Political leadership in France:from Charles de Gaulle to Nicolas Sarkozy

Political Leadership in France analyzes changes which have taken place over the last 50 years in French politics. When Charles de Gaulle came to power in 1958 the drama surrounding the Fourth Republic's collapse and the focus on an exceptional individual meant that he was able to confer a very particular style of leadership on the new Fifth Republic. De Gaulle's 'performance' was such that he transformed the nature of leadership politics in France, increasing the scope for personal leadership and the emphasis upon the exalted leader. This had major implications for the republic's institutions and for the role of political parties. The five Presidents who came after him – Pompidou, Giscard, Mitterrand, Chirac, and Sarkozy, as well as contenders for the presidency such as Segolene Royal and François Hollande – have each capitalized upon their own political 'persona' and their relationship to the French people. Gaffney takes a new approach to the subject, looking at the mythological and cultural as well as institutional conditions of political performance. This paperback edition includes a new preface.

Leadership and style in the French Fifth Republic:Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency in historical and cultural perspective

This article contributes to the body of the developing theoretical research in leadership and presidential studies by adding analysis of what I have termed ‘comportmental style’ as a factor in leader/follower relations. Within institutionalism and the wider structure/agency debate in political science, one of the challenges as regards the study of leadership is to identify factors that offer scope to or else militate against leaders’ performance. The comportmental style of Nicolas Sarkozy (President of the French Republic 2007–2012), deployed in the context of the – changing – institution of the presidency, was a major factor in his extreme unpopularity, and contributed to his defeat in 2012. What this tells us about the nature of the changing French presidency and the role of style will be discussed in the conclusion.

Mundos prohibidos: El poder en el discurso epistolar de Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Juana Borrero

This dissertation analyses, through a theoretical framework and a critical approach, letters of Cuban writers Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda and Juana Borrero. While love letters have captured the interest of some scholars, such as Claudio Guillén, Cintio Vitier and Alexander Roselló Selimov, the conflict that the analysis of non-literary texts poses has prevented further research in this field. Therefore, I propose a systematic method of analysis encompassing but not limited to evaluating letters based on their purpose, intent, interpretation, and temporal and spatial composition; analyzing the perspective and function of epistolary entities, and examining the textual signs that distinguish the epistolary forms from the literary forms. With this analytical tool, I examine a selection of letters of Gómez de Avellaneda and demonstrate that the writer displaces her identify from the autobiographic self to the epistolary self, in order to manipulate the perspective of her addressee. Caught between the Neoclassical way of thinking and the Romantic aesthetics, her assertive discourse, also reflected in her epistolary work, contributed to the incursion of women writers into the social and professional life of the nineteen century. Following the same method of investigation, an analysis of letters written by Borrero proves that, by building a world of delusion, hallucination and fantasy the writer brings to prose what first generation of female modernistas had done in poetry. In both cases, my focus is on the strategies that turn these letters into instruments of power, process that transformed the love-letter paradigm and forever renovated the women epistolary genre. This dissertation further explores the possibility of initiating a cycle in the study of personal letters to uncover a forgotten genre, mission that might build a bridge to embrace the new forms of written communication that scholars have already begun to explore in contemporary literature.

Peregrinar sin ausentarse: Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Gastón Baquero, un puente perdurable entre Cuba y España [Program]

This is the program for the event "Peregrinar sin ausentarse: Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Gastón Baquero, un puente perdurable entre Cuba y España".

Peregrinar sin ausentarse: La Avellaneda y Gastón Baquero, un punte perdurable entre Cuba y España

This flyer promotes the event "Peregrinar sin ausentarse: La Avellaneda y Gastón Baquero, un punte perdurable entre Cuba y España".

A Conference on The 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Gertrud is Gómez de Avellaneda: A Celebration of Nineteenth-Century Cuban Literature

This flyer promotes the event "A Conference on The 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Gertrud is Gómez de Avellaneda: A Celebration of Nineteenth-Century Cuban Literature" cosponsored by the Cuban Research Institute and the Department of Modern Languages at Florida International University.

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux et la ville "utopique" d'Arc-et-Senans

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Claude-Nicolas Ledoux et la ville "utopique" d'Arc-et-Senans

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

El Parkour en Avellaneda. Tensiones entre reproducción social, violencia simbólica y los Libres del Sur

El siguiente trabajo intenta aportar a un análisis de las lógicas de reproducción social enfocando en una práctica, en este caso el Parkour en la ciudad de Avellaneda. Para ello observaremos una serie de tensiones entre lo que podemos identificar como operatorias de violencia simbólica y presuntas estrategias para mitigar, contrarrestar, reapropiar o escapar a tales operatorias. El Parkour asoma como un modo de habitar lo urbano que rompe con ciertas lógicas estipuladas. Rompe con la lógica urbanística, en tanto los espacios delimitados a un tránsito funcional son intervenidos por desplazamientos que evidencian otras posibilidades a las del habitual tránsito. Más allá del carácter disruptivo que en teoría podemos atribuir a esta práctica, son observables en el caso analizado algunos modos de institucionalización y reproducción social. Teniendo en cuenta que en Avellaneda se ha conformado la Asociación de Parkour Libes del Sur y la Escuela Municipal de Parkour, analizaremos algunas tensiones entre lo institucional y lo no institucional, entre lo estatal y lo no estatal, entre lo escolar y lo no escolar e intentaremos hacer foco en el funcionamiento de los sentidos dominantes al interior del grupo, en pugna o en consonancia con sentidos dominantes de su contexto social

El Parkour en Avellaneda. Tensiones entre reproducción social, violencia simbólica y los Libres del Sur

El siguiente trabajo intenta aportar a un análisis de las lógicas de reproducción social enfocando en una práctica, en este caso el Parkour en la ciudad de Avellaneda. Para ello observaremos una serie de tensiones entre lo que podemos identificar como operatorias de violencia simbólica y presuntas estrategias para mitigar, contrarrestar, reapropiar o escapar a tales operatorias. El Parkour asoma como un modo de habitar lo urbano que rompe con ciertas lógicas estipuladas. Rompe con la lógica urbanística, en tanto los espacios delimitados a un tránsito funcional son intervenidos por desplazamientos que evidencian otras posibilidades a las del habitual tránsito. Más allá del carácter disruptivo que en teoría podemos atribuir a esta práctica, son observables en el caso analizado algunos modos de institucionalización y reproducción social. Teniendo en cuenta que en Avellaneda se ha conformado la Asociación de Parkour Libes del Sur y la Escuela Municipal de Parkour, analizaremos algunas tensiones entre lo institucional y lo no institucional, entre lo estatal y lo no estatal, entre lo escolar y lo no escolar e intentaremos hacer foco en el funcionamiento de los sentidos dominantes al interior del grupo, en pugna o en consonancia con sentidos dominantes de su contexto social

El Parkour en Avellaneda. Tensiones entre reproducción social, violencia simbólica y los Libres del Sur

El siguiente trabajo intenta aportar a un análisis de las lógicas de reproducción social enfocando en una práctica, en este caso el Parkour en la ciudad de Avellaneda. Para ello observaremos una serie de tensiones entre lo que podemos identificar como operatorias de violencia simbólica y presuntas estrategias para mitigar, contrarrestar, reapropiar o escapar a tales operatorias. El Parkour asoma como un modo de habitar lo urbano que rompe con ciertas lógicas estipuladas. Rompe con la lógica urbanística, en tanto los espacios delimitados a un tránsito funcional son intervenidos por desplazamientos que evidencian otras posibilidades a las del habitual tránsito. Más allá del carácter disruptivo que en teoría podemos atribuir a esta práctica, son observables en el caso analizado algunos modos de institucionalización y reproducción social. Teniendo en cuenta que en Avellaneda se ha conformado la Asociación de Parkour Libes del Sur y la Escuela Municipal de Parkour, analizaremos algunas tensiones entre lo institucional y lo no institucional, entre lo estatal y lo no estatal, entre lo escolar y lo no escolar e intentaremos hacer foco en el funcionamiento de los sentidos dominantes al interior del grupo, en pugna o en consonancia con sentidos dominantes de su contexto social

Hospital San Nicoláas, Luis García, Liliana García y Herlinda Garcia entre otros

Hospital San Nicoláas, Luis García, Liliana García y Herlinda Garcia entre otros. Versalles, C. 1949.

Mundos Prohibidos: El Poder en el Discurso Epistolar de Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Juana Borrero

This dissertation analyses, through a theoretical framework and a critical approach, letters of Cuban writers Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda and Juana Borrero. While love letters have captured the interest of some scholars, such as Claudio Guillén, Cintio Vitier and Alexander Roselló Selimov, the conflict that the analysis of non-literary texts poses has prevented further research in this field. Therefore, I propose a systematic method of analysis encompassing but not limited to evaluating letters based on their purpose, intent, interpretation, and temporal and spatial composition; analyzing the perspective and function of epistolary entities, and examining the textual signs that distinguish the epistolary forms from the literary forms. With this analytical tool, I examine a selection of letters of Gómez de Avellaneda and demonstrate that the writer displaces her identify from the autobiographic self to the epistolary self, in order to manipulate the perspective of her addressee. Caught between the Neoclassical way of thinking and the Romantic aesthetics, her assertive discourse, also reflected in her epistolary work, contributed to the incursion of women writers into the social and professional life of the nineteen century. Following the same method of investigation, an analysis of letters written by Borrero proves that, by building a world of delusion, hallucination and fantasy the writer brings to prose what first generation of female modernistas had done in poetry. In both cases, my focus is on the strategies that turn these letters into instruments of power, process that transformed the love-letter paradigm and forever renovated the women epistolary genre. This dissertation further explores the possibility of initiating a cycle in the study of personal letters to uncover a forgotten genre, mission that might build a bridge to embrace the new forms of written communication that scholars have already begun to explore in contemporary literature.

Combination strategies for a factor analysis phone-conditioned speaker verification system

This work aims to take advantage of recent developments in joint factor analysis (JFA) in the context of a phonetically conditioned GMM speaker verification system. Previous work has shown performance advantages through phonetic conditioning, but this has not been shown to date with the JFA framework. Our focus is particularly on strategies for combining the phone-conditioned systems. We show that the classic fusion of the scores is suboptimal when using multiple GMM systems. We investigate several combination strategies in the model space, and demonstrate improvement over score-level combination as well as over a non-phonetic baseline system. This work was conducted during the 2008 CLSP Workshop at Johns Hopkins University.