A Social and Historical Perspective of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus

ABSTRACT

This study sought to understand the various roles music played for gay men who were members of the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, the world's first gay men's chorus. Specifically, it answers the following questions: What is the demographic profile of the chorus members? How has the chorus shaped or reflected social issues; how has the chorus shaped or reflected political issues; how has the music evolved over time?; How was the chorus impacted by the HIV/AIDS epidemic? Historical information for this study was gathered through eight interviews of original and long-time choral members as well as the current artistic director. Interviews were conducted in San Francisco at the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus office, and additional data were derived from programs of previous choral concerts, two questionnaires (Internalized Homophobia Scale and Gay Chorus Questionnaire), and observations of choral rehearsals and concerts. As a follow-up to a previous study documenting the formation of the chorus in 1978–1982, this study historically documents the chorus's evolution from 1983 through 2003, emphasizing the chorus's impact on social and political issues, the musicality of the chorus, and the impact of HIV/AIDS on the chorus.     

Was Abraham Lincoln Gay?

Scholars and historians are blind to Lincoln's same-sex inclinations in part because of a personal aversion to male homosexuality, but more importantly because they fail to perceive the vast differences between the sexual culture of antebellum America and that of our own time, especially in regard to male-male physical and emotional intimacy. This article brings those differences to light and sets Lincoln's life in the context of the sexual culture of his own time. This enables one to see that Lincoln's same-sex sexuality was not only unproblematic, but commonplace, if not typical, in his day. Revising the Myth of Lincoln in regard to his same-sex inclinations will have a positive effect on contemporary culture, especially on the education and socialization of young boys.     

革命时代的生活与文学之美——《这边风景》简论

对于王蒙个体和当代文学史来说,《这边风景》都是别具典型意义的作品。小说深入、直观地展现了作家16年新疆生涯,饱含着当年的王蒙与今日的王蒙对青春岁月的极大热忱与真诚。它以丰富的经典细节,表现了革命年代边疆百姓的切肤生活和情感,而"意识流"和"小说人语"手法的运用,扩展了作品的艺术表现力,构成了作家穿越文化时空的灵魂对话。     

雷锋精神走进历史的哲学思考

雷锋精神能够走进中国历史,成为社会主义先进文化的一面旗帜,在于它充分彰显了特定时代的核心价值,是时代发展的客观要求;有效传承了民族传统文化精髓,具有切合民族心理的文化基因;真正获得了广大人民群众的推崇奉行,是人民群众的自觉选择。     

网络环境下的图书馆文献典藏——从民初笔记野史《乌蒙秘闻》说起

由于网络数字技术的冲击,大量久藏深闺的文献资料流布天下,偶有引起认识或研究的混乱。《乌蒙秘闻》一书是许指严在民初"反满"思想的影响下,为生计考虑,以清初滇东北改土归流为背景创作的一篇传奇小说,本不足信。但网络上却较常见,有称"中外名著"的,有称"重要资料"的,还出现了专门的词条,这就对当前承担公共服务的图书馆等部门提出了新的要求和任务。     

历史不一定是发展史———中国古代都城形态史的解构

以往的研究认为中国古代都城城市形态的历史是一种前后相继的发展史，使用的主要研究方法就是对城市形态进行相似性比较，但这种方法在逻辑上存在根本性的问题，因此其结论是值得质疑的。基于对这一问题的研究，我们可以进一步认为，历史并不一定就是事物、事件之间有着密切联系、存在发展阶段以及变化规律可循的“发展史”，而可能只是由一些不存在密切联系，只是在时间上具有先后顺序的同类对象构成的历史。     

透析生活史研究在古德森教师研究中的角色

生活史研究已日渐运用于当代教育研究中。英国教育社会学家艾沃·古德森不仅较早地将其用于课程研究，还更多地用于教师研究。文章考察了古德森不同阶段的教师研究，分析了生活史研究在教师研究中所扮演的角色：为教师生活研究提供研究方法；为在"中间地带"建构理论提供资源；为促成教师"叙事学习"和"叙事教学"场域奠定基础。指出运用生活史研究是古德森教师研究生涯中一以贯之的思想，背后有其对教师深刻的社会关怀。这一思想在其教师研究中扮演着多重角色，对我国教师和教师教育研究者及实践者而言，有诸多借鉴意义。     

Never easy to say “sorry”: Exploring the interplay of crisis involvement,brand image,and message appeal in developing effective corporate apologies

This study examines how the interplay among crisis involvement, brand image, and message appeal impacts the effectiveness of an apology in the context of a corporate crisis. To determine apology effectiveness, a 2 (crisis involvement: high vs. low) × 2 (brand image: symbolic vs. functional) × 2 (message appeal type: emotional vs. informational) experimental design was employed. The results demonstrate that the three-way interaction is significant, especially in the low-crisis involvement condition. The study concludes with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications and directions for future research.     

Work as a cure for mental illnesses? Opportunism and seeking ways in psychology and psychiatry in the first decades of state socialism in Hungary

ABSTRACT

In Hungary, until the end of the 1940s, there were two main established methods of occupying the mentally ill who were fit for work. From the end of the nineteenth century, a lesser number of patients underwent work therapy in mental asylums, whereas the others were treated with so-called family therapy (otherwise known as the heterofamilial system), exploiting the capacities of families in the countryside. As an important part of this, the mentally ill helped in housekeeping and agricultural work. However, following the political and ideological turn of 1948, the latter form of treatment became debated, and then it was gradually superseded. Parallel to this process, work therapy came to be the most popular type of treatment for mental illnesses, as work formed the basis of the ideology of the communist state, and thus, healing through work harmonized with the general tendencies of the era. This article examines texts related to work therapy published in neurological–psychiatric and psychological journals and monographs between 1954 and 1964. However, although work therapy appeared to be the “handmaiden of ideology,” and even though it was supposed to fulfil a particular role, in reality, the role and perception of work therapy were a lot more complicated.     

Corporate collective action and the market cycle of the cloth industry in Nieuwkerke,Flanders, 1300–1600

This article addresses the connections between corporate collective action and economic development in the pre-industrial Low Countries. It focuses on a micro-historic case study: the textile industry of the village of Nieuwkerke in the county of Flanders. This rural cloth centre witnessed an exceptional industrial expansion between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Following the recent proposition by Bas van Bavel that market economies follow a fixed pattern of development, the chronology of the evolution of Nieuwkerke’s cloth industry can be discussed in terms of three phases. This article argues that the first phase of development (1358–c.1500) was characterized by limited success because of pressure from the city of Ypres. The second phase (c.1500–c.1550) was marked by an industrial boom, predicated upon successful corporate collective action intertwined with the perception of social equality among the village’s cloth entrepreneurs. The third and final phase (from c.1550) was one of stagnation and decline, caused by the breaking down of the collective and concomitant social polarization. The case study thereby closely conforms to van Bavel’s theory about market cycles. Yet, the correlation between economic decline and social polarization should in this case be understood in terms of changing perceptions of inequality, rather than increasingly unequal opportunities.