“More Like A Fire, Like The Wind”: James Baldwin and the Political Philosophy of Active Love

My dissertation, “More Like a Fire, Like the Wind,” explores how Black American culture, philosophy, and religion have contributed to love’s history, theorization, and politics worldwide. Focusing on James Baldwin in particular, I combine close reading, philosophy, and discourse analysis to outline the multiparty philosophical discourse on love, religion, and politics that emerged from James Baldwin’s conversations with other Black intellectuals. answers the question: “What role has James Baldwin played in conversations about love and politics in the 20th century?” To answer this question, I draw upon two recent academic trends. Firstly, I build upon Black feminist scholars’ arguments that the sociopolitical circumstances of African Americans have inspired singular understandings of the definition and political function of love. Secondly, I employ “critical love analysis,” a methodological framework that reads discussions of love as extended narratives about acts of care and intimacy. Using these frameworks, I examine Baldwin’s political philosophy of “active love,” which held that concrete acts of love could foster significant personal, political, and ethical change amidst the worst social conditions. As I show, the philosophy unfolded through James Baldwin’s conversations with other twentieth-century Black creative intellectuals – namely Ralph Ellison, Eldridge Cleaver, and Audre Lorde. The project joins Black studies’ growing conversations about love by outlining Baldwin’s singular understanding of the phenomenon. I read Baldwin’s treatments of love as and through the language of testimony – a form of discourse that asserts universal truths by drawing upon the ambiguities of concrete, contextual experience. As I show, the poetics of testimony allowed Baldwin to use critical reflections on Black liberation to demonstrate love’s transformative potential in all racial contexts. In doing so, Baldwin simultaneously defined love as a radical political act, highlighted its antiracist functions, and addressed love’s operation in all human lives. I use this analysis to argue that scholars adopt testimony to study love within and outside Black studies. Because African American testimonies have roots in the Christian church, the discourse is highly spiritual. As a result, I pay particular attention to how the discourse’s religiosity both shapes and is shaped by public attitudes toward Black people and Blackness. The project is highly interdisciplinary. It engages classic and recent scholarship from several fields, including hermeneutics, political theology, political theory, American literary history, philosophy of religion, comparative literature, Black studies, philosophy, and African American Christianity. I have received grants for my dissertation from the University of Chicago Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture, the University of Chicago Center for Study of Gender and Sexuality, the University of Notre Dame, Carleton College, and the Consortium for Faculty Diversity

Longitudinal evaluation of cognitive functioning in young children with type 1 diabetes over 18 months

OBJECTIVE: Decrements in cognitive function may already be evident in young children with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Here we report prospectively acquired cognitive results over 18 months in a large cohort of young children with and without T1D. METHODS: 144 children with T1D (mean HbA1c: 7.9%) and 70 age-matched healthy controls (mean age both groups 8.5 years; median diabetes duration 3.9 yrs; mean age of onset 4.1 yrs) underwent neuropsychological testing at baseline and after 18-months of follow-up. We hypothesized that group differences observed at baseline would be more pronounced after 18 months, particularly in those T1D patients with greatest exposure to glycemic extremes. RESULTS: Cognitive domain scores did not differ between groups at the 18 month testing session and did not change differently between groups over the follow-up period. However, within the T1D group, a history of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) was correlated with lower Verbal IQ and greater hyperglycemia exposure (HbA1c area under the curve) was inversely correlated to executive functions test performance. In addition, those with a history of both types of exposure performed most poorly on measures of executive function. CONCLUSIONS: The subtle cognitive differences between T1D children and nondiabetic controls observed at baseline were not observed 18 months later. Within the T1D group, as at baseline, relationships between cognition (VIQ and executive functions) and glycemic variables (chronic hyperglycemia and DKA history) were evident. Continued longitudinal study of this T1D cohort and their carefully matched healthy comparison group is planned

The Effects of Early Life Stress, Postnatal Diet Modulation, and Long-Term Western-Style Diet on Later-Life Metabolic and Cognitive Outcomes

Early life stress (ES) increases the risk to develop metabolic and brain disorders in adulthood. Breastfeeding (exclusivity and duration) is associated with improved metabolic and neurocognitive health outcomes, and the physical properties of the dietary lipids may contribute to this. Here, we tested whether early life exposure to dietary lipids mimicking some physical characteristics of breastmilk (i.e., large, phospholipid-coated lipid droplets; Concept Nuturis® infant milk formula (N-IMF)), could protect against ES-induced metabolic and brain abnormalities under standard circumstances, and in response to prolonged Western-style diet (WSD) in adulthood. ES was induced by exposing mice to limited nesting material from postnatal day (P) 2 to P9. From P16 to P42, male offspring were fed a standard IMF (S-IMF) or N-IMF, followed by either standard rodent diet (SD) or WSD until P230. We then assessed body composition development, fat mass, metabolic hormones, hippocampus-dependent cognitive function, and neurogenesis (proliferation and survival). Prolonged WSD resulted in an obesogenic phenotype at P230, which was not modulated by previous ES or N-IMF exposure. Nevertheless, ES and N-IMF modulated the effect of WSD on neurogenesis at P230, without affecting cognitive function, highlighting programming effects of the early life environment on the hippocampal response to later life challenges at a structural level

Report of the Working Group on the Effects of Extraction of Marine Sediments on the Marine Ecosystem, WGEXT, 31 May-4 June 2010, Djurönäset, Sweden

ICES WGEXT Report 201

Report of the Working Group on the Effects of Extraction of Marine Sediments on the Marine Ecosystem, WGEXT, 11-15 April 2011, Delft, the Netherlands

ICES WGEXT Report 201

Immunocompetent 3D Model of Human Upper Airway for Disease Modeling and In Vitro Drug Evaluation

The development of more complex in vitro models for the assessment of novel drugs and chemicals is needed because of the limited biological relevance of animal models to humans as well as ethical considerations. Although some human-cell-based assays exist, they are usually 2D, consist of single cell type, and have limited cellular and functional representation of the native tissue. In this study, we have used biomimetic porous electrospun scaffolds to develop an immunocompetent 3D model of the human respiratory tract comprised of three key cell types present in upper airway epithelium. The three cell types, namely, epithelial cells (providing a physical barrier), fibroblasts (extracellular matrix production), and dendritic cells (immune sensing), were initially grown on individual scaffolds and then assembled into the 3D multicell tissue model. The epithelial layer was cultured at the air–liquid interface for up to four weeks, leading to formation of a functional barrier as evidenced by an increase in transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) and tight junction formation. The response of epithelial cells to allergen exposure was monitored by quantifying changes in TEER readings and by assessment of cellular tight junctions using immunostaining. It was found that epithelial cells cocultured with fibroblasts formed a functional epithelial barrier at a quicker rate than single cultures of epithelial cells and that the recovery from allergen exposure was also more rapid. Also, our data show that dendritic cells within this model remain viable and responsive to external stimulation as evidenced by their migration within the 3D construct in response to allergen challenge. This model provides an easy to assemble and physiologically relevant 3D model of human airway epithelium that can be used for studies aiming at better understanding lung biology, the cross-talk between immune cells, and airborne allergens and pathogens as well as drug delivery