Islam and Arabs in Cuba: A Historical and Contemporary Overview

This flyer promotes the event "Islam and Arabs in Cuba: A Historical and Contemporary Overview", a lecture by Daniel F. Rivera, Research Fellow, Florida International University. Dr. Rivera holds a PhD in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, and has focused his research on Arab modern history and the presence of Islam in Latin America. The event was held on November 12, 2015 at FIU Modesto A. Maidique Campus CP 145.

On Record: Soundscapes as Metaphor and Physical Manifestation of Memory in Early Holocaust Novels and Contemporary Criticism

This thesis compares two perspectives on the production of Holocaust memory: a novel that leads up to The Holocaust in Britain and one that reflects the hindsight perspective of a liberator in the Soviet Union. The novels are Virginia Woolf’s BETWEEN THE ACTS and Vasily Grossman’s LIFE AND FATE. The analysis offers a locus of analysis for the diasporic literary energy created by the catastrophe in the 20th and 21st centuries. The project offers a theorized standpoint on the role of literature on official historical archives. Proposing a method through which contemporary readers can engage the diasporic event of The Holocaust, the project adopts both the extended metaphor and literal expression of soundscapes. Soundscapes encompass the immaterial processes of memorialization and the literal sonic textures developed in Holocaust novels. The critical perspective incorporates contemporary notions of narratology, archival practices, and cultural manifestations of language into the notion of literary ethnomusicology.

Androgyny versus Patriarchy: A Historicist‐Psychoanalytic Reading of Hemingway's The Garden of Eden and Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White

This paper will examine how male and female character interactions in Ernest Hemingway’s The Garden of Eden and Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White expose the internalization, normalization, and perpetuation of current modes of patriarchy in terms of gender roles through their presentations of androgyny. This paper highlights the parallels of gender construction and the interaction within the social relations depicted in these two novels, which have not been compared previously. The premise, based on the psychoanalytic theories of Jacques Lacan and cultural materialism of Raymond Williams, is that fiction reflects historical and contemporary social relations. Lacanian and feminist interpretations have both been conducted on literature written by Collins and Hemingway; however, neither look at these particular novels as two examples for the same contemporary phenomenon of 21st century patriarchal interpellation. This paper most similarly follows the work of Slavoj Žižek who analyzes contemporary social relations through film (including classics such as Casablanca and works by Alfred Hitchcock) and other aspects of popular culture. This project’s contribution and uniqueness lie with the way it applies theory to these particular literary works, specifically concerning gender relations and the prevalence of androgyny in widely read works by well-known authors in two very different literary and historical eras. My interpretation of these two novels provides an evaluation of historical and contemporary patriarchal norms and a radical potentiality for subverting the idea of static gender roles that has remained prevalent throughout the three centuries of these texts’ existence.

The McSweeney's Group: Modernist Roots and Contemporary Permutations in Little Magazines

The purpose of this project centered on the influential literary magazine Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. Using Bruno Latour’s network theory as well as the methods put forth by Robert Scholes and Clifford Wulfman to study modernist little magazines, I analyzed the influence McSweeney’s has on contemporary little magazines. I traced the connections between McSweeney’s and other paradigmatic examples of little magazines—The Believer and n+1—to show how the McSweeney’s aesthetic and business practice creates a model for more recent publications. My thesis argued that The Believer continues McSweeney’s aesthetic mission. In contrast, n+1 positioned itself against the McSweeney’s aesthetic, which indirectly created a space within the little magazines for writers, philosophers, and artists to debate the prevailing aesthetic theories of the contemporary period. The creation of this space connects these contemporary magazines back to modernist little magazines, thereby validating my decision to use the methods of Scholes and Wulfman.

An investigation of the relationship between historical reform initiatives and Blueprint 2000: A System of School Improvement and Accountability

The modern rhetoric of reform in education has been in the forefront since the 1980s, but it has now taken on a new meaning, a greater importance to both students and teachers, a new urgency for change, and a sense of hope that this time reform will truly make a difference. The major purpose of this study was to compare historical reform initiatives to the current Florida state initiative, Blueprint 2000: A System of School Improvement and Accountability.^ Five questions were considered: (1) how similar were historical and current reform initiatives; (2) what aspects of reform were actually accomplished; (3) what are the elements of a profession; (4) what implications might this research have for university programs and inservice training programs regarding their role in the preparation of teachers; and, (5) what implications might research have on the promotion of professional practice. ^

Structural adjustment and labor in Jamaica and the Dominican Republic

Statement of the problem. It seeks to examine whether structural adjustment in Jamaica produced the desired developmental effects for labor--both organized and non-unionized--and if there is any significant difference in the Dominican Republic, which did not undergo that economic transformation. The research hypothesis is; "Structural Adjustment leads to Marginalization of labor."^ Methodology used. The methodology is mostly a straight cross-sectional analysis using data sets and publications from the UN, ILO, World Bank and IDB, as well as local statistical sources. The dissertation is primarily an historical to contemporary analysis of the Jamaican experience under structural adjustment, as it related to labor. To a greater extent it involves a straight cross-national comparison on the historical experiences of each country and a discussion of the relative similarities and differences between them, and the impact these features had on labor.^ Summary of findings. In the end, the question is asked as to whether internal factors are important in the relative success or failure of development strategies. From the data there is some indication that under structural adjustment there has been limited economic benefits for labor in Jamaica while labor standards have not improved. In the Dominican Republic the economic performance has been similar but the labor standards have improved significantly. This thus leads to the conclusion that structural adjustment may have been a factor in the resistance to labor's empowerment.^ Nevertheless, the study also shows that there may have been a causal role which local power relations had. The suggestion from the study is that in analyzing the phenomenon, attention must be paid to internal as well as external dynamics and variables. ^