Tobacco Suits Today: Are Cigarette Plaintiffs Just Blowing Smoke?

The Surgeon General has stated that cigarette smoking is the chief, single, avoidable cause of death in our society and the most important public health issue of our time. Over 200,000 people die each year in the United States as a result of cigarette smoking. Consequently, numerous products liability suits have been filed against tobacco companies. However, until the 1988 decision in CipoIlone v. Liggett Group, Inc., no plaintiff had won a products liability suit against a tobacco company

Narrative practices in developing professional identities: Issues of objectivity and agency

This article presents an analytical model of binary dimensions of narrative practice perceived as two continua between the oppositions of subjectivity/objectivity and structure/agency. Such narrative practice is considered as a site for professional ‘identification’ and self-knowing. The analytical model provided a framework that was applied to a series of professional life history narrative events and followup discussions conducted with six early career teacher educators working across two contrasting sites for teacher education. The findings evidence participants’ reflections within the narrative events that relate to the descriptors of each quadrant in this model and show that it has utility in describing and understanding the process of identification that takes place within narrative practice

Telling Stories: A Process of Identification for Six Neophyte Teacher Educators

This study engaged new teacher educator participants in narrative story telling which facilitated a process of ‘identification’ that was supportive of their identity transformation. The study considers the process of identity transformation as these experienced teachers move into their new roles as teacher educators. The narrative method was sensitive to a poststructuralist view of identity. Six neophyte teacher educators shared their Professional Life Histories for this study. This adapted life history method included the use of prospective as well as retrospective reflection. Follow up discussions provided an opportunity for reflection on the Professional Life History process. These narrative events were analysed using an interpretive approach based on grounded theory. Three viewing frames, consisting of explorations in relation to identity and identification, types of reflection and narrative storytelling, were applied. The narrative events revealed evidence of identity transformation for the participants but found that identity as a teacher educator was in process and only partially formed at the point of telling their stories suggesting that their identity was still in transition despite having spent some time in the role, and for some of them undergoing a yearlong preparation for the role. This study reveals how engaging in narrative story telling provided an opportunity for participants to activate a process of ‘identification’ which was supportive of identity transformation. Analysis of the forms of reflection evidenced in the narrative events suggested that critical self-reflection was involved in identification. Furthermore, the follow up discussions evidenced the emergence of ‘premise reflection’ (Mezirow, 1991) suggesting that ‘reflecting on reflection’ further enhanced self-knowing and identity transformation. A model of the interaction between two dimensions, that of subjective/objective and structure/agency, was developed proposing that within narrative story telling an individual might gain a more objective and agentive understanding of their professional identity and self

Three essays on occupational segregation : women and men in the labor force

Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1979.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Economics

Screening Rights Film Festival 2016

Nearly four hundred people attended the inaugural Screening Rights Film Festival in 2015. Their feedback was considered in the preparation of this year’s festival, which took place from 15–18 September 2016, and featured twelve social justice films in comparison to last year’s seven. These films from countries including Honduras, Palestine, China and the UK were discussed in more post-screening discussions, and were seen by more people, due to the festival’s growing viewership across an increased amount of venues in Birmingham