Book Review: Expanding Horizons for American Lutherans: The Story of Abdel Ross Wentz

Abdel Ross Wentz (1883-1976) of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg joked about his small physical stature but he was a giant of American Lutheranism, noted religious historian and theological educator, and exemplar of a great generation of church leaders working in national and world arenas from the 1920s through the 1950s. This biography by his son, himself a historian and seminary professor and president, traces Wentz’s life from childhood in Lineboro, Maryland through his significant career in Gettysburg and much wider circles to his retirement near the Seminary campus. Obviously a labor of love and written in a style many readers will enjoy, this is far more than just a family memoir or contribution to local or institutional history. [excerpt

Connecting up strategy: are senior strategy directors a missing link?

With companies being exhorted to become more strategically agile and internally connected, this article examines the role of the Senior Strategy Director, the executive tasked specifically with internal strategy. In particular, it explores what they do, what specific capabilities they deploy to enable effective contribution to the company, and in what ways they facilitate the connectedness of strategy. An analysis of multiple interviews over time with Senior Strategy Directors of large companies shows the vital and challenging role these executives play in both shaping, connecting up, and executing strategy. This article identifies the particular capabilities necessary for Senior Strategy Directors to perform their role and shows how it all depends upon their skilful deployment. These findings have significant implications for understanding unfolding micro-processes of strategy in large organizations, for assumptions about the skills and capabilities necessary to be an effective Senior Strategy Director, and for business schools in terms of the content and style of strategy courses they provide

Biographies of black female scientists and inventors : an interdisciplinary middle school curriculum guide : what shall I tell my children who are black?

The purpose of this study is to gather and present biographies on afro-american female scientists and inventors to be used in interdisciplinary units of core curriculum. Black female students without the benefit of experiencing black female scientist and inventor role models during their school career, lack appropriate modeling for choosing careers in the fields of science and technology. The youngsters are therefore underrepresented in professional science careers and are usually relegated to low paying jobs and poor self esteem. The development of these biographies of black female inventors has shown that black women have historically always had a strong committment to science and inventive technology in America. Yet, there is a lack of discussion about these women. It is as though they never existed. It is also noted, through the biographical interviews, that black women have not relied on white support of themselves in their science and technology careers for they have understood that not to be included has been a political statement made by the state and the nation about their being. What has been uncovered in these biographical statements is not new to the women themselves. Invisible dignity, unshouted courage, and quiet grace have been the attributes utilized to encourage each to find meaning in her life and to create something where nothing was before. To arrest this incomplete educational tragedy, a sample interdisciplinary curriculum guide utilizing the biographical profiles of one of the women has been developed in order to offer educators examples of appropriate curriculum development for black female students. It is generally agreed that the differential representation between black females and persons of other racial and gender groups in the scientific community is especially presaged by educational patterns at the elementary and secondary levels. Schools simply are not offering role models for these youngsters to bond with. It is expected then that this study, designed especially to be used at the elementary and middle school levels, will be a beginning tool for promoting change in an usable and exciting manner

Public Housing Relocation and Utilization of the Food Safety Net: The Role of Social Capital and Cultural Capital

HOPE VI, instituted in 1993 and subsequent related policies, resulted in the demolition of traditional public housing and the relocation of former residents. For former residents living on low incomes, combining housing subsidy and other social services is important to survival. One crucial type of social services support provides food supplements. Research indicates that among low-income families, many do not receive necessary food social services. For example, among eligibles, food stamp utilization is at 50 to 60%, and for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC) rates vary from 38 to 73%. Research indicates that 35% of food insecure older adults are ineligible for the Elder Nutrition Program, and approximately 60% of eligibles are wait-listed upon application. Social services utilization patterns among eligibles are affected by neighborhood contexts. Relocation due to public housing transformation policies has been shown to change neighborhood context. This in turn has affected former public housing resident’s cultural capital and social capital. But how this affects food social services utilization has not been studied. I use Klinenberg’s (2002) activist client thesis as a framework to investigate the effect of cultural capital and social capital for housing subsidy recipients (relocated public housing residents) in Atlanta on their utilization of food social services using secondary longitudinal data from the Georgia State University Urban Health Initiative analyzed using ordered logistic regression. Most specifically, my research investigated how varying neighborhood contexts affect food social services utilization for former public housing residents in Atlanta. This research informs public policy on the provision of housing subsidy and the provision of food social services

The active architecture of mind : dynamic categorization during metaphor processing

Contemporary metaphor theory has moved away from consideration of metaphor as a similarity statement or comparison, and toward the idea that metaphor is a temporary or permanent extension of our taxonomy of concepts in long-term memory. However, this new emphasis has resulted in a divergent pattern of results in the literature. This research was designed to integrate that pattern by testing for the role of categorization in the comprehension of metaphor, and seeing whether multiple models were needed to explain that role. Experiment 1 failed to support access of metaphorical categories in the understanding of familiar metaphors. Experiment 2 found no evidence of categorical extension or access in the understanding of metaphors, but found some support for the contention that multiple models of metaphor processing may be needed to account for all the ways in which a metaphor may be comprehended