Being and becoming ‘a frail older adult’: Meaning-making and resistance through storytelling

By inquiring into older adults' narrations about their lives in the present, past, and future, this study aims to learn more about home-dwelling older adults' lived experiences of being and becoming “frail”. This article is based on a dialogical narrative analysis of interviews with three home-dwelling older adults identified as frail by the home care services. We conducted a series of three interviews with each participant over a period of eight months. Our results demonstrate that while some older adults experience frailty as inevitable and irreversible, others experience it as a transition. Some narrated frailty as a comprehensive experience, while others' narratives were more situational and transitional. Being able to live at home was crucial and moving to a nursing home was associated with the risk of becoming frailer and the loss of valued relations to family and their home. Experiences of frailty were framed and shaped by the past, present, and future. Faith, fate, and previous capacities to overcome adversities were crucial in the older adults' narrations. Older adults' stories provide an opening to diverse and changing experiences of living with frailty. By telling stories about the past, present, and future, older adults can maintain identity, a sense of belonging, and balance in the midst of adversities. By engaging with older adults' stories, health and care professionals can support the older adult in the ongoing process of being and becoming ‘a frail older adult’

“We’ll Cook Him Up in a Stew”: Stepmothers and Primogeniture in the Brothers Grimm’s The Juniper Tree

What larger social concern could the continued popularity of the nineteenth-century cannibal stepmother narrative in twenty-first century crime and news reporting be indicating? In this paper, I compare a fictional episode of cannibalism in the non-canonical Brothers Grimms’ tale, “The Juniper Tree,” with the true story of the 2010 murder and subsequent dismemberment of Zahra Baker in Hickory, North Carolina to consider the larger cultural implications of cannibalistic stepmothers. In doing so I argue that, despite the half-hearted attempt by mainstream animation studios to try to create semi-Feminist adaptations of the canonical fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Charles Perrault, narratives similar to “The Juniper Tree” in fact reinforce a pro-male model of inheritance at the sacrifice of both wives and their girl children. These adaptations also communicate modern social anxieties surrounding blended families, especially regarding heteronormative visions of childhood, savior narratives around adoption, and easy answers about inheritance.Faculty Sponsor: Elizabeth E. Tavare

Promoting Educational Equity: Embedding Transformative Social and Emotional Learning in Experiential Learning

Although college enrollment rates among Black and Latinx students have risen, inequities in graduation rates across racial and ethnic groups persist. Guided by the integration of strength-based frameworks, the proposed manuscript will discuss how experiential learning and teaching may serve a dual purpose: helping students enact social change while simultaneously reaching their education goals. The proposed manuscript will integrate the culturally engaging campus environments model with the transformative social-emotional learning (T-SEL) framework. Also, drawing from the existing literature, the proposed manuscript will describe a range of experiential learning activities and how they may involve T-SEL. We then conclude with implications for experiential education and future research. Embedding T-SEL in experiential learning may help increase educational equity in ways that are meaningful in the short- and long-run for college students, especially minoritized young adults

We Do the Work. You Check the Box: Unearthing the Impact of Racialized Stress and Trauma on Black Women Community College Educators Leading DEI Work

Since the summer of 2020, following the execution of Mr. George Floyd, many institutions of higher education established or strengthened their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. In attempting to create more equitable, diverse, inclusive, and antiracist campuses to foster student success and belonging on campus, another inequity is born. Higher education institutions have failed to center the wellbeing of educators tasked with leading these efforts. This qualitative study used semistructured interviews with 10 Black women leading DEI efforts throughout the California Community College system to explore the impact of racialized stress and trauma on holistic wellbeing. Central questions guided this study: 1) How does racialized stress and trauma impact the wellbeing of Black women community college educators? 2) What are the most common sources of racialized stress and trauma experienced by Black women community college educators? and 3) What coping and healing strategies do Black women community college educators currently leverage to address racialized workplace stressors and trauma? Findings indicate racialized stress and trauma in the workplace negatively impact the physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing of Black women leading diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. DEI leaders may encounter equity scapegoating and the stigma of equity in their work. On the other hand, Black women leverage many coping mechanisms to buffer the effects of racialized stressors. This study xi supports the need for practitioners and leaders to address systemic issues of racism through critical self-reflection, critical actions, and building sustainable support for DEI leaders

“We’ll Cook Him Up in a Stew”: Stepmothers and Primogeniture in the Brothers Grimm’s The Juniper Tree

What larger social concern could the continued popularity of the nineteenth-century cannibal stepmother narrative in twenty-first century crime and news reporting be indicating? In this paper, I compare a fictional episode of cannibalism in the non-canonical Brothers Grimms’ tale, “The Juniper Tree,” with the true story of the 2010 murder and subsequent dismemberment of Zahra Baker in Hickory, North Carolina to consider the larger cultural implications of cannibalistic stepmothers. In doing so I argue that, despite the half-hearted attempt by mainstream animation studios to try to create semi-Feminist adaptations of the canonical fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Charles Perrault, narratives similar to “The Juniper Tree” in fact reinforce a pro-male model of inheritance at the sacrifice of both wives and their girl children. These adaptations also communicate modern social anxieties surrounding blended families, especially regarding heteronormative visions of childhood, savior narratives around adoption, and easy answers about inheritance

American Dreams: DACA Dreamers, Trump as a Political and Social Event, and the Performative Practice of Storytelling in the Age of Secondary Orality

In September 2017, the Trump administration announced its plan to rescind The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA). Since then, program recipients, who have in recent years assumed the name Dreamers, have fought back. This thesis explores how Dreamers use storytelling as a means of articulating individual and collective identity as a form of resistance in the sociopolitical climate that is Trump\u27s America

Teaching Historic Trauma: Centering the generational trauma of Khmer youth

The purpose of this independent study is to create a curriculum draft focused on teaching historic trauma to Khmer youth who may be experiencing secondhand trauma. The genocide of the Cambodian people occurred between 1975-1979. This genocide killed off about one third of the population. Intellectuals, culture, and traditional practices were what the communist, extreme nationalist leader wanted to destroy in order to create a “Year One” and have lives of civilians be focuses primarily on agriculture. People died from murder, starvation, malnutrition, bombings, and etc. The population that this curriculum will center is that of the generation that came to be after survivors of this genocide found “refuge” in the United States. The curriculum will include components of historical teachings and narratives about the genocide including American imperialism and it’s role in this era in Cambodia, political standpoints in the country during the time, personal narratives from survivors, and personal narratives of first generation Khmer-Americans

“Anciana y Ciega”: Ma. Presence una exesclava en la Costa de la Mosquitia (Nicaragua)

This article analyzes Ma. Presence's life story by implementing reading against the grain combined with critical fabulation to examine minutes of meetings held on the eve of the emancipation of slavery on the Mosquito Shore (1841) and a chapter in Charles N. Bell’s autobiography (1989). It aims to re-imagine and reconstruct Ma. Presence’s experience as an enslaved and a “free black woman”. Ma. Presence was captured into slavery in Africa as a little girl. She survived the middle passage and survived enslavement in Jamaica and Bluefields, where she worked until she was old and blind. Enslavers typified her as a discarded slave. Retelling the life of this “ordinary” black woman contributes to ongoing efforts to highlight black enslaved women’s experiences. Simultaneously, this paper contributes to a more extensive discussion on the collective memory of slavery, the enslavement of children, gender violence, sexual reproduction during enslavement, aging, disability, discarded enslaved people, and the transition to emancipation. It is argued that in a multicultural patriarchal web, black women's experiences as enslaved or free persons are marked by gendered violence, dislocation, dispossession (deprivation), and dehumanization. Nevertheless, they are strong evidence demonstrating black women's day-to-day resistance that contributed to their survival.  Este artículo analiza la historia de vida de Ma. Presence mediante la implementación de lectura resistente y fabulación crítica para examinar las minutas de la abolición de la esclavitud en la Mosquitia (1841) y un capítulo de la autobiografía de Charles N. Bell (1989). Busca recontar su experiencia como mujer negra esclavizada, y su proceso de transición hacia la emancipación. Ma. Presence fue capturada y esclavizada en África durante su infancia. Sobrevivió al pasaje transatlántico y el régimen de esclavización en Jamaica y Bluefields, donde trabajó hasta que envejeció y perdió la visión. Los esclavistas desestimaron su valor monetario, y la tipificaron como inútil e improductiva. El destacar la historia de vida de Ma. Presence contribuye a los esfuerzos de distinguir las experiencias de mujeres negras esclavizadas que usualmente no se comparten. Simultáneamente este análisis contribuye a una discusión amplia sobre la memoria colectiva de la esclavitud, la esclavitud durante la infancia, violencia de género, senectud, invalidez, y la transición hacia la emancipación. Se argumenta que, situadas en una red patriarcal multicultural, las experiencias de las mujeres negras, como esclavas o personas libres, están marcadas por la violencia de género, la dislocación, el despojo (privación) y la deshumanización. Sin embargo, también hay evidencias de la resistencia cotidiana de las mujeres negras lo cual contribuyó a su supervivencia. &nbsp

Transtrauma: Conceptualizing the Lived Experiences of Vietnamese American Youth

Drawing on empirical data from qualitative research I conducted with eight Vietnamese American youth in the Fall of 2020, this paper forwards transtrauma, a new framework for conceptualizing and understanding the lived experiences of Vietnamese American youth. The concept of transtrauma goes beyond the pathologizing of individual trauma, to examine how structures of domination inflict and extend trauma in marginalized communities, such as that of Vietnamese American communities. Transtrauma transcends the overt and linear focus on trauma as a single experience and the examination of how institutionalized violence by nation states shapes the experiences of Vietnamese Americans. This conceptualization interrogate the United States role in shaping the trauma of Vietnamese Americans. The workshop showcases the importance of storytelling and the Arts as a way to guide Vietnamese American high school-age youth to collectively share their stories of their parents and grandparents’ journey from Vietnam to the United States. These collective stories highlight the transtrauma that Vietnamese Americans continue to experience

Serrallos y conventos: las heroínas de Aphra Behn en la(s) casa(s) del amor

Defiendo en este artículo que en Oroonoko, or the History of the Royal Slave (1688) y The History of the Nun (1689), Aphra Behn hace converger los espacios feminizados del serrallo y el convento, presentándolos como construcciones de género, igualmente exóticos para el público inglés, pero también como espacios que limitan el día a día de las mujeres. En Oroonoko, la narradora instruye a la princesa Imoinda en las narrativas de la “civilización” occidental, leyéndole historias de monjas para entretenerla. Al mismo tiempo, la narración de The History of the Nun representa el convento como espacio limítrofe de interacción entre los sexos que confina a Isabella y origina sus episodios amorosos, siguiendo el modelo de las Lettres portugaises. Este artículo explorará ambos espacios de confinamiento y las restricciones que Imoinda e Isabella experimentan en ellos, pero también la originalidad de Behn como escritora de ficción y narradora al hacer converger ambos modelos narrativos.I argue in this article that in Oroonoko, or the History of the Royal Slave (1688) and The History of the Nun (1689), Aphra Behn forwards the connections between the feminised spaces of the seraglio and the convent, presenting them as equally exotic and gendered for the English reader, but also as equally constraining for women in their everyday lives. In Oroonoko, the she-narrator instructs Imoinda into the narratives of the “civilized” west by reading diverting stories of nuns to her. At the same time, her tale in The History of the Nun represents the convent as another liminal space of interaction between the sexes which confines Isabella and originates her bouts of love and passion, following the model of the Lettres portugaises. This article will explore both spaces of confinement and the strictures Imoinda and Isabella experience in them, but also Behn’s originality as creator and narrator in making the two narrative models converge