Shakespeare in the Movies

Syllabus for a general education class on Shakespeare and his reception in film

Theseus Loses his Way: Viktor Pelevin's Helmet of Horror and the Old Labyrinth for the New World

This article explores the relationship between the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, and Viktor Pelevin’s 2006 adaptation of it, The Helmet of Horror, particularly how it can serve as a case study for the nature and significance of adaptation. It examines the idea of memory, a central theme of the novel, and considers how three aspects of the original myth – the Minotaur, Ariadne’s thread, and the labyrinth itself – shape and inform Pelevin’s retelling. Each of these is unique to this myth in antiquity, and together, they structure the story. Each is also fundamentally connected to the idea of memory: the Minotaur is a living reminder of Pasiphae’s transgression, Ariadne’s thread is the mnemonic that allows Theseus to escape, and the labyrinth is a structure whose very nature is designed to challenge memory by creating confusion. In Pelevin’s hands, the Minotaur is no longer a reminder of the union of human and beast but of human and machine; its head is a helmet that runs on reiterations of the past. Ariadne’s thread is re-imagined as a literal thread on an Internet forum where the characters discuss their situation and report their activities as they work towards escape. Finally, Pelevin’s novel multiplies the power of the labyrinth to enforce forgetfulness by structuring the story with a series of recursive metaphorical labyrinths, each of which suppresses memory in a different way. Pelevin’s novel dramatizes how both individuals and cultures use the past to make meaning in the present and thus illustrates the appeal of adaptations. The article closes with some suggestions for inviting students to reflect on the idea of adaptation, such as creating their own retellings, as well as for using the labyrinth as a theme for a larger study module

Integrating Writing in the Classics Classroom

This article outlines practical strategies for incorporating the teaching of writing into the classical studies classroom without sacrificing content and without becoming overwhelmed with grading

Collaboration in sensor network research: an in-depth longitudinal analysis of assortative mixing patterns

Many investigations of scientific collaboration are based on statistical analyses of large networks constructed from bibliographic repositories. These investigations often rely on a wealth of bibliographic data, but very little or no other information about the individuals in the network, and thus, fail to illustrate the broader social and academic landscape in which collaboration takes place. In this article, we perform an in-depth longitudinal analysis of a relatively small network of scientific collaboration (N = 291) constructed from the bibliographic record of a research center involved in the development and application of sensor network and wireless technologies. We perform a preliminary analysis of selected structural properties of the network, computing its range, configuration and topology. We then support our preliminary statistical analysis with an in-depth temporal investigation of the assortative mixing of selected node characteristics, unveiling the researchers' propensity to collaborate preferentially with others with a similar academic profile. Our qualitative analysis of mixing patterns offers clues as to the nature of the scientific community being modeled in relation to its organizational, disciplinary, institutional, and international arrangements of collaboration.Comment: Scientometrics (In press

The Role of Trust in Neighborhood Recovery: Examinations from New Orleans’ Recovery from Hurricane Katrina

This dissertation describes and helps delineate the circumstances under which different kinds of trust influenced neighborhood recovery in the Greater New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina. These analyses provide insights into the effects of neighborhood levels of social capital, organizational capacity, particularized racial trust and generalized trust on the mean level of household recovery in Orleans and St. Bernard Parish neighborhoods. Results suggest that neighborhood organizational capacity and several measures of neighborhood social capital had direct and positive effects on neighborhood recovery and that the effects of generalized trust on neighborhood recovery are not fixed and that neighborhood organizational capacity moderates the extent to which generalized trust influences neighborhood recovery. The interactional effects of organizational capacity and generalized trust reflect the compensatory nature of social resources. The interaction reveals that neighborhood organizational capacity matters less among neighborhoods with high generalized trust and matters more among neighborhoods with low generalized trust. In this way, high organizational capacity can compensate for low generalized trust in the process of neighborhood recovery. These findings suggest how cooperative relations and other potentially beneficial structures of social relations can be supported either through organizational capacity or through trust. Moreover, these findings suggest that of the two methods for achieving effective cooperation, organizational capacity may be relatively more advantageous than interpersonal trust for hurricane recovery outcomes

The materials processing sciences glovebox

The Materials Processing Sciences Glovebox is a rack mounted workstation which allows on orbit sample preparation and characterization of specimens from various experiment facilities. It provides an isolated safe, clean, and sterile environment for the crew member to work with potentially hazardous materials. It has to handle a range of chemicals broader than even PMMS. The theme is that the Space Station Laboratory experiment preparation and characterization operations provide the fundamental glovebox design characteristics. Glovebox subsystem concepts and how internal material handling operations affect the design are discussed

What Difference Does Quantity Make? On the Epistemology of Big Data Biology

publication-status: Acceptedtypes: ArticleIs Big Data science a whole new way of doing research? And what difference does data quantity make to knowledge production strategies and their outputs? I argue that the novelty of Big Data science does not lie in the sheer quantity of data involved, but rather in (1) the prominence and status acquired by data as commodity and recognised output, both within and outside of the scientific community and (2) the methods, infrastructures, technologies, skills and knowledge developed to handle data. These developments generate the impression that data-intensive research is a new mode of doing science, with its own epistemology and norms. To assess this claim, one needs to consider the ways in which data are actually disseminated and used to generate knowledge. Accordingly, this article reviews the development of sophisticated ways to disseminate, integrate and re-use data acquired on model organisms over the last three decades of work in experimental biology. I focus on online databases as prominent infrastructures set up to organise and interpret such data and examine the wealth and diversity of expertise, resources and conceptual scaffolding that such databases draw upon. This illuminates some of the conditions under which Big Data needs to be curated to support processes of discovery across biological subfields, which in turn highlights the difficulties caused by the lack of adequate curation for the vast majority of data in the life sciences. In closing, I reflect on the difference that data quantity is making to contemporary biology, the methodological and epistemic challenges of identifying and analysing data given these developments, and the opportunities and worries associated with Big Data discourse and methods.Economic and Social Research CouncilES/F028180/1Leverhulme TrustRPG-2013-153European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013ERC grant agreement number 335925

Questing Excellence in Academia

Unlike almost most other studies of neoliberal universities and academic capitalism this book ethnographically explores and interprets those transformations and their contradictions empirically in the everyday practices of students, faculty members, and administrators at two public universities: NTNU in Norway and UCLA in California. Differently situated in global political economies, both are ambitious, prosperous campuses. The book refl exively examines their disturbing disputes about quality, competition, and innovation. It argues that some academic, bureaucratic, and corporate university governance practices are both unsustainable and undermining what some university students and faculty already do well: circulate interdisciplinary knowledge and its making globally across the diasporic domains of academia, society, industry, and government while addressing the world’s immediate challenges: power, inequities, and sustainability. It shows the important, strategic work of domesticating, co- morphing, and meshworking at the faultlines of emerging knowledge. This book is for students, faculty, society members, and policy makers who want to engage more effectively with contemporary universities that increasingly serve as busy crossroads for sharing ideas and how to make them. It will be of interest to workers and scholars in the interdisciplinary fi elds of higher education studies, critical university studies, and critical public infrastructure studies, plus science, technology, and society studies

Analytical control test plan and microbiological methods for the water recovery test

Qualitative and quantitative laboratory results are important to the decision-making process. In some cases, they may represent the only basis for deciding between two or more given options or processes. Therefore, it is essential that handling of laboratory samples and analytical operations employed are performed at a deliberate level of conscientious effort. Reporting erroneous results can lead to faulty interpretations and result in misinformed decisions. This document provides analytical control specifications which will govern future test procedures related to all Water Recovery Test (WRT) Phase 3 activities to be conducted at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration/Marshall Space Flight Center (NASA/MSFC). This document addresses the process which will be used to verify analytical data generated throughout the test period, and to identify responsibilities of key personnel and participating laboratories, the chains of communication to be followed, and ensure that approved methodology and procedures are used during WRT activities. This document does not outline specifics, but provides a minimum guideline by which sampling protocols, analysis methodologies, test site operations, and laboratory operations should be developed