The First Lady Scholarship Reconsidered

Abstract

Interdisciplinary scholarship on America's first ladies is slowly coming into its own both as an independent category of research and as an extension of presidential and gender research. However, aside from a brief review of scholarly literature on Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as First Lady (Watson 2000a), no one has systematically reviewed the research to date to ascertain what work has been accomplished and where more scholarly attention is needed, vis-a-vis this burgeoning sub-field of American government and politics. This work seeks to fill that void.     

Services for Children and Their Families,Edited by John Stroud. Pergamon Press,New York, 1973. $13 Hardbound

Abstract

The standards for promotion and tenure in higher education have changed over the years, particularly with regard to the importance of research and scholarship to promotion and tenure decisions. This study was undertaken to determine the current state of promotion and tenure expectations in graduate social work programs and to establish whether or not these programs felt pressure for increased performance in research and scholarship. Peer review committees and the peer review process also were examined. The major findings show that research/scholarly productivity has become the central criterion for making promotion and tenure decisions and that tenure is clearly tied to rank at the associate professor level.     

Growth of public relations research networks: a bibliometric analysis

ABSTRACT

This research reported and expanded on a 6-year citation study of published scholarly research in public relations that occurred between 2010 and 2015. This analysis built on the work of Pasadeos and his collaborators, who examined the literature’s most-cited works from the 2000s and 1990s, respectively, and studied the field’s research network. Moreover, this study expanded the scope of coverage by adding three international journals. Overall, this study found that public relations scholarship experienced quantitative and qualitative leaps during the last decade, and the areas of excellence theory, relationship management, and crisis communication were heavily researched across the journals examined, whereas stakeholder and corporate communication are major study areas in the international journals.     

Poetic Labors and Challenging Political Science: An Epistolary Poem

ABSTRACT

The author, a political theorist, uses poetry to reflect on and spur structural change in admissions committees, hiring committees, funding decisions, curriculum development, and the institutionalized awards-making structure regarding African Politics in the American Political Science Association. This poem, delivered and performed at the American Political Science Association 2018 meeting in Boston, provides empirical and verifiable data about how scholarly awards are distributed in the discipline. The analysis of this process reflects on a long history of erasing, minimizing, and tokenizing the scholarship of African political scientists in the discipline of political science. Written as an epistolary poem, the author explains how #MeToo accounts for complex and interrelated forms of exclusion from the production of knowledge and uses the history of Black women in politics associations, writings by Patricia J. Williams, Pearl T. Robinson, Darlene Miller, and poetry by June Jordan (1936–2002) and Sweet Honey in the Rock (f. 1973).     

Guiding the Acquisition of Therapist Ally Identity

Abstract

This paper suggests the appropriateness of adopting an ally identity for therapists who work with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) stepfamilies. Using results from in-depth interviews, we demonstrate how research can assist those who wish to acquire knowledge regarding this marginalized group. Such scholarship can be helpful when therapists are acting as allies within therapeutic encounters, in interactions with colleagues, and in public discourse.     

The personal is political: a feminist reflection on a journey into participatory arts-based research with sex worker migrants in South Africa

ABSTRACT

This article offers a personal reflection of my journey into participatory arts-based research with sex work migrants in South Africa. It begins by sharing some background information of how my own experience as a migrant woman, and my layered (sometimes conflicted) identities, have continued to shape and influence much of my scholarly work, including my commitment to engaging in research that supports (or at least tries to support) social justice. Through this article, I offer an example of how the ‘personal is political’ is entwined in feminist values of research and engagement. Those who experience the issues under investigation must be considered equal partners in research processes. Collaborative forms of knowledge production can support social justice, particularly if efforts strive to shift the centre from which knowledge is traditionally generated and disseminated.     

Partner Violence in Transgender Communities: What Helping Professionals Need to Know

ABSTRACT

In recent decades, there has been an increase in scholarly attention devoted to the study of intimate partner violence (IPV) within rainbow communities. While a growing body of scholarship now informs our understanding of the experiences of gay, lesbian, and bisexual men and women with IPV, comparatively less is known about IPV within transgender communities. Drawing on the published literature on transgender intimate relationships, this article seeks to provide practitioners with a foundational understanding of IPV in the lives of transgender people. Specifically, we will examine (a) methodological, political, and social barriers to the creation of knowledge about transgender IPV; (b) the familial and relationship contexts of IPV within transgender communities; (c) the prevalence of IPV experienced by transgender survivors; (d) the dynamics of IPV perpetrated against and/or by transgender persons; (e) the problematic use of the “trans panic” defense by perpetrators of IPV in legal contexts; and (f) recommendations for supporting transgender survivors of IPV in ways that are trans-inclusive and trans-positive.     

¿Qué hacen los nuevos americanistas? Collaborative strategies for a postnationalist American Studies

Abstract

This article advocates that the field of American Studies institutionalize Spanish as its second language in order both to address the cultural importance of the growing US Spanish-speaking population and to ensure productive scholarly dialogue within the context of the Americas. Its ideas follow up on recent proposals for 'new' or 'postnationalist' American Studies. It warns that Americanists must be conscious of unresolved issues raised in recent debates on Latin Americanism regarding the increasingly privileged status of English (vs. Spanish) language and US (vs. Latin America) based scholarship in the globalized field of Latin American Studies, problems sure to be exacerbated by a globalizing but US centered and monolingual American Studies. It concludes by suggesting a series of strategies to promote the incorporation of Spanish into both undergraduate and graduate level pedagogy, as well as to foment bilingual scholarly dialogue across the disciplines in the context of the Americas.     

Against memory-as-remedy to the traumatic aftermaths of Nigeria-Biafra war past: whither justice?

ABSTRACT

This article examines recent scholarship proposing the use of memory practice to remedy the traumatic aftermaths of Nigeria-Biafra War past. The assumption sustained in this scholarship is that through certain cultural memory practices such as truth commissions and commemorative rituals some form of appeasement might be reached regarding the extent of subsistence of that traumatic past. We fault these scholarly claims proposing memory as panacea to mass injustices and tragedies. In addition to the problematic proposals for using memory to remedy past atrocities in Nigeria, we observe that the question of justice is either absent or construed sometimes vaguely as one and the same with memorialisation. Accordingly, this paper further explores the place of justice in (and its implications for) this recent scholarship on Nigeria-Biafra War past. By inserting and centralising questions of justice in the discourse of that war, we seek to rethink the assumptions of memory practice as a remedy to past atrocities in Nigeria. The underlying argument of our discussion is that not only does the emphasis on memory diminish the political nature of the conflict but also that resort to memory indicates a continued reluctance to address the fundamental questions of political in/justice in Nigeria.     

Comparing ‘deep’ insider knowledge: developing analytical strategies for cross-national qualitative studies

ABSTRACT

One overarching question in scholarly methodological discussions on qualitative comparative approaches concerns how it is possible to compare and generalise deep insider knowledge across (nationally) specific contexts. The aim of this article is to propose a research strategy that both facilitates the comparison and theorisation of such knowledge across nations and limits the risks of reproducing naturalised national ‘truths’. The strategy is developed within a feminist, cross-national, qualitative comparative analysis of how European countries addressed military deaths in connection with the ISAF mission in Afghanistan. The article underlines the importance of collective analytical work and of strategies that allow continuous movement between insider and outsider positions throughout the research process. A number of analytical strategies are presented: collective project design, alternating between analytical closeness and distance, and de-familiarising writing practices.     

Unsettling research versus activism: how might critical disability studies disrupt traditional research boundaries?

Abstract

This article responds to the call for producing activist-oriented scholarship by engaging with theoretical and methodological approaches that explore the inclusion of women and girls with disabilities in Vietnam. We consider possibilities for connecting different forms of knowledge and activism by reflecting on research practices designed to foster social change. Specifically, we ask: how can critical disability studies be more reflexive about knowledge which privileges particular ways of knowing from the Global North? What alternative possibilities can exist to foster more inclusive and transformative knowledge that tackles systemic forms of oppressions in colonial and postcolonial contexts? Reflecting on an ongoing collaborative project in Vietnam, we argue that critical disability studies which engages with different forms of activism through critical reflections on our privileges can tackle exclusion by opening a new platform for debating social justice transnationally.     

Power struggles: A sociological approach to activist communication

This paper proposes an alternative approach to the scholarship of activist public relations, based on the ideas of the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu; notably his understanding of activism in society. Although Bourdieu is one of the most quoted sociologists in the world (Santoro, 2011; Truong & Weill, 2012), his work has only received limited attention in public relations, and has been entirely ignored within the context of activist communication. This is despite his focus on power, relationships and the role of activists in modern democracies, all of which are central themes in public relations practice and research. Based on Bourdieu’s theory of practice, the discipline’s prevailing, dominant, industry serving, functionalist paradigm positions public relations’ role in society as to perpetuate social inequalities. However, drawing on his ideas leads us to question if public relations skills could be equally utilized to challenge existing power imbalances in society, either in support or on behalf of those groups and individuals whose voices have been drowned out by traditional public relations efforts. The author argues that Bourdieu was not only an accomplished scholar, but also an activist in his own right. It is this combination of personal experience with academic ideas that lends weight to his scholarly work through which he urged the scholarly community to utilize their skills, knowledge and research to challenge (perceived) inequalities in society. The emergence of this type of activist academic, committed to giving voice to multiple coexisting, sometimes directly competing points of views, would arguably further justify and strengthen the existence of public relations as a scholarly discipline in its own right.     

Senior Faculty Perceptions of Social Work Journals

Abstract

Academic journals are the primary means of disseminating new knowledge. A journal's prestige is a key determinant of its contents' visibility, readership, impact on practice, and use and citation in future research. This article presents a method for assessing the prestige of journals in the diverse field of social work, and demonstrates its application in a 1990 survey in which 421 senior faculty at accredited graduate schools of social work rated the familiarity and perceived quality of 120 journals in their field. The findings have value for researchers seeking to publish their work in the most appropriate journal and for persons attempting to assess the scholarly contribution of social work educators.     

Scholarly Productivity of Social Work Graduate Programs

Abstract

This research compares the scholarly productivity of ten leading social work graduate programs with 35 randomly selected Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) accredited graduate programs. The data reports that, when comparing group averages, the ten leading social work programs had greater scholarly productivity than the 35 randomly selected programs. These findings were statistically significant. However, when comparing individual programs, a notable number of the randomly selected graduate programs had much higher rates of scholarly productivity than some of the ten leading social work graduate programs. The implications of these findings for social work practice and education are discussed.     

Emancipatory engagement: An urban womanist social work pedagogy

ABSTRACT

Standing on the hope of the initial social work course from 1914 at Morgan College, this article provides insight into the significant learning outcomes of contemporary students in advanced social work practice with urban African American families. This research introduces the conceptual framework of urban womanist social work pedagogy as an inclusive practice-informed knowledge produced through the rituals, traditions, values, culture, and resilience of historically disenfranchised communities. Urban womanist social work teaching methods honor truth telling from the ones who have lived there. Urban womanist social work affirms transformative-centered research, teaching, and scholarship produced through institutions such as historically black colleges and universities (HBCU’s). The students’ reflective narratives reveal a process of transformation, centered in the freedom standpoint, which includes recognizing the location and context of their individual and collective identity as African Americans in the profession of social work. Urban womanist social work pedagogy cumulatively equips our students with intergenerational knowledge that inform their assessment of critical issues in Baltimore’s African American communities.     

Jewish studies underground in Leningrad in the 1980s†

ABSTRACT

This article is a first-hand report of a participant and leader of a number of underground initiatives within the “refuseniks’” community which aimed to encourage Jewish studies. These underground initiatives involved seminars (scholarly as well as public), excursions through Jewish historical sites, and the publication of a samizdat journal. In short, these initiatives sought to recover and disseminate knowledge of Jewish history and culture.     

Social accountability as social movement outcome: Protests in a Chinese city

ABSTRACT

Social accountability is a concept that has been used much in development studies and democratic theory to study informal ways for civil society to achieve social change and hold governments accountable. Surprisingly, it has been far less used in social movement scholarship and we argue that social accountability, understood as a combination of answerability, legal claim attainment, and sanction, is a useful way to examine social movement outcomes in China. Social accountability directs the focus of research towards the target of protest and not only whether the protest resulted in policy changes or not. Based on field work in 2013–2015, this article examines four cases of social protests in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. In line with previous research we find that when citizen claims accord with government policies and protesters are well-organized, local authorities tend to accommodate the protesters’ claims. However, answerability and sanction do not always follow the same pattern. Answerability can be relatively high also when legal claims are unsuccessful. This means that cases that are commonly seen as unsuccessful protests because the legal demands were not accommodated may still result in partial social accountability. In addition to the presentation of original empirical findings, the study makes a theoretical contribution by linking the two research fields of social movement and social accountability, which will be of interest to a wider scholarly audience.     

Life satisfaction,self‐esteem,and personal happiness among Mexican and African Americans

Since the publication of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, the writings of Thomas S. Kuhn have had a great impact on the way sociologists perceive developments within their discipline. This essay offers a critical review of the Kuhnian framework and questions the unreflective endorsement of this perspective. After a brief summary of the main points in Kuhn's approach, this paper argues that Kuhnian approaches preclude the possibility of an investigation of the historical relations and developments that mediate the production of scientific knowledge. Kuhn retains a reified view of science free from both sociohistorical influence and critical scholarship. Ideas still beget ideas, and knowledge gained through scientific investigation is still cumulative.     

Naoki Ueno’s Transformative Practice

ABSTRACT

Reflecting upon scholarly engagement with Naoki Ueno beginning in the 1990s, this commentary recalls the particular commitments of Ueno’s research practice and their relations with studies conducted under the auspices of the Work Practice and Technology research group at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center. Those lines of connection are further traced through the contributions to this special issue, emphasizing the eclectic, and also synthetic, contributions of Ueno’s body of research, as well as the research that it has inspired.