Ecocriticism on the Edge: The Anthropocene as a Threshold Concept by Timothy Clark

Review of Timothy Clark\u27s Ecocriticism on the Edge: The Anthropocene as a Threshold Concept

Religion and Ecology: Developing a Planetary Ethic by Whitney A. Bauman

Review of Whitney A. Bauman\u27s Religion and Ecology: Developing a Planetary Ethic

On duality and reflection factors for the sinh-Gordon model

The sinh-Gordon model with integrable boundary conditions is considered in low order perturbation theory. It is pointed out that results obtained by Ghoshal for the sine-Gordon breather reflection factors suggest an interesting dual relationship between models with different boundary conditions. Ghoshal's formula for the lightest breather is checked perturbatively to $O(\beta^2)$ in the special set of cases in which the $\phi\to -\phi$ symmetry is maintained. It is noted that the parametrisation of the boundary potential which is natural for the semi-classical approximation also provides a good parametrisation at the `free-fermion' point.Comment: 17 pages, harvmac(b

Boundary breathers in the sinh-Gordon model

We present an investigation of the boundary breather states of the sinh-Gordon model restricted to a half-line. The classical boundary breathers are presented for a two parameter family of integrable boundary conditions. Restricting to the case of boundary conditions which preserve the \phi --> -\phi symmetry of the bulk theory, the energy spectrum of the boundary states is computed in two ways: firstly, by using the bootstrap technique and subsequently, by using a WKB approximation. Requiring that the two descriptions of the spectrum agree with each other allows a determination of the relationship between the boundary parameter, the bulk coupling constant, and the parameter appearing in the reflection factor derived by Ghoshal to describe the scattering of the sinh-Gordon particle from the boundary.Comment: 16 pages amslate

Threshold concepts in literary studies

This essay proposes a series of “threshold concepts” for literary studies: text, meaning, context, form, and reading. Each term carries both commonsense understandings and disciplinary understandings, which differ from each other drastically. The disciplinary understandings entail far “more” than the commonsense ones. Unless such differences are named and explained clearly, unacknowledged commonsense understandings may hinder students ability to learn equally unacknowledged disciplinary understandings. The naming and describing of such contrasting sets of understandings and of the differences between them is an act of disciplinary introspection—a scholarly and pedagogical act vital for understanding and teaching any complex body of knowledge. In addition to proposing threshold concepts for literary studies specifically, then, this essay encourages and offers a model for teacher-scholars in any discipline to undertake the same disciplinary work

Attending to the Act of Reading: Critical Reading, Contemplative Reading, and Active Reading

How students read influences how they learn. In particular, in order for students to learn to read more deeply or on a /oig/oer level, they need to learn to read actively. While many scholars and teachers appear to take active reading for granted, possibly assuming students will come into such “study skills” on their own, I propose that we should make concerted efforts to help students understand and adopt such habits as underlining, writing comments in the margins, asking questions, rereading, and so forth. In this essay, I survey recent work on critical reading, contemplative reading, and active reading and present a set of practices for teaching active reading

63/12/18 Indictment for Carrying Concealed Weapons (for John W. Terry & Richard D. Chilton)

John W. Terry and Richard D. Chilton\u27s indictment for carrying concealed weapons, filed 12/18/1963

\u3cb\u3ePersonal Reflection:\u3c/b\u3e Teaching in the Shadow of a Dead God

Excerpt: Potter (2013) argues that even though many college teachers have adopted constructivist practices and perspectives, the “foundations” of Western higher education remain objectivist through and through. In the title metaphor of his essay, “objectivism” is the dead god. Constructivism killed it conceptually. But materially and ideologically speaking, its shadow still hangs over everything we do. While we work to deeply engage learners in their own learning, the structures and infrastructures of our institutions assume a superficial understanding of learning and thereby undermine our efforts

Scaffolding Critical Reading

Teachers in any discipline where reading matters should practice a robust scaffolding pedagogy to teach critical reading, in contrast to the more common but less direct approaches that often leave students to learn or not learn these skills themselves. In this essay, I describe how to adapt established methods for teaching writing (including templates) to teaching reading. To answer critics who might find the approach too “reductive,” I turn to scaffolding theory, which calls for purposefully—but temporarily—reductive teaching. Finally, I present qualitative and quantitative evidence from three years of an American literature course to show how a scaffolding approach can help students read critically