and then rated them based on perceived affect (positive vs. negative) or intent (question vs. statements) categories. During the use-based phase, participants provided feedback about the thesis TTS device after using it to communicate with the study investigator. Although auditory phase results indicated that the thesis device was currently not as effective as human speech when communicating emotion and intent, use-based findings were more promising. Use-based results revealed that the new features the thesis TTS provided (ability to manipulate pitch and volume) were considered beneficial. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries