Characteristics Associated with Housing Loss Among Youth in a Rapid Rehousing Program

Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal - Housing First programs, such as rapid rehousing, are a well-established approach to addressing homelessness among adults, yet there remains a lack of...     

Queue hurdle Coxian phase-type model for two-stage process of population-based cancer screening

Statistical Methods & Applications - The quality assurance of two-stage population-based cancer screening program is determined by arrival rate (attending screening), positive rate (determined...     

Fat Monica,Fat Suits,and Friends

This paper examines narratives about fatness that are represented and reproduced by the character of “Fat Monica” played by Courteney Cox in a fat suit on the sitcom Friends. By drawing on David T. Mitchell's framework for analyzing “narrative prosthesis,” I examine how Fat Monica's narratives on Friends represent complex intersections of identities. I argue that fat suits often evoke fatness to support limited and clichéd narratives; however, fat suits may also enable new means of representing and understanding fatness. Through an analysis of the ways in which Fat Monica is represented in the episodes she appears in, three key uses of Fat Monica's fatness are discussed. Firstly, I examine the comic uses of Fat Monica and their relationship between fatness and humour. Next, I examine how Fat Monica storylines represent interlocking narratives of fatness, femininity, and sexual desire. Lastly, I consider how Fat Monica represents the construction of the normative body and claims about fatness and authenticity. Ultimately, Fat Monica illustrates how fatness relates to understandings of humour, gender, social class, and heterosexuality.     

Exclusion and vulnerability on public transit: experiences of transit dependent riders in Portland,Oregon

In urban areas, the inequitable distribution of transit systems and services has been shown to reproduce safety and environmental risks – potentially exacerbating preexisting inequities. Thus, how vulnerable populations access and utilize public transportation is of critical concern to urban scholars. This paper utilizes focus group data to explore how transit-dependent (particularly low-income) riders engage with the public transit system in Portland, Oregon. We illustrate specific ways in which transit-dependent riders experience marginalization and exclusion. We find that certain groups, particularly mothers with young children and those with disabilities are not well served by a public infrastructure oriented toward an ‘ideal rider’ who is an economically stable, able-bodied, white, male commuter. We conclude that a public infrastructure meant to serve all riders equitably, yet which fails to consider the unique experiences of marginalized transit users risks further amplifying existing social vulnerabilities and reinforcing gender, racial, and class inequalities.     

FRACTURED RESISTANCES:

This article analyzes the arguments of two of the central positions in the debate over assimilationism in the gay and lesbian community as a means of exploring the meaning of resistance, opposition, struggle, and agency within the context of a dominant and generative field of power. Instead of debating which position is better or most effective, or which involves true resistance, we use Foucault's formulations to suggest that each represents but one among a multiplicity of strategies, all existing simultaneously in a field of power. Because this field is composed of a plurality of dissonant, multi-layered, multidimensional relations of power, we argue that no single form of resistance can be identified and uniquely practiced. Instead, each struggle contributes its own partial modification to the overall transformation of the field of power, and simultaneously highlights the inconsistencies faced by agents who attempt to present a coherent identity in opposition to structures of domination.     

Social Cognitive Factors,Support, and Engagement: Early Adolescents’ Math Interests as Precursors to Choice of Career

The authors examined the central hypothesis that students’ early perceptions of support and sense of engagement in math classes and math activities strongly influence the broadening or narrowing of their math interest. The focus was on the first wave of qualitative data collected from 5th‐, 7th‐, and 9th‐grade students during the 2007–2008 academic year as part of a longitudinal study. Findings indicate the importance of using group work and extrinsic motivation in middle school math classes to broaden interest; peer classroom behavior was often a detractor of math interest.