Book Note: Violence Against Indigenous Women: Literature, Activism, Resistance

Book under review: Hargreaves, A. 2017. Violence Against Indigenous Women: Literature, Activism, Resistance. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Touch and Affect in Alice Munro’s “Nettles”; or, Redefining Intimacy

AbstractThe skin, and the sense of touch it is linked with, is often an essential way to approach the world in Munro’s stories, and brings the focus onto affects.  This study focuses on touch and the skin in “Nettles” (Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, 2001), a particularly luminous instance of story in which skin and affect together play a key role in creating a sense of intimacy.RésuméLa peau, et le sens du toucher auquel elle est liée, est souvent un moyen essentiel d’aborder le monde dans les histoires de Munro, et met l’accent sur les affects. Cette étude porte sur le toucher et la peau dans « Nettles » (Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, 2001), exemple particulièrement lumineux d’une histoire dans laquelle la peau et l’affect jouent un rôle clé dans la création d’un sentiment d’intimité

In Search of a Match: A Guide for Helping Students Make Informed College Choices

This guide is designed for counselors, teachers, and advisers who work with high school students from low-income families and students who are the first in their families to pursue a college education. It offers strategies for helping these students identify, consider, and enroll in "match" colleges -- that is, selective colleges that are a good fit for students based on their academic profiles, financial considerations, and personal needs. Many of the suggestions in this guide are based on insights and lessons learned from the College Match Program, a pilot program that MDRC codeveloped with several partners and implemented in Chicago and New York City to address the problem of "undermatching," or what happens when capable high school students enroll in colleges for which they are academically overqualified or do not apply to college at all. The key lessons of the College Match Program, which are reflected in this guide, are that students are willing to apply to selective colleges when:* They learn about the range of options available to them.* They engage in the planning process early enough to meet college and financial aid deadlines.* They receive guidance, support, and encouragement at all stages.Informed by those key lessons, the guide tracks the many steps in the college search, application, and selection process, suggesting ways to incorporate a match focus at each stage: creating a match culture, identifying match colleges, applying to match colleges, assessing the costs of various college options, selecting a college, and enrolling in college. Because many students question their ability to succeed academically or fit in socially at a selective college, and because they may hesitate to enroll even when they receive good advice and encouragement, the guide offers tips and strategies to help students build the confidence they need to pursue the best college education available to them. Each section also suggests tools and resources in the form of websites and printed materials that counselors, advisers, and students can use, as well as case studies to illustrate the experiences of College Match participants throughout the process

The Interactive Learning Model: A theory that assists the L2 learner in achieving self-awareness

This study uses the Interactive Learning Model theory to explore the nature of self-awareness within each of three L2 learners. Using the Learning Connections Inventory (LCI), a validated and reliable learning instrument, each participant identified their combination of learning patterns. The subjects then recalled specific L2 learning experiences, relating them in first person narratives. Next, each subject composed anecdotes and reflections based on their narratives. They also participated in one-on-one interviews in which they described their learning experiences during basic L2 learning activities: vocabulary, grammar, writing, conversation, and passive listening during movies, live theatre, spectator sports, and television. Our analysis of the LCI outcomes and selfreported learning experiences demonstrated that the self-awareness gained from understanding their combination of learning patterns and expanded by the self-reflection activities, increased the participants’ ability to articulate the nature of their self-awareness and to identify evidence of their growth in self-awareness during L2 learning.This study uses the Interactive Learning Model theory to explore the nature of self-awareness within each of three L2 learners. Using the Learning Connections Inventory (LCI), a validated and reliable learning instrument, each participant identified their combination of learning patterns. The subjects then recalled specific L2 learning experiences, relating them in first person narratives. Next, each subject composed anecdotes and reflections based on their narratives. They also participated in one-on-one interviews in which they described their learning experiences during basic L2 learning activities: vocabulary, grammar, writing, conversation, and passive listening during movies, live theatre, spectator sports, and television. Our analysis of the LCI outcomes and selfreported learning experiences demonstrated that the self-awareness gained from understanding their combination of learning patterns and expanded by the self-reflection activities, increased the participants’ ability to articulate the nature of their self-awareness and to identify evidence of their growth in self-awareness during L2 learning

Data-Driven Inference Reveals Distinct and Conserved Dynamic Pathways of Tool Use Emergence across Animal Taxa

Tool use is a striking aspect of animal behavior, but it is hard to infer how the capacity for different types of tool use emerged across animal taxa. Here we address this question with HyperTraPS, a statistical approach that uses contemporary observations to infer the likely orderings in which different types of tool use (digging, reaching, and more) were historically acquired. Strikingly, despite differences linked to environment and family, many similarities in these appear across animal taxa, suggesting some universality in the process of tool use acquisition across different animals and environments. Four broad classes of tool use are supported, progressing from simple object manipulations (acquired relatively early) to more complex interactions and abstractions (acquired relatively late or not at all). This data-driven, comparative approach supports existing and suggests new mechanistic hypotheses, predicts future and possible unobserved behaviors, and sheds light on patterns of tool use emergence across animals.publishedVersio

Propagation of Grevillea

Grevillea (Proteaceae) is a native Australian genus with high commercial value as landscape ornamentals, and they are known to be difficult to root. There has been only limited research into the propagation of Grevillea. The effect of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) on the rooting G. 'Poorinda Royal Mantle' in winter, spring and summer was evaluated at UQ Gatton, southern Queensland in order to determine the rooting ability of this species in different seasons. The effect of cutting type, i.e. tip and stem cuttings, and method of auxin application, i.e. top and basal application, were also tested on G. 'Poorinda Royal Mantle' and G. 'Coastal Dawn'. G. 'Poorinda Royal Mantle' demonstrated a seasonal rooting and was more responsive than G. 'Coastal Dawn' to the applied IBA. Stem cuttings had a higher survival than tip cuttings, but tip cuttings had a higher capacity to root. Top application of auxin at low concentration (1 g L-1) in G. 'Poorinda Royal Mantle' in spring resulted in a significantly higher rooting percentage than basal application at the same concentration. These findings could be useful for setting up a practical propagation protocol on Grevillea

Teenage in the Ironic Mode: A Study of the Drafts of “Red Dress–1946” by Alice Munro

Through a study of “Red Dress–1946,” this article aims at showing how Munro in her first collection develops an ironical style through which the narrator humorously looks back at her awkward teenage self and, in a more deeply affecting way, at her changing relationship with her mother. This work is based on a comparative study of the drafts of the story which are available in the Special Collections of the Taylor Family Digital Library at the University of Calgary, and the version collected in Dance of the Happy Shades in 1968, after being first published in 1965 in The Montrealer. The analysis will focus on two main aspects of the evolving and published texts: the dress as source of irony, and narrative voice (together with characterisation, setting, and ending) as a factor of reflexivity

Ranjan Gosh, J. Hillis Miller, Thinking Literature Across Continents

Thinking Literature Across Continents, Ranjan Ghosh and J. Hillis Miller’s co-authored book, is based on a method implying a critical dialogue, with double chapters conceived both as a reflection and a response to the other author’s viewpoint on the same topic. The format leads to a lively conversational style (though often veering toward the abstract with Ghosh), for a discussion solidly framed by theory, and, notably with Miller, amply rooted in the close reading of a range of literary text..