Responding to the Challenges of a Contemplative Curriculum

The undergraduate Psychology program at John F. Kennedy University in Pleasant Hill, California, is one of a small number of undergraduate programs that offer a holistic, transformative, and integrative approach to psychology. One important dimension of the program’s educational approach is the use of contemplative practices in the classroom. Drawing on the teaching experiences of four experienced faculty members, the author discusses the multiple educational purposes that contemplative pedagogies serve as well as the various strategies used to introduce and integrate these transformational pedagogies into the classroom. The author also discusses ways to maintain students’ psychological safety, ensure instructors’ contemplative competence, and maintain the separation of church and state

No Human Right to Sodomy: Christian Conservative Opposition to SOGI Human Rights

The American Christian conservative movement is the most consistent and persistent adversary of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) civil rights in the US. In recent years, the Christian right has responded to changes in attitudes to same-sex sexuality in the US by relocating some of their attention and operations to issues and arenas of contest outside the US that hold more promise for implacable antagonism to rights and recognition for LGBTQ people. In some parts of the world, these US-based anti-LGBTQ actors have become recognized as “experts” on gender and sexual minorities and the dire consequences the existence of LGBTQ people poses. Thus, the Christian right constructs and disseminates faith-based perspectives on human rights to oppose the codification and enactment of human rights protections for gender and sexual minorities. International Christian conservative activism against LGBT people, same-sex sexuality, and non-normative gender identity has required the formation of alliances and the constant development of new rhetorics and practices. When it comes to Christian conservative rhetoric and activism against SOGI human rights and the US government’s affirmation of those rights, the movement increasingly has found itself in the position of enacting a kind of cultural relativism that has unanticipated but possibly unavoidable implications and side effects. In this paper, I outline key rhetorical and strategic elements of US Christian right opposition to SOGI human rights advocacy, focusing specifically on opposition to US government support for SOGI human rights and what Christian conservative elites regard as the promise of the Trump administration to end support for these human rights

Buying Breathe: A Study of the Juxtaposition of Yoga as a Commodity, a Biophysical Workout, and a Quasi-religious Experience in Yoga Teacher Trainings in Midwest America

From the Washington University Office of Undergraduate Research Digest (WUURD), Vol. 13, 05-01-2018. Published by the Office of Undergraduate Research. Joy Zalis Kiefer, Director of Undergraduate Research and Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences; Lindsey Paunovich, Editor; Helen Human, Programs Manager and Assistant Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences Mentor(s): Rebecca Leste

The Can-Opener Gourmet: Poppy Cannon and American Culture in the 1950s

The 1950s bring to mind a series of icons or symbols of post-war optimism fueled by the era\u27s expanding consumer economy and the monumental growth of the middle class. History textbooks often include images of bright-colored rocket-inspired cars, ranch-style suburban houses, and space-age television sets playing Leave it to Beaver to illustrate the consumer mentality of post-war America. However, the culinary symbols of this decade, such as the ubiquitous casserole, are more apt to be regarded with disgust or comical dismissal than with nostalgia. The 1950s has been considered a low point in American cuisine-an era that many chefs tend to dismiss or ignore entirely. The hit movie Julie and Julia on the life of chef Julia Child who rose to celebrity status in the early 1960s repeats this now-familiar story. The movie tells Julia Child\u27s life story through the experiences of her present-day fan, Julie Powell, who quips that her heroine changed everything. Before her it was frozen food and can openers and marshmallows. 1 The dismissive and slightly amused tone in Julie\u27s voice typifies the view of 1950s middle American cuisine as bland and tacky

Age-Related Vision Loss: A Study of Adaptive Tasks

This study, conducted in New York City in 1988, examined the performance of 86 visually impaired elders on five adaptive tasks: maintenance or restoration of self esteem, use of help, activities of daily living, social and recreational activities and understanding of loss. These adaptive tasks were chosen because they are most frequently cited in the literature of disability; arising from the fields of aging, chronic illness, and blindness. Intervening variables were health, social supports, and coexisting life events of change and loss. Respondents ranged in age from 60-99 years and had three times of onset since vision loss: 0-1 year, 2-3 years, and 4+ years. Data were collected in in-person interviews of approximately one hour's duration. Frequency distributions, bivariate correlations, and multivariate analytic techniques were used to identify the salient variables associated with performance of each adaptive task. Study findings indicate that age and time since onset do not influence performance of adaptive tasks. Dependence in activities of daily living is a predictor of low self esteem. Medical problems are a predictor of dependence in activities of daily living. Decreased participation in social and recreational activities and dependence in activities of daily living are more frequently due to vision loss than to other health problems. Both need and availability are predictors of use of help. Understanding of loss is associated with higher education, low self esteem, and living alone. Vision impairment has a great subjective importance to the elderly who give up much that has meaning to them in their struggle to adapt to diminished sight. Implications for clinical practice and further research are discussed

Analysis of Nitrogen Loading Reductions for Wastewater Treatment Facilities and Non-Point Sources in the Great Bay Estuary Watershed

In 2009, the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES) published a proposal for numeric nutrient criteria for the Great Bay Estuary. The report found that total nitrogen concentrations in most of the estuary needed to be less than 0.3 mg N/L to prevent loss of eelgrass habitat and less than 0.45 mg N/L to prevent occurrences of low dissolved oxygen. Based on these criteria and an analysis of a compilation of data from at least seven different sources, DES concluded that 11 of the 18 subestuaries in the Great Bay Estuary were impaired for nitrogen. Under the Clean Water Act, if a water body is determined to be impaired, a study must be completed to determine the existing loads of the pollutant and the load reductions that would be needed to meet the water quality standard. Therefore, DES developed models to determine existing nitrogen loads and nitrogen loading thresholds for the subestuaries to comply with the numeric nutrient criteria. DES also evaluated the effects of different permitting scenarios for wastewater treatment facilities on nitrogen loads and the costs for wastewater treatment facility upgrades. This modeling exercise showed that: Nitrogen loads to the Great Bay, Little Bay, and the Upper Piscataqua River need to be reduced by 30 to 45 percent to attain the numeric nutrient criteria. Both wastewater treatment facilities and non-point sources will need to reduce nitrogen loads to attain the numeric nutrient criteria. The percent reduction targets for nitrogen loads only change minimally between wet and dry years. Wastewater treatment facility upgrades to remove nitrogen will be costly; however, the average cost per pound of nitrogen removed from the estuary due to wastewater facility upgrades is lower than for non-point source controls. The permitting options for some wastewater treatment facilities will be limited by requirements to not increase pollutant loads to impaired waterbodies. The numeric nutrient criteria and models used by DES are sufficiently accurate for calculating nitrogen loading thresholds for the Great Bay watershed. Additional monitoring and modeling is needed to better characterize conditions and nitrogen loading thresholds for the Lower Piscataqua River. This nitrogen loading analysis for Great Bay may provide a framework for setting nitrogen permit limits for wastewater treatment facilities and developing watershed implementation plans to reduce nitrogen loads

Great Bay Nitrogen Non-Point Source Study

The Great Bay Estuary is 21 square miles of tidal waters located in southeastern New Hampshire. It is one of 28 “estuaries of national significance” established under the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Estuary Program. The estuary is experiencing the signs of eutrophication, specifically, low dissolved oxygen, macroalgae blooms, and declining eelgrass habitat (DES, 2012). Sixty-eight percent of the nitrogen that ends up in the Great Bay Estuary originates from sources spread across the watershed; the remainder derives from direct discharges of municipal wastewater treatment facilities (DES, 2010; PREP, 2013). In this report, these sources of nitrogen are called non-point sources and consist of atmospheric deposition, fertilizers, human waste disposed into septic systems, and animal waste. The purpose of this study is to determine how much nitrogen each non-point source type contributes to the estuary. The nitrogen loads from municipal wastewater treatment facilities have been reported elsewhere (DES, 2010; PREP, 2012; PREP, 2013) and, therefore, are not included in this study except to provide context. The intended use of this study is for planning purposes, and is not meant for regulatory allocations or specific reduction requirements. The results of the model may be useful for towns or watershed groups for prioritizing nitrogen reduction efforts or as a starting point for more detailed studies of non-point sources. However, more detailed inventories of non-point sources will be needed to track the effects of nitrogen reduction efforts in smaller areas. In addition, the model makes no conclusions about the benefits of nitrogen reductions to receiving waters or overall estuarine health