Conrad and the First World War

During the First World War, Conrad believed himself peripheral to a transitional historical moment. In November 1914, he wrote: 'the thoughts of this war sit on one's chest like a nightmare. I am painfully aware of being crippled, of being idle, of being useless with a sort of absurd anxiety' (CL 5, 427). In August 1915, Conrad felt the 'world of 15 years ago is gone to pieces; what will come in its place God knows, but I imagine doesn't care' (CL 5, 503). The political forces of nineteenth-century Europe that had fashioned Conrad's literature, notably imperialism and nationalism, were undermined and unleashed anew by the violence of the Great War and the uncertain legacy of the conflict. Conrad closely observed Poland's fate throughout the war in his relationship with Polish activist Józef Retinger, which inspired 'A Note on the Polish Problem' (1916) and 'The Crime of Partition' (1919). While 1918 saw the political rebirth of Poland, antagonisms provoked by the redrawing of Europe's historical boundaries made Conrad uneasy. On Armistice Day, he wrote: 'The great sacrifice is consummated - and what will come of it to the nations of the earth the future will show. I can not confess to an easy mind. Great and very blind forces are set free catastrophically all over the world' (CL 6, 302)

Linfield College: Study Abroad in Ecuador

This letter from returnee Lily Niland explains the value of studying abroad in Ecuador

Baseball!

Postcard from Lily Niland, during the Linfield College Semester Abroad Program at Kanto Gakuin University in Yokohama, Japa

Conrad and Intellectual Movements

In The Historical Novel (1937), Georg Lukács wrote that Walter Scott 'had no knowledge of Hegel's philosophy and had he come across it would probably not have understood a word' (Lukács, p. 30). Conversely, Conrad's fiction incorporated a wealth of historical, philosophical, and aesthetic ideas resulting from the writer's overt dialogue with nineteenth-century European thought. The philosophy of Rousseau, Herder, Hegel, the Polish Romantics and Positivists, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and Bergson represents the intellectual backdrop to Conrad's explorations of individual and communal identity

Conrad: The Critical Response, 1950-75

Following his positioning as a major English novelist by F.R. Leavis in The Great Tradition (1948), Conrad became a central figure in academic literary criticism in the 1950s and 1960s with the publication of a series of seminal works on the writer. With studies by Thomas Moser, Albert Guerard and Edward Said, the period saw the beginning of the Conrad industry in international academe, with several biographies undertaken or written and the hunt for every possible scrap of extant Conradiana under way. This resulted in societies and journals dedicated to Conrad's life and works in the USA, Britain, France, and Poland, the first steps in the daunting but now completed collected letters of Conrad, and a stubbornly unassailable interpretation of Conrad's literary career, captured in the title of Thomas Moser's influential Joseph Conrad: Achievement and Decline (1957). The period between 1950-75 also saw groundbreaking work on Conrad by Polish scholar Zdzisaw Najder, and with the unprecedented attention given to his life and works by gifted international scholars, these years constitute a true golden age of Conrad criticism

Volcanoes, disaster, and evil in victory

A literary criticism of the book "Victory," written by Joseph Conrad is presented. It states that the language used in "Victory" draw upon dichotomies of good and evil. Furthermore, it also talks about Alfred Russel Wallace's 1869 book "The Malay Archipelago" which was one of the sources of "Victory.

The Association of Attitude, Perceived Behavioral Control, and Intention with Fruit and Vegetable Intake among Rural West Virginian Residents with Pre-diabetes in Mineral and Hampshire Counties

The Association of Attitude, Perceived Behavioral Control, and Intention with Fruit and Vegetable Intake among Rural West Virginian Residents in Mineral and Hampshire Counties with Pre-diabetes Introduction: Pre-diabetes affects approximately 84.1 million adults in the United States. Pre-diabetes is one of the leading predictors of type 2 diabetes. West Virginia ranks number one in the prevalence of diabetes. Fruit and vegetable intake may assist in reducing risk for pre-diabetes. However, most adults do not consume the recommended daily amount. There are no studies investigating the fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) of rural West Virginian residents with pre-diabetes. Method: After IRB approval and informed consent, 74 participants from two counties in West Virginia were recruited over three weeks for the study. Data were collected using a demographic survey, a Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) Questionnaire, the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) Fruit and Vegetable Module, and the CDC Pre-diabetes Screening Risk Test. Data were analyzed using SPSS 25, with alpha set at .05. Sample frequencies and descriptives were analyzed. Statistical analyses to answer the research questions included t-tests and multiple linear regressions. Results: Participants were mainly white (94%), middle aged (M=48.8, SD=17.5), married (55.4%), women (63.5%) with college/technical education (56.8%) and household income greater than $40,000 (55.4%). Participants with less than college/technical education had significantly lower FVI (p = 0.004). Two TPB variables - perceived behavioral control (PBC) and intention - were highly correlated ( r= 0.45, p = 0.001). Attitude was not associated with FVI. After adjusting for education, the regression model explained 11.8% of FVI associated with attitude, 15.9% of FVI associated with PBC, and 18.2% of FVI associated with intention. Conclusion: Higher PBC and intention toward FVI were associated with increased FVI. Increased FVI may play a role in preventing diabetes as well as other chronic conditions. Interventions to increase FVI in individuals with pre-diabetes aimed at targeting an individual’s PBC and intention may assist in stopping or delaying the progression of pre-diabetes to diabetes. Consideration should also be given to the individual’s educational level and the impact it may have on fruit and vegetable intention and actual intake

THE COST OF THE BRIGHT RED STRAWBERRY: THE DANGEROUS FAILURE OF PESTICIDE REGULATIONS TO ACCOUNT FOR CHILD FARMWORKERS

Agriculture is the most dangerous industry for child workers, yet the laws that regulate the work of children in the fields are among the least protective of worker health and safety. This Article examines the failure of U.S. laws and international obligations to protect children from the devastating effects of pesticide exposure. Part II of this Article will explain the presence of children in fields and their heightened vulnerability to pesticides compared to adult farmworkers. In addition, it will discuss the deficiencies in current pesticide laws that result in inadequate protection for child farmworkers. Part III will examine the United States’ unsuccessful attempts to protect child farmworkers on both a national and international level. That Part will specifically look at the risk-assessment techniques used by EPA when considering a pesticide for approval and discuss how a proposed EPA policy paper will change current risk-assessment methods to include children in pesticide registrations. Part IV will discuss improvements to current procedures that could minimize harmful effects to children resulting from pesticide exposure. Finally, the Article concludes that a comprehensive solution that addresses the reasons young children are working in fields and the role of EPA in enforcing worker protection laws is necessary to keep child farmworkers safe and healthy

Rehabilitation through Communication, Neuropsychology, Counseling, and Training (ReCoNeCT): Connecting students and student veterans impacted by mTBI with holistic interventions, skills, and support.

The Communicative Sciences and Disorders, Counselor Education, and Educational Leadership programs together with the Neural Injury Center at the University of Montana are collaborating to implement an intensive interdisciplinary program for Montana University System (MUS) students and student veterans who have had a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and/or concussion. Academia can be exceptionally challenging for these individuals as a result of unsolved cognitive issues associated with mTBI such as attention, recall, reasoning and executive functioning, which includes skills such as planning, organization, time management, and problem solving (Krug & Turkstra, 2015). The ReCoNeCT program will include two weeks of individualized treatment along with pre- and post- treatment assessment, debriefing, home programming, referrals, recommendations, and orientation to campus-based and community-based services and resources. Pre- and post-treatment assessment will include a semi-structured interview and standardized assessment spanning neuropsychology, speech-language pathology, and counseling domains. Collectively, the team will also assess academic areas of strength and concern. Following assessment, the interdisciplinary team will provide individualized treatment in-person on the University of Montana campus two days per week and via telehealth and online modules two days per week for two weeks. The purpose of the proposed study is to assess the feasibility of implementing a short, yet intensively-delivered, interdisciplinary intervention and education program designed to increase academic success, cognitive-communication skills, mental health and wellness, and quality of life for individuals with mTBI who are pursuing higher education in the Montana University System (MUS). Participants will be recruited and screened during the spring and summer months and treatment will begin during the fall 2016 semester. This poster presentation will review the literature and provide details about the proposed program