Research and teaching: a holy or an unholy alliance?

Much of the self-image of the Western university hangs on the idea that research and teaching are intimately connected. The central axiom here is that research and teaching are mutually supportive of each other. An institution lacking such a set of relationships between research and teaching falls short of what it means to be a university. This set of beliefs raises certain questions: Is it the case that the presence of such a mutually supportive set of relationships between research and teaching is a necessary condition of the fulfilment of the idea of the university? (A conceptual question). And is it true that, in practice today, such a mutually supportive set of relationships between research and teaching characterises universities? (An empirical question). In my talk, I want to explore these matters in a critical vein. I shall suggest that: a) In practice today, such a mutually supportive set of relationships between research and teaching is in jeopardy. Far from supporting each other, very often research and teaching contend against each other. Research and teaching are becoming two separate ideologies, with their own interest structures. b) Historically, the supposed tight link between research and teaching is both of recent origin and far from universally achieved in universities. Institutional separateness between research and teaching is and has been evident, both across institutions and even across departments in the same institution. c) Conceptually, research and teaching are different activities: each is complex and neither is reducible to the other. In theory, therefore, research and teaching may be said to constitute a holy alliance but in practice, we see more of an unholy alliance. If, then, in an ideal world, a positive relationship between research and teaching is still a worthwhile goal, how might it be construed and worked for? Seeing research and teaching as two discrete and unified sets of activity is now inadequate. Much better is a construal of research and teaching as themselves complexes, as intermingling pools of activity helping to form the liquid university that is emerging today. On this view, research and teaching are fluid spaces, ever on the move, taking up new shapes, and themselves dividing and reforming, as the university reworks its own destiny in modern society. On such a perspective, working out a productive relationship between research and teaching is a complex project. This is an alliance that is neither holy nor unholy. It is an uneasy alliance, with temporary accommodations and continuous new possibilities.

Research and teaching: a holy or an unholy alliance?

Much of the self-image of the Western university hangs on the idea that research and teaching are intimately connected. The central axiom here is that research and teaching are mutually supportive of each other. An institution lacking such a set of relationships between research and teaching falls short of what it means to be a university. This set of beliefs raises certain questions: Is it the case that the presence of such a mutually supportive set of relationships between research and teaching is a necessary condition of the fulfilment of the idea of the university? (A conceptual question). And is it true that, in practice today, such a mutually supportive set of relationships between research and teaching characterises universities? (An empirical question). In my talk, I want to explore these matters in a critical vein. I shall suggest that: a) In practice today, such a mutually supportive set of relationships between research and teaching is in jeopardy. Far from supporting each other, very often research and teaching contend against each other. Research and teaching are becoming two separate ideologies, with their own interest structures. b) Historically, the supposed tight link between research and teaching is both of recent origin and far from universally achieved in universities. Institutional separateness between research and teaching is and has been evident, both across institutions and even across departments in the same institution. c) Conceptually, research and teaching are different activities: each is complex and neither is reducible to the other. In theory, therefore, research and teaching may be said to constitute a holy alliance but in practice, we see more of an unholy alliance. If, then, in an ideal world, a positive relationship between research and teaching is still a worthwhile goal, how might it be construed and worked for? Seeing research and teaching as two discrete and unified sets of activity is now inadequate. Much better is a construal of research and teaching as themselves complexes, as intermingling pools of activity helping to form the liquid university that is emerging today. On this view, research and teaching are fluid spaces, ever on the move, taking up new shapes, and themselves dividing and reforming, as the university reworks its own destiny in modern society. On such a perspective, working out a productive relationship between research and teaching is a complex project. This is an alliance that is neither holy nor unholy. It is an uneasy alliance, with temporary accommodations and continuous new possibilities

Broadband in Latin America: Beyond Connectivity

Includes bibliography.

Problems of American civilization, their practical solution the pressing Christian duty of today

First published in National perils and opportunities, discussions of the general Christian conference held in Washington, D.C., 1887 under the auspices of the Evangelical alliance for the United States. New York,1887.

Essays of strategic alliance portfolio configuration—Its performance properties, strategic antecedents and consequential effects on multinational firms' continuing foreign expansion

This dissertation focused on an increasingly prevalent phenomenon in today's global business environment—strategic alliance portfolio. Building on resource-based view, resource dependency theory and real options theory, this dissertation adopted a multi-dimensional perspective to examine the performance implications, strategic antecedents of alliance portfolio configuration, and its strategic effects on firms' decision-making on their continuing foreign expansion. The dissertation consisted of three interrelated essays, each of which dealt with a specific research question. In the first essay I applied a two-dimensional construct that embraces both alliance relations' and alliance partners' attributes to illustrate alliance portfolio configuration. Based on this framework, a longitudinal study was conducted attempting to explore the performance properties of alliance portfolio configuration. The results revealed that alliance diversity and partner diversity have different relative contributions to firms' economic performance. The relationship between alliance portfolio configuration and firm performance was shaped by degree of multinationality in a curvilinear pattern. The second essay attempted to identify the firm level driving forces of alliance portfolio configuration and how these forces interacting with firms' internationalization influence firms' strategic choices on alliance portfolio configuration. The empirical results indicated that past alliance experience, slack resource and firms' brand images are three critical determinants shaping alliance portfolios, but those shaping relationships are conditioned by firms' multinationality. The third essay primarily employed real options theory to build a conceptual framework, revealing how country-, alliance portfolio-, firm-, and industry level factors and their interactions influence firms' strategic decision-making on post-entry continuing expansion in foreign markets. The two empirical studies were resided in global hospitality and travel industries and use panel data to test the relevant theoretical models. Overall, the dissertation advanced and enriched the theoretical domain of alliance portfolio. It particularly shed valuable insights on three fundamental questions in the domain of alliance portfolio research, namely "if and how alliance portfolios contribute to firms' economic performance"; "what determines the appearance of alliance portfolios”; and "how alliance portfolios affect firms' strategic decision-making". This dissertation also extended the international business and strategic management research on service multinationals' foreign expansion and performance.

Blessed are the Peacemakers: Transnational Alliance, Protective Accompaniment and the Presbyterian Church of Colombia

The purpose of this thesis was to explore how Christian networks enable strategies of transnational alliance, whereby groups in different nations strive to strengthen one another’s leverage and credibility in order to resolve conflicts and elaborate new possibilities. This research does so by analyzing the case of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia (IPC). The project examines the historical development of the IPC from the initial missionary period of the 1850s until the present. Specifically, the purpose of the study was to consider how the historical struggle to articulate autonomy and equality vis-à-vis the U.S. Presbyterians (PCUSA) and paternalist models of ecclesial relations has affected recent political strategies pursued by the IPC. Despite the paternalism of the early missionary model, changing conceptions of social transformation during the 60s contributed to a shift in relations. Over time the IPC and PCUSA negotiated relationships in which groups both acknowledge a problematic history and insist upon an ethnic of partnership and respect. Today, PCUSA groups, in concert with the IPC, collaborate on a range of transnational political strategies aimed at strengthening the IPC’s leverage in local struggles for justice and peace. A review of this case suggests that long-established Christian networks may have an advantage over other civil society groups such as NGOs in facilitating strategies of transnational alliance. Although civil society organizations often have better access to important resources needed for international advocacy initiatives, Christian networks, such as the one established between the IPC and U.S. Presbyterian communities, rely on a history of negotiating power-disparity in order to elaborate relationships based on listening and partnership. Such findings prove important not only to how we conceptualize transnational alliance but also to the ways that we think about the history and future of Christian networks.

Sensorless synchronization method for thin-film direct optical broadband monitoring system

Optical monitoring systems are necessary to manufacture multilayer thin-film optical filters with low tolerance on spectrum specification. Furthermore, to have better accuracy on the measurement of film thickness, direct monitoring is a must. Direct monitoring implies acquiring spectrum data from the optical component undergoing the film deposition itself, in real time. In making film depositions on surfaces of optical components, the high vacuum evaporator chamber is the most popular equipment. Inside the evaporator, at the top of the chamber, there is a metallic support with several holes where the optical components are assembled. This metallic support has rotary motion to promote film homogenization. To acquire a measurement of the spectrum of the film in deposition, it is necessary to pass a light beam through a glass witness undergoing the film deposition process, and collect a sample of the light beam using a spectrometer. As both the light beam and the light collector are stationary, a synchronization system is required to identify the moment at which the optical component passes through the light beam.

Anomalous fluorescence spectra in an extremely weak, broadband squeezed vacuum under monochromatic and bichromatic excitation

We show that a two-level atom interacting with an extremely weak squeezed vacuum can display resonance fluorescence spectra that are qualitatively different to those that can be obtained using fields with a classical analogue. We consider first the free space situation with monochromatic excitation, and then discuss a bichromatically driven two-level atom in a cavity as a practical scenario for experimentally detecting the anomalous features predicted. We show that in the bad cavity limit, the anomalous spectral features appear for a weak squeezed vacuum and large frequency differences of the bichromatic field, conditions which are easily accessible in laboratories. The advantage of bichromatic, as opposed to monochromatic, excitation is that there is no coherent scattering at line centre which could obscure the observations. A scaling law is derived, N similar to Omega(4) which relates the squeezed photon number to the Rabi frequency at which the anomalous features appear. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

Sol-gel preparation of near-infrared broadband emitting Er(3+)-doped SiO(2)-Ta(2)O(5) nanocomposite films

This article reports a study on the preparation, densification process, and structural and optical properties of SiO(2)-Ta(2)O(5) nanocomposite films obtained by the sol-gel process. The films were doped with Er(3+) and the Si:Ta molar ratio was 90:10. Values of refractive index, thickness and vibrational modes in terms of the number of layers and thermal annealing time are described for the films. The densification process is accompanied by OH group elimination, increase in the refractive index, and changes in film thickness. Full densification of the film is acquired after 90 min of annealing at 900 degrees C. The onset of crystallization and devitrification, with the growth of Ta(2)O(5) nanocrystals occurs with film densification, evidenced by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The Er(3+)-doped nanocomposite annealed at 900 degrees C consists of Ta(2)O(5) nanoparticles, with sizes around 2 nm, dispersed in the SiO(2) amorphous phase. The main emission peak of the film is detected at around 1532 nm, which can be assigned to the (4)I(13/2)->(4)I(15/2) transition of the Er(3+) ions present in the nanocomposites. This band has a full width at half medium of 64 nm, and the lifetime measured for the (4)I(13/2) levels is 5.4 ms, which is broader compared to those of other silicate systems. In conclusion, the films obtained in this work are excellent candidates for use as active planar waveguide. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Governing society today: Editors' introduction

The notion of governing society has for a long time seemed self-evident. Society was conceived as a totality coincident with a certain space, a territory, and occupied by a population. Governing was undertaken by a unified agency that acted upon the society of which it was also a specialized part--the government, or, more broadly, "the state." The notion of "governing society" thus referred unproblematically to the binary of state and society. The articles in this special issue of Alternatives, however, each in its own and different way, address the question of "governing society today."

History teaching today: wanderings, gains and losses

This article analyzes traditions of debate about the teaching of history in Brazil since the 1964-1984 dictatorship. It discusses the changes, continuities, achievements and losses in the history of the discipline. It emphasizes the importance of school culture, the necessary continuity of the school as an institution and dialogue with non-school forms of education.

Genetic criticism today

This article reviews the literature to provide the current state of the genetic critic in Brazil. It lists the currently available books and periodicals, annals of congresses or symposia published by members of the Association of Researchers in Genetic Critic (APCG), showing the tendencies that guide the research in the endless universe of human creation. It also highlights the object of study of the genetic critic, which is not necessarily the one that precedes the word but the processes of creation. Finally, it shows the essential role of genetic critic even in the computer era, since the hard disk maintains all the changes made in the text by obliterations and substitutions if the adequate software is installed.