Communal Growth Research Articles

Narrative identity in context: How adults in Japan, Denmark, Israel, and the United States narrate difficult life events.

Integrating the selective reconstruction of the past with an imagined future, narrative identity is a person's internalized and evolving story of the self, functioning to provide life with some degree of meaning and purpose (McAdams & McLean, 2013). While narrative identity has been found to be associated with a range of psychological and social phenomena (e.g., Adler et al., 2015; McAdams & Guo, 2015), cross-national variation in narrative identity has been only minimally examined. For the purposes of the current inquiry, 438 adults from the United States (N = 102), Japan (N = 122), Israel (N = 103), and Denmark (N = 111) wrote narratives on adversity (low point and life challenge) and completed self-report measures on psychological well-being. Part 1 examined the narrative topics discussed, the frequency of narrative indices (redemption, contamination, agency, communion, meaning-making), and their relationship to well-being across the four countries, finding the most cultural difference in levels of redemption and meaning-making and the kinds of events narrated. Part 2 involved a qualitative, thematic analysis of the Japanese, Danish, and Israeli narratives to derive a set of narrative indices characterizing each country. Several emerged in the Japanese narratives (acceptance, attribution of blame, unresolved), the Danish narratives (balanced affect, communal growth, normality), and Israeli narratives (collective responsibility). Taken together, our findings regarding narratives of adversity support the idea that narrative identity cannot be fully captured without an understanding of culture but needs to instead be studied in tandem with the cultural context in which stories reside. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Synodal Discernment on a Catechetical Drama called “Service of Light,” Its Impact on the Integral Education and Edification of Faith of the Laity

Synodality is a vital characteristic of the Catholic Church's life and mission, highlighting joint revitalization through listening, discernment, and active participation. Inspired by this concept, researchers started a study exploring the impact of the "Service of Light," a catechetical drama observed during Easter vigil, on local parishioners within the Archdiocese of Nueva Segovia in the Philippines. Employing an exploratory and qualitative approach, the researchers examined the denotative and connotative meanings embedded in images and narratives surrounding this ritual, using Roland Barthes' semiotic model for analysis. The study involved visiting five local Catholic parishes within the archdiocese, conducting purposive sampling for survey interviews, and gathering visuals. Results uncovered meaningful impacts of the Service of Light on the integral Christian education and spiritual edification of the parishioners. The catechetical drama served as a powerful teaching tool that deepened the parishioners’ understanding of Christian doctrine. It helped develop a sense of belonging within their faith community. Moreover, the Service of Light generated spiritual renewal and strengthened individual faith. The ritual's symbolism aroused a deeper connection with God, empowering parishioners to live out their faith more fully in daily life. The Service of Light was acknowledged as a tool of faith that continues to inspire the parishioners to bear fruit for years to come. In conclusion, the study underscores the significance of the Service of Light in parishioners' Christian education and spiritual journey, emphasizing its role in fostering community, deepening understanding of faith, and inspiring personal and communal growth. As a recommendation, the researchers are suggesting future research to explore the perspectives of ordained clergy for a comprehensive understanding of its impact on Christian communities.

Shattered hierarchy: how the Gaza conflict demolished Maslow’s pyramid of needs

Conflicts and wars have a profound impact on human needs, as vividly illustrated by the ongoing crisis in Gaza. This paper aims to systematically examine how these crises affect individuals’ ability to meet their basic and higher-order needs, as conceptualized by Maslow’s hierarchy. By employing Maslow’s framework, this paper seeks to uncover the specific ways in which conflict disrupts the fulfillment of essential human needs and to identify targeted interventions that can mitigate these effects. Through this focused lens, I hope to contribute to a deeper understanding that supports efforts to end the war. In this paper, a methodical approach that integrates a review of online news, media reports, published official reports from international organizations, and academic publications was adopted to identify the current challenges in Gaza impacting the different levels of need. An exploration through the framework of Maslow’s hierarchy revealed the extensive humanitarian challenges stemming from the blockade and military actions since 2008. There are significant disruptions across all levels of Maslow’s hierarchy. Despite the severe compromise in basic needs like safety and physiological sustenance, there is a notable resilience in the pursuit of transcendence needs among the residents by transcending personal suffering through acts of solidarity, altruism, and community engagement and exhibiting a deeper sense of spirituality and faith that provide solace and a sense of connection to a larger purpose. There is an urgent need to end the conflict, facilitate unrestricted aid, and address the multifaceted needs of Gaza’s population. Strategies that support both immediate survival and long-term personal and communal growth in the face of adversity are critically needed. Essential initiatives include establishing community support networks for critical needs like food, shelter, and healthcare, alongside promoting economic stability through livelihood projects. Additionally, the development of online education programs offering vocational training and digital literacy, in partnership with international institutions, is crucial. These initiatives, tailored to Gaza’s context and aimed at overcoming siege-related barriers, are vital for empowering residents with the skills for community rebuilding, economic self-sufficiency, and enhanced social cohesion. Such strategies are indispensable for addressing immediate adversities while laying a foundation for sustainable future growth.

Organizational Structure and Employees’ Performance: The Case of a Multipurpose Cooperative in Nueva Vizcaya

In the Philippines’ social and economic structure, cooperatives play a significant role, particularly in rural areas, by facilitating market access and resource distribution and fostering communal growth. Despite being recognized by government policies as key contributors to financial inclusion, economic growth, and poverty eradication, the effectiveness of cooperatives concerning their organizational structures is often overlooked. This study aims to determine the correlation between Organizational Structure and Employees’ Performance: The Case of a Multipurpose Cooperative in Nueva Vizcaya. It employs a quantitative approach, combining descriptive and correlational designs. The survey questionnaire used in this study is adopted from three research sources. The results revealed that most of the cooperative’s workforce was comprised of young professional women, with an average age of 29.97. The respondents were predominantly from the Accounting Department, with a notable representation from lower/operational management. Moreover, a substantial portion of the respondents had tenure exceeding six months. The results indicated a positive perception of the subcategories within the organizational structure, significantly influencing employee performance. However, certain aspects of the organizational structure, such as hierarchical structure, formalization, and internal and external boundaries, showed no significant relationship with employee performance. These findings highlight the complex interplay between organizational structure and employee performance in a cooperative setting.

LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES IN THE DIGITAL AGE: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

In the heart of the information age, academic libraries stand at the forefront of a transformative juncture shaped by technological evolution and changing user needs. This paper comprehensively explores academic libraries’ opportunities and challenges in this dynamic digital era. Historically, libraries have served as repositories of human knowledge and wisdom. Today, they are reshaping themselves, not merely as static centers of information but as active facilitators of knowledge dissemination and creation. From harnessing the potential of DNA-encoded chemical libraries to accelerate drug discovery processes to fervently advocating for open access initiatives, academic libraries showcase their remarkable adaptability and unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of traditional information services. However, with every digital stride forward comes a set of intricate challenges. As the paper discusses, libraries grapple with implementing advanced technologies like Linked Data, striking an equilibrium between growing digital resources and invaluable print collections and steering through the maze of leadership complexities in an ever-evolving digital domain. Drawing from a series of illustrative case studies, the paper provides a nuanced understanding of how libraries, despite these challenges, have devised strategic solutions that address immediate concerns and chart a course for future evolution. As the narrative progresses, it sheds light on prescient strategies that libraries can employ to remain relevant and impactful in a future dense with technological advancements. These strategies underscore the pivotal role libraries will continue to play in supporting academic endeavors, fostering digital scholarship, and upholding the ideals of open and inclusive knowledge sharing. The paper concludes with a reflective synthesis, emphasizing the perennial importance of libraries. Regardless of the prevailing technological medium or the nature of challenges ahead, the fundamental ethos of libraries—to enlighten, empower, and engage communities—remains unchanged. This steadfast essence, combined with their resilience and innovation, ensures that libraries will persist as quintessential centers of academic excellence and communal growth.

LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES IN THE DIGITAL AGE: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

In the heart of the information age, academic libraries stand at the forefront of a transformative juncture shaped by technological evolution and changing user needs. This paper comprehensively explores academic libraries’ opportunities and challenges in this dynamic digital era. Historically, libraries have served as repositories of human knowledge and wisdom. Today, they are reshaping themselves, not merely as static centers of information but as active facilitators of knowledge dissemination and creation. From harnessing the potential of DNA-encoded chemical libraries to accelerate drug discovery processes to fervently advocating for open access initiatives, academic libraries showcase their remarkable adaptability and unwavering commitment to pushing the boundaries of traditional information services. However, with every digital stride forward comes a set of intricate challenges. As the paper discusses, libraries grapple with implementing advanced technologies like Linked Data, striking an equilibrium between growing digital resources and invaluable print collections and steering through the maze of leadership complexities in an ever-evolving digital domain. Drawing from a series of illustrative case studies, the paper provides a nuanced understanding of how libraries, despite these challenges, have devised strategic solutions that address immediate concerns and chart a course for future evolution. As the narrative progresses, it sheds light on prescient strategies that libraries can employ to remain relevant and impactful in a future dense with technological advancements. These strategies underscore the pivotal role libraries will continue to play in supporting academic endeavors, fostering digital scholarship, and upholding the ideals of open and inclusive knowledge sharing. The paper concludes with a reflective synthesis, emphasizing the perennial importance of libraries. Regardless of the prevailing technological medium or the nature of challenges ahead, the fundamental ethos of libraries—to enlighten, empower, and engage communities—remains unchanged. This steadfast essence, combined with their resilience and innovation, ensures that libraries will persist as quintessential centers of academic excellence and communal growth.

Students’ perceptions of meaningful intercultural encounters and long-term learning from a school story exchange

Rarely classroom-based intercultural exchange projects examine the meaningfulness of students’ encountering experiences in the long term. This article describes a follow-up interview study, which happened 3 or 4 years after these international school students (aged 13–15) had participated in an intercultural Storycrafting exchange in fifth grade. The theoretical background draws from Dewey's experiential learning, studies of children's perspectives and theories of interculturality. Semi-structured interviews were conducted individually or in small groups, according to the students’ preferences. The interview method was designed to value the students’ perspectives and to stimulate remembering. The students described their meaningful intercultural encounters as communal, connected to cultural repertoires, affective and reciprocal. The students perceived that the story exchange had in the long term enabled personal growth, communal growth and learning to encounter others. The study offers insights for developing theory around children's intercultural learning, as current models are typically based on adult learners.

A live community growing together: Communal occupation of a senior center welcoming Spanish-speaking elders

ABSTRACT The percentage of Latinx immigrants over the age of 65 in the United States is expected to more than double within the next 30 years. These elders face particular health and occupational disparities emerging from a transaction of individual and sociocultural factors that warrants attention by both service providers and researchers. This study employed an ethnographic approach including interviews, observations, document review, and group mapping activities. It sought to explore a county senior center as it evolves toward greater inclusion of Spanish-speaking members who are increasingly agentic in their community occupations despite facing initial constraints. John Dewey’s philosophy is employed alongside critical theoretical perspectives to illuminate the juxtaposition of individual vulnerability and agency interwoven with structural elements. The communal growth experienced by the senior center and the Spanish-speaking elders is characterized by social relationships that transform, and are transformed by, shared occupation. For occupational scientists, the results offer an expanded understanding of communal occupation and its influence on community change, in this case focused on a marginalized population integrating into dominant cultural spaces and practices.

China’s Character in Peacekeeping in Africa: A Security and Strategic Concerns

Our globalized security and strategy are prone to multifaceted encounters moving its constancy. Rapid addition, technical progression, and general communal growth need partypolitical constancy. Thus, state aids in the direction of global security are vital and comfortable. China’s aids to US intermediation assignments have long-drawn-out radically during the last period, particularly the African.China wants to make available the worldwide public with a new global building, with the final goal of maintainable peace and growth via an active appointment in mediation projects. This object will amount China’s assembly in United Mediation assignments and, based on latest information, find out why most of its mediation personnel are focused on the African soil. The research will also measure the tests and subjects confronted by Chinese workers both on African soil and the global arena. The article concludes China’s increasing role in international security and strategy concerns with insinuations on China-African relatives.

Agency and communion: modeling identity-transformation in recovery from substance misuse

ABSTRACTBackground: Research in the field of substance misuse shows that identity change is key to recovery. Theories typically focus on either personal or social factors in this process; however, a framework encompassing agency and communion has proved useful in understanding narratives in similar populations.Objectives: The study proposes that agency and communion provide useful constructs through which to examine substance misuse and recovery.Method: The Life As A Film\\(LAAF) and repertory grids were used to explore agency and communion in a sample of 32 participants.Results: Smallest Space Analysis of LAAF content revealed four narrative structures according to elements of agency and communion. Case examples indicated that agency and communion themes related to a recovery identity, and an absence of themes was associated with substance misuse. Repertory grid analysis revealed a pattern of fixed low agency and communion constructs in cases of substance misuse, and a transformed high agency-communion construct system in cases of recovery. Transformation from a low agency and communion substance-using identity toward a high agency and communion recovery identity was illustrated.Conclusions: The exploratory results highlight the centrality of agentic and communal growth in identity-transformative recovery from substance misuse.

Themes of agency and communion and rehabilitation from substance misuse

BackgroundCurrent models of identity transformation in substance misuse recovery emphasise either communal or agentic growth processes. Building on life narrative studies of addicted males, the present study proposes that agency and communion themes distinguish the narrative identities of rehabilitated substance users from active users. MethodThe ‘Life as a Film' (LAAF) task was used to record narratives in an opportunity sample of 32 participants (23 males, 9 females) with ongoing or substance misuse history. Transcripts were coded for agency and communion, and external measures of rehabilitation were assessed using a recovery inventory. ResultsFour types of narrative were revealed, according to the presence or absence of agency and communion themes in LAAF accounts. Analysis determined a significant correlation between descriptions of agency and communion and rehabilitation outcomes (0.91 - p < 0.01), showing that both identity themes are important to recovery. Participants illustrating either theme showed moderate outcomes and those depicting neither theme showed poor outcomes. Case studies were used to illustrate the instrumentality of agentic and communal growth to behavioural change. ConclusionsThe LAAF method demonstrated value in a narrative approach for expanding current perspectives, indicating that both agency and communion shape identity transformation in recovery from substance misuse. These findings highlight unique intervention needs corresponding with presenting narrative identity.

Individual and Collective Posttraumatic Growth in Victims of Natural Disasters: A Multidimensional Perspective

ABSTRACTThis study set out to incorporate the collective dimensions of posttraumatic growth and examined the construct and predictive validity of The Individual and Collective Posttraumatic Growth Scale (ICPTGS). Participants were 332 volunteers who had experienced the earthquake on February 27, 2010, in Chile. Analysis allowed us to confirm a multidimensional structure composed of four dimensions: individual, spiritual, communal growth, and societal growth. Additionally, we identified association among ICPTGS, perceived emotional impact, and social well-being. This study emphasizes that positive changes resulting from the exposure to collective disasters can be perceived also at the collective or community level.

Challenging change: transformative education for economically disadvantaged adult learners

This paper focuses on the results of a mixed-methods study of 13 participants in a Radical Humanities programme designed as a transformative learning space for low-income adults who have experienced barriers to learning. Using demographic questionnaires, semi-structured narrative interviews and course evaluations this study examined participants’ experiences in the programme and the impact on their learning, sense of agency and future ambitions. As the first phase of a longitudinal project on the well-being and agency of under-represented and marginalized learners, this preliminary study revealed five predominant themes emerging from learners’ experiences: (1) self-reflective meaning-making processes; (2) interrelated personal and communal growth; (3) appreciation of diversity; (4) emerging sense of self-as-learner; (5) renewed aspirations. This paper argues that transformative learning for low-income adults is a complex and challenging process that entails participants’ ongoing negotiations of self, learning, and purpose. Understanding and evaluating the effectiveness of transformative learning within a social-emancipatory humanities programme requires attention to the programme’s social context and choices faced by participants. Programme participation fosters increased well-being, deeper relationships and hope for the future. However, these tangible benefits are tempered by constraints of individual and structural systems that, for some students, impose limitations on their ability to enact change in themselves and in their lives.

Influence of sanitizers on the lipopolysaccharide toxicity of Escherichia coli strains cultivated in the presence of Zygosaccharomyces bailii.

The influence of sublethal concentrations of two sanitizers, liquid iodophor and liquid hypochlorite (LH), on the growth rates and toxicity of food-borne pathogenic Escherichia coli strains grown in the presence of spoilage yeast Zygosaccharomyces bailii was assessed. When grown in combination with Z. bailii both E. coli O113 and E. coli O26 exhibited slower growth rates, except when E. coli O113 was grown in combination with Z. bailii at 0.2% LH. The growth rate of Z. bailii was not impacted by the addition of the sanitizers or by communal growth with E. coli strains. LAL and IL-6 results indicated a decrease in toxicity of pure E. coli cultures with comparable profiles for control and sanitizer exposed samples, although the LAL assay proved to be more sensitive. Interestingly, pure cultures of Z. bailii showed increased toxicity measured by LAL and decreased toxicity measured by IL-6. LAL analysis showed a decrease in toxicity of both E. coli strains grown in combination with Z. bailii, while IL-6 analysis of the mixed cultures showed an increase in toxicity. The use of LAL for toxicity determination in a mixed culture overlooks the contribution made by spoilage yeast, thus demonstrating the importance of using the appropriate method for toxicity testing in mixed microbe environments.

God Lives on the Margins

Rather than seeing God residing in centres of power and might, or in offices of the institutionally-acclaimed holy, or amongst the blessed rich and influential, this article proposes the thesis of God living on the margins and inviting all to the periphery of what is considered decent society for a grace-filled living. Combining academic articulation with pastoral insight through narrative account, the reality of the marginal existence of God is unpacked in five sections. The first section narrates a personal journey of being turned around at an encounter with those living on the margins, creating a crisis-intersection and compelling life-changing decisions. Second, is the scholarly research in Leuven and an articulation aligned to Lindbeck’s intratexture narrative preference. Third, is the pastoral engagement phase that affirms the character of the God of the margins. The fourth section turns to the scriptural witness of compassion as the modality of the God of the margins. Finally, the article draws on paradigmatic and catalytic stories for communal growth towards a posture of compassion.

Session 5: The state of our union: Reflections and projections on ethnography and ethnographers

The last session reflects on EPIC's communal growth from interactions – some serendipitous others purposeful – with other disciplines. This session examines where practitioners are on this maturity trajectory: what it is like, as a community of practioners, to be where we are now, and where we are likely going.EPIC is in its 9th glorious year. Throughout the brief yet robust history of this annual community gathering we've been on a trajectory that charts our growing maturity as a group of professionals. We started with pangs of identity (Who are we? Who is one of us? Who is not?), which we thankfully discarded after a year or so and moved on to discussions of our relevance within the businesses we hope to impact. And as we grow and find new and exciting collaborators (Big data! Social enterprise! Business schools!), topics at EPIC shift to expanding that impact and understanding what these collaborations mean for the continued development of our praxis. As we've grown, we've made mistakes, but have learned from them. As we've grown, we've benefited from serendipitous interactions with other disciplines, but we have worked to make these interactions more purposeful. After all, that's what maturity is all about! This paper session is about examining where we are on this maturity trajectory: reflections on what it is like, as a community of practioners, to be where we are now. Asking what can we learn when we examine where we are now? And what this might mean for where we are going?

Worldview Construction and Identity Formation in Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Elementary Schools

This article examines how ultra-Orthodox Jewish elementary schools in America construct and maintain a distinct religious identity through the production of an all-encompassing communal worldview. The author argues that ultra-Orthodox schools model cultural engagement with secular American society by conceptually isolating secular education within a larger framework of religious study—one that extends beyond the classroom to include students' home lives. Schools thereby subvert students' potential existential experience of the world as secular (within which Judaism must be accommodated), into one that is dominated by a culture of religious study, within which secular society can (if necessary) be accommodated. 1See, however, Horowitz (2002) for alternative conceptions of Jewish identity that may not be captured by much of this data. 2Simply in terms of size, given current communal growth rates, the Chasidic population (one branch of ultra-Orthodoxy) is expected to more than double every twenty years (Comenetz, 2006).

Art as a Tool in the Built Environment

Man’s interaction with the environment dates back to creation. The interaction of man with its environment has been crucial to the continuous existence of man in relation to solving the fundamental or basic needs of food, shelter and clothing. This has been woven into a web of different cultural environment. This type of cultural environment includes palaces, shrines, markets, malevolent forest and places of social interaction. Man retreated into the protective warmth of cave while the environment threatened his survival (wild animals and weather condition). It was at this period that attempt was made at artistic creation. From this natural habitat developed the more comfortable houses that have been built up till today. Basically, traditional African society operates in environments that advance healthy living, moral values and steady communal growth. They built many houses that are architectural master pieces and decorated them aesthetically without architects and professional designers. The cities and villages were set up according to the dictates of the environment within which they lived without town planners, yet, some of them can be likened to streets in Amsterdam (Denyer 1978). The absence of the architects and town planners were adequately catered for by artists (carvers, moulders, painters and other craftsmen). Today, many of our towns and cities are reflections of great wealth without commensurate aesthetic value, while some others portray signs of poverty of ideas and skilled men because art has been neglected. The thrust of this paper is to access the invaluable role that art plays in nationbuilding through the built environment that we can call our own. It also emphasized the significance of the role of professional artists in the support of a reliable and conducive environment, which was very prominent among the traditional people.

Hedera helix L.

Araliaceae, Schefflereae. Climbing, sometimes reaching 30 m, or prostrate and creeping, forming extensive carpets. Woody stems up to 25 cm diameter, young twigs pubescent with stellate to peltate hairs, and densely furnished with adventitious roots. Leaves petiolate, simple, alternate, exstipulate, coriaceous, glabrous, evergreen; those of climbing or creeping stems 4–10 ( − 25) cm, palmately lobed with 3–5 triangular, entire lobes; leaves of flowering stems 6–10 cm, entire, ovate or rhombic. Leaves shining, dark green above, often with pale veins, paler green below; may become pale green/ yellow in late summer, and upper surface sometimes tinged with purple in winter. Flowers actinomorphic, c. 20 in terminal globose umbels, which may be arranged into panicles. Sepals 5, very small, deltate. Petals 5( − 6), yellowish-green, 3–4 mm, triangular-ovate, somewhat hooded at apex; free. Flowers hermaphrodite, stamens 5; ovary inferior, 5-celled, styles joined into a column. Nectar secreted by a domed disk surrounding the styles. Peduncle, pedicels and receptacle stellate-tomentose; pedicels not jointed. Fruit a berry, bluishor greenishblack (rarely yellow or white), globose, 6–8 mm. Pulp purple, seeds 1–5, c . 35 mg dry mass, rugose, whitish; embryo small, endosperm ruminate. There is considerable disagreement over the taxonomy of the ivies ( Hedera spp.), with the number of European species being cited as between one and six. Three subspecies of Hedera helix L. (hereafter ‘ivy’) are recognized in Fl. Eur.: ssp. helix , ssp. poetarum and ssp. canariensis . ‘ Hedera hibernica ’ (‘Irish ivy’) is recognized only as a horticultural form that is somewhat intermediate between H. helix ssp. helix and ssp. canariensis . Stace (1997) places ssp. canariensis with H. algeriensis Hibberd, and recognizes ‘ H. hibernica ’ as a subspecies of H. helix – ssp. hibernica (G. Kirchn.) D.C. McClint, along with ssp. helix (the common British ivy) and the yellow-fruited garden-escape ssp. poetarum Nyman, from the Mediterranean. Recent molecular data suggest that ssp. helix and ssp. hibernica may represent distinct species, with ssp. helix being the (diploid) maternal parent of the tetraploid ssp. hibernica (Ackerfield & Wen 2003). They are distinguishable by their cpDNA phylogeny, by their trichome morphology and by aspects of their ecology (McAllister 1981; McAllister & Rutherford 1990; Ackerfield & Wen 2002, 2003; Grivet & Petit 2002). Throughout this account Irish ivy will be treated as ssp. hibernica of H. helix , as in much of the older literature the subspecies concerned have not been distinguished. Hundreds of cultivars of H. helix and its subspecies are recognized in the horticultural trade.

Boundary-Breaking Courage

South History Across the Color Line. By Nell Irvin Painter. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 2002. 256 pp. $37.00 cloth; $17.95 paper. South of Tradition: Essays on African American Literature. By Trudier Harris-Lopez. Athens: U of Georgia P, 2002. xii + 230 pp. $24.95. Nell Painter's Southern History Across the Color Line and Trudier Harris-Lopez's South of Tradition: Essays on African American Literature highlight scholarly careers of originality and complex vision. These texts move beyond traditions of historiography and literary criticism, which often forestall critical wholeness and "down-home" fun, to demonstrate excellence marked by the transgressive verve of two innovative and progressive scholars. In these texts, Painter and Harris-Lopez offer insights beyond the borders of popular critical models. They demonstrate boundary-breaking courage that distinguishes their work from the volumes of often "ordinary" and sometimes-redundant essay collections available today. This two-part review looks at both books, highlighting moments that reveal why the courage and vision found in the best-of-the-best in African American studies shines through most dynamically in these scholars' work. I. Standing in the Breach Nell Painter's journey towards intellectual distinctiveness frames and structures her collection while encouraging a decompartmentalized articulation of American history. Each essay here bypasses tightly defined race, class, and gender categories of exploration, which Painter describes as the "blunt tools of analysis." They bridge "the old habit of writing only [End Page 145] about white people or writing only about black people" with a conscious exploration of "individual subjectivity" and the inter-subjective arrangements of time and place as defined by various patterns of personal and communal growth. Painter investigates class, the body, cultural symbolism, and sexuality from a materialist perspective with many of her interpretations and insights illuminated by what she characterizes as her interdisciplinary "auto-education." "I had to learn a great deal more than what my graduate education had provided," she explains. The thoroughness and thoughtfulness of the essays that result from her self-taught interdisciplinarity inspire and open a conversation about scholarly possibilities and exchange that ultimately reject traditional academic paradigms, particularity those that are "locked-down" by the notion of area specializations. The value of engaging in a versatile and trangressive intellectual exchange among disciplines and among a variety of analytical tools is evident in the opening chapter. "Soul Murder and Slavery: Toward a Fully Loaded Cost Accounting" is one of Painter's best essays. In it she asks readers to sojourn with her into the painful psychology and body politics of slavery. It is an extremely successful attempt to move with intellectual rigor and consistency toward a meaningful interpretation of a world mapped in blood by cruelty and violence. While crossing analytical racial boundaries as well as violating class and gender sectioning, Painter engages feminist and "social science scholarship on child abuse and other forms of torture," psychology, and African American literary studies in her broad, interpersonal view of the wounds and perpetual assaults of slavery and its legacies. Painter's methodological chronicle and challenge continues in essays focusing on the life, individual development and "auto-education" of two southern activists whose personal identities and psyches were affected deeply by the race and gender politics of their time, Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas and Hosea Hudson. Painter reveals how each adjusted to personal realities couched within worlds and ideologies that molded their lives broadly and, sometimes, in unexpected and dramatic ways. For Hosea Hudson struggling for the civil rights of slave descendents and other minorities during the mid-twentieth century carried him from sharecropper to popularity as an organic intellectual (one who "educated himself out of the thrall of conventional thinking"). On the other hand, Painter's discussion of Gertrude Thomas reveals how this southern lady's [End Page 146] formal education fell short of providing what she needed to survive a change in circumstances brought about by the end of the Civil War. Painter's collection is consistent in its concern for...