Bodies of Parchment: Representing the Passion and Reading Manuscripts in Late Medieval England

In a diverse range of late-fourteenth- and fifteenth-century devotional literature, Christ\u27s body is metaphorically related to a book or a document at the moment of his crucifixion. His skin transforms into parchment, whips and scourges become pens, and a steady flow of blood, of ink, covers his body and the written page. And each word written onto his parchment body welcomes sustained study, acting as a potential meditative focal point for the devout reader. Through this metaphor and the accompanying materiality of the texts that include it, medieval authors and audiences could imagine intimately interacting with Christ\u27s body during the violence of his Passion. They could touch it, see it, hear it as it was read aloud, and, in the case of scribes, write it. This dissertation explores how the object of the text allowed audiences to participate actively in the events of Christ\u27s Passion and considers how the affective engagement with Christ\u27s suffering body that pervaded late-medieval devotional practice informed, in turn, the signifying power of a text\u27s materiality. The Christ-as-book metaphor often occurs in works that represent the creation and consumption of books in similar terms — terms that emphasize books not as already completed objects but as objects that are continuously in the process of being made, reproduced, edited, and circulated. Manuscript books are shown to function as loci for active and varied acts of interpretation as readers approached them as textual and material, but also visual and aural, objects. While the Christ-as-book metaphor can illuminate the dynamic role manuscripts could play in inspiring affective devotion, it has primarily been examined for the insight it offers into literary or theological trends of mysticism and popular religion. I argue, however, that this metaphor and the texts containing it can be read productively through the lenses of manuscript studies and book history. Building upon the work of D. F. McKenzie, Roger Chartier, and Alexandra Gillespie, I consider how the material form in which these texts occur influenced their reception and status as cultural objects amongst late-medieval lay audiences. The materiality of the manuscript book, I suggest, powerfully guided the ways in which readers approached, viewed, and experienced devotional works and, as a result, Christ\u27s body in late medieval England. The first chapter presents an examination of how writing, as the literal act of inscription and as a metaphor for the reading process: one remembered what one read, for example, by writing it in one\u27s heart), works to reproduce Christ\u27s suffering body both on the page and within the reader. By highlighting the interactions between pain and reading and between Christ\u27s body and a text\u27s material form, the Meditations on the Life and Passion of Christ, the Orison of the Passion, and the Charters of Christ illustrate that each re-reading of their respective texts constituted a re-writing as well. Every inscription of the text and of the events of Christ\u27s Passion produces a new copy — a new witness — both on the manuscript page and within the reader\u27s heart. Christ\u27s suffering body is not presented in these works as a reified, stable text to be copied out, or read, passively but instead as a text that welcomed readerly and scribal interpretation and reinvention. In the second chapter, I consider the potential for the material object of the text to function as a type of affective image for the devout reader. I argue that the ABC of Christ\u27s Passion, a text that relates the letters of the alphabet to the wounds inflicted upon Christ\u27s body, demonstrates how even the undecorated manuscript page could function as a potent “image” and focal point for a devout reader\u27s meditative practice. John Lydgate\u27s Passion poetry further illustrates the value of contemplating the visual aspects of a written text and its material form. While a reader could be moved to devout thoughts by regarding an image of the crucified Christ, Lydgate explores the potential for the object of the text to interact with and at times even supplant the devotional influence of standard Passion iconography. The layout of books and rolls can provide further evidence of how these textual objects were read by medieval audiences, and, in the third chapter, I investigate how affective reading practices mirrored the late-medieval devotional preoccupation with Christ\u27s suffering, fragmented body. The format and narrative structure of the Symbols of the Passion encourages readers to consult its text in a discontinuous fashion, as if the reader\u27s engagement with that work were intended to mirror how he or she would have meditated upon the partitioned body of Christ represented in popular arma Christi images. A parity existed, I suggest, between how Christ\u27s body and texts could be approached; both could be productively read in parts, with each fragment operating as an affectively-potent whole in its own right. Rather than being an idiosyncratic reading style promoted by the Symbols, the Book of Margery Kempe, Handlyng Synne, and a wide-range of other late-fourteenth and early-fifteenth century works of devotion also encourage late-medieval audiences to read discontinuously, indicating that this method of reading was influential and pervasive amongst a range of late-medieval devout audiences. But many audiences “read” medieval works by listening to them being read aloud rather than by personally and privately consulting a text within its manuscript context. In the fourth chapter, I study a unique musical version of the Short Charter of Christ and a non-musical: but nonetheless melodic) O-and-I lyric, “Throw hys hond.” I examine how these works explore the tension between spoken and written language and suggest that they provide a glimpse of the oral / aural potential latent within the metaphor of Christ\u27s body as a book. While manuscripts might be seen today as offering a silent material witness to the past, medieval audiences conceived of these forms as being imbued with sound, the otherwise dead skin and ink infused with a vocal presence

Bodies of Parchment: Representing the Passion and Reading Manuscripts in Late Medieval England

In a diverse range of late-fourteenth- and fifteenth-century devotional literature, Christ\u27s body is metaphorically related to a book or a document at the moment of his crucifixion. His skin transforms into parchment, whips and scourges become pens, and a steady flow of blood, of ink, covers his body and the written page. And each word written onto his parchment body welcomes sustained study, acting as a potential meditative focal point for the devout reader. Through this metaphor and the accompanying materiality of the texts that include it, medieval authors and audiences could imagine intimately interacting with Christ\u27s body during the violence of his Passion. They could touch it, see it, hear it as it was read aloud, and, in the case of scribes, write it. This dissertation explores how the object of the text allowed audiences to participate actively in the events of Christ\u27s Passion and considers how the affective engagement with Christ\u27s suffering body that pervaded late-medieval devotional practice informed, in turn, the signifying power of a text\u27s materiality. The Christ-as-book metaphor often occurs in works that represent the creation and consumption of books in similar terms — terms that emphasize books not as already completed objects but as objects that are continuously in the process of being made, reproduced, edited, and circulated. Manuscript books are shown to function as loci for active and varied acts of interpretation as readers approached them as textual and material, but also visual and aural, objects. While the Christ-as-book metaphor can illuminate the dynamic role manuscripts could play in inspiring affective devotion, it has primarily been examined for the insight it offers into literary or theological trends of mysticism and popular religion. I argue, however, that this metaphor and the texts containing it can be read productively through the lenses of manuscript studies and book history. Building upon the work of D. F. McKenzie, Roger Chartier, and Alexandra Gillespie, I consider how the material form in which these texts occur influenced their reception and status as cultural objects amongst late-medieval lay audiences. The materiality of the manuscript book, I suggest, powerfully guided the ways in which readers approached, viewed, and experienced devotional works and, as a result, Christ\u27s body in late medieval England. The first chapter presents an examination of how writing, as the literal act of inscription and as a metaphor for the reading process: one remembered what one read, for example, by writing it in one\u27s heart), works to reproduce Christ\u27s suffering body both on the page and within the reader. By highlighting the interactions between pain and reading and between Christ\u27s body and a text\u27s material form, the Meditations on the Life and Passion of Christ, the Orison of the Passion, and the Charters of Christ illustrate that each re-reading of their respective texts constituted a re-writing as well. Every inscription of the text and of the events of Christ\u27s Passion produces a new copy — a new witness — both on the manuscript page and within the reader\u27s heart. Christ\u27s suffering body is not presented in these works as a reified, stable text to be copied out, or read, passively but instead as a text that welcomed readerly and scribal interpretation and reinvention. In the second chapter, I consider the potential for the material object of the text to function as a type of affective image for the devout reader. I argue that the ABC of Christ\u27s Passion, a text that relates the letters of the alphabet to the wounds inflicted upon Christ\u27s body, demonstrates how even the undecorated manuscript page could function as a potent “image” and focal point for a devout reader\u27s meditative practice. John Lydgate\u27s Passion poetry further illustrates the value of contemplating the visual aspects of a written text and its material form. While a reader could be moved to devout thoughts by regarding an image of the crucified Christ, Lydgate explores the potential for the object of the text to interact with and at times even supplant the devotional influence of standard Passion iconography. The layout of books and rolls can provide further evidence of how these textual objects were read by medieval audiences, and, in the third chapter, I investigate how affective reading practices mirrored the late-medieval devotional preoccupation with Christ\u27s suffering, fragmented body. The format and narrative structure of the Symbols of the Passion encourages readers to consult its text in a discontinuous fashion, as if the reader\u27s engagement with that work were intended to mirror how he or she would have meditated upon the partitioned body of Christ represented in popular arma Christi images. A parity existed, I suggest, between how Christ\u27s body and texts could be approached; both could be productively read in parts, with each fragment operating as an affectively-potent whole in its own right. Rather than being an idiosyncratic reading style promoted by the Symbols, the Book of Margery Kempe, Handlyng Synne, and a wide-range of other late-fourteenth and early-fifteenth century works of devotion also encourage late-medieval audiences to read discontinuously, indicating that this method of reading was influential and pervasive amongst a range of late-medieval devout audiences. But many audiences “read” medieval works by listening to them being read aloud rather than by personally and privately consulting a text within its manuscript context. In the fourth chapter, I study a unique musical version of the Short Charter of Christ and a non-musical: but nonetheless melodic) O-and-I lyric, “Throw hys hond.” I examine how these works explore the tension between spoken and written language and suggest that they provide a glimpse of the oral / aural potential latent within the metaphor of Christ\u27s body as a book. While manuscripts might be seen today as offering a silent material witness to the past, medieval audiences conceived of these forms as being imbued with sound, the otherwise dead skin and ink infused with a vocal presence

Counting Is Not Enough: Investing in Qualitative Case Reviews for Practice Improvement in Child Welfare

Outlines the value of quality case service reviews in child welfare systems, requirements for building and sustaining a robust process and adapting it under limited state budgets, and recommendations for jurisdictions, initiators, and national leadership

Active Measures of Spatial Cognition

Spatial cognition is how we navigate and perceive the space around us. Distance estimation is one of the elements of spatial cognition. A previous study was done to test if the presence of boundaries has an effect of distance estimation. In the present study, this same phenomenon was tested using an action-based task to examine how this affected distance estimation. Participants were asked to stand at the end of three runners and throw bean bags at a target on the other end of the runner. One runner had an open throwing path, another runner had a doorway in the throwing path, and the last runner had a board in the throwing path. Distances of the runners and the targets were all the same. The reported analyses contrasted the thrown distances across each of these stimulus conditions. The results found that there was no significant difference in distance thrown between each condition. The results also did not find any significant difference in the order in which they completed the conditions or between each individual toss. These inconclusive findings are in contrast with previous research and suggests a possible difference between explicit quantified distance estimation and how we perform distance relevant actions

Expenditure on education and training in Australia: analysis and background paper

Education and training is a continuum, from early childhood, through schooling, to tertiary study and training. Yet our public policy and funding settings continue to reflect a piecemeal approach. This analysis and background paper shows that Australian governments are prioritising their investment in some aspects of education over others - with schools and universities the beneficiaries and vocational education and training (VET) in real decline. Further, this is occurring in the absence of an explicit, or even apparent, policy logic or rationale.  The analysis was previewed at the TAFE Directors Australia Conference on 2 September 2014 by one of the report authors, Mitchell Professorial Fellow Peter Noonan. Summary of key findings: Comparative analysis of expenditure on education across the three sectors shows a clear trend – while spending on schools and universities has risen significantly over the last decade, there has been a much lower rate of growth in VET spending. Total expenditure grew only 15 per cent for VET over the ten years to 2012‐13, while schools and higher education experienced growth of 23 and 40 per cent respectively over the same period. Expenditure on VET amongst the states and territories is uneven. In Victoria, expenditure on VET grew at an average of 4.2 per cent per year over the ten years to 2012‐13, whereas New South Wales and Queensland averaged zero and negative growth over the same period. Analysis of expenditure per student also saw VET falling short. In higher education, expenditure per student has been relatively stable, while spending per student in government secondary and primary schools has increased 20 per cent 30 per cent respectively. Meanwhile expenditure per hour of training in VET actually decreased around 25 per cent over the same period

Expenditure on education and training in Australia 2015

Previous analysis by the Mitchell Institute has shown a clear disjuncture in Australia’s expenditure on education and training, with spending on schooling and higher education far outstripping spending on vocational education and training.   One year on, this trend has intensified. Analysis conducted by the Mitchell Institute in 2014 examined Australia’s expenditure on education and training over the last decade. The paper found that Australian governments had been clearly prioritising their investment in some aspects of education over others - with schools and universities the beneficiaries and vocational education and training (VET) in relative decline. This divergence also highlighted the absence of an explicit, or even apparent, policy logic or rationale to investment across the education continuum, and across the nation.  It appears that, despite our best efforts, our public policy and funding settings across education continue to reflect a piecemeal approach. This update revisits the data one year on to see what, if anything, has changed. While spending on schools and universities has risen significantly over the last decade, there has been a much lower rate of growth in VET spending, and now even a decline. What we found was that the national disinvestment in VET has only intensified, with expenditure dropping significantly in the most recent year. We also found that growth in expenditure on schools and higher education has flattened, although off a much higher base. To get a more complete picture of spending, this year we have taken a closer look at two other important aspects of the education financing landscape in Australia; in tertiary education - income contingent loans, and in schooling - private contributions to non-government schools. Our analysis shows that government payments to tertiary education and training providers for income contingent loans have grown rapidly in recent years, rising from $3.3 billion in 2008 to nearly$6 billion in 2013. We also found considerable growth in private contributions to school education, with non-government school income from private sources increasing by over 20 per cent from 2005 to 2011 to reach $7.9 billion in 2011. Taken together, these analyses contribute to a more holistic picture of our collective investment in education and training. In a time when key reforms - such as deregulation of higher education and responsibilities for VET in the federation - are being considered, it’s useful to stop and look at just where our finite resources are being directed, and to consider whether our current investment is well targeted across the three sectors of Australian education. Summary of key findings Comparative analysis of expenditure on education across the three sectors shows a continuation of the existing trend – while spending on schools and universities has risen significantly over the last decade, there has been a much lower rate of growth in VET spending, and now even a decline, as the other sectors continue to grow. Expenditure on higher education has grown the fastest over the eleven years to 2013-14 – growing over 40 per cent. Expenditure on schooling has grown approximately 25 per cent over the same period. Expenditure on VET has grown much more slowly, by around 15 per cent until 2012-13, before experiencing a sharp decline in the most recent year. This has left total VET expenditure in 2013-14 only around 5 per cent higher than 2003-4 levels. In tertiary education new analysis shows the significant growth in HELP payments to VET and higher education providers over the period 2008-2013 – from$3.3 billion to nearly $6 billion over this period. It also shows the extent to which VET FEE-HELP has grown since its introduction in 2009, rising to 12 per cent of all income contingent loan payments to providers in 2013. There has been a significant increase in private contributions to the non-government school sector in recent years. Total income from private sources increased by over 20 per cent in both the Catholic and independent sectors from 2005 to 2011, to approximately$2.7 billion (Catholic schools) and $5.2 billion (independent schools)

Evaluation of a Pilot School-Based Physical ActivityClustered Randomised Controlled Trial—ActiveSchools: Skelmersdale

Schools are key environments in which physical activity (PA) can be promoted. Various strategies and opportunities should be used to engage children in PA within schools. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the multi-component Active Schools: Skelmersdale (AS:Sk) pilot intervention on children’s PA and sedentary time (ST). The AS:Sk intervention was implemented for eight weeks in four schools with three control schools continuing normal practice. It consisted of eight components: active breaks, bounce at the bell, ‘Born To Move’ videos, Daily Mile or 100 Mile Club, playground activity challenge cards, physical education teacher training, newsletters, and activity homework. Child-level measures were collected at baseline and follow-up, including objectively measured PA. After accounting for confounding variables, the intervention had a significant effect on school day ST which was significantly less for the intervention children by 9 min per day compared to the control group. The AS:Sk pilot intervention was effective in reducing school day ST but significant changes in PA were negligible. To increase the efficacy of the current and future school-based interventions, authors should focus on implementation and process evaluations to better understand how schools are implementing intervention components

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