Macalester College Research Articles

War of Words: Language, Politics and 9/11 (review)

Reviewed by: War of words: Language, politics and 9/11 by Sandra Silberstein Eve Ng War of words: Language, politics and 9/11. By Sandra Silberstein. London: Routledge, 2002. Pp. xv, 172. ISBN 0415290473. $25. Silberstein applies a critical linguistics approach to several of the discourses in the US surrounding 9/11, particularly the ways in which spoken and written [End Page 188] language, combined with visual imagery, were deployed in the (re)creation of national identity. (Some similar ground is covered by John Collins and Ross Glover’s edited volume, Collateral damage: A user’s guide to America’s new war, New York: New York University Press, 2002.) Key discussions in the book center around the framing of the 9/11 attacks as a ‘war’ against American people and values, the validation of President George Bush and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as worthy leaders, public service ads intended to promote tolerance and patriotism, and the ACTA (American Council of Trustees and Alumni) accusations of unpatriotic dissent. Directed at a general audience, the book does not explicate at length academic theories about the role of language in framing events, shaping public perception, and constructing identities. Rather, S generally states the main theses simply and proceeds to support them with her analyses. Early in the book, she writes that ‘through the use of language, we create and recreate particular worlds of understanding’ (1), a claim that underlies much of her discussion. Later on, she makes the major point that the meaning of some instance of language can be multiply interpreted, such that a slogan like ‘I’m an American’, which occurred in a widely screened ad after 9/11, was not in fact understood in the same way by everyone. S’s analysis of CNN’s 9/11 coverage illustrates how the media used language to label what was going on, with constant onscreen headings (e.g. ‘America Under Attack’) that gave a seemingly authoritative—though sourceless—framing of what was happening. Newscasters also had the power to frame stories involving accounts of survivors and rescue workers by their commentary and control of the interview. Perhaps most subtle, however, were the ways that various survivor stories, in which the audience was invited to identify with a common ‘we’ of (decent, innocent) Americans united in grief and anger, became part of a discourse of (re)asserting American national identity. Looking at the statements of Bush in the few days after 9/11, S combines examination of language at the lexical and grammatical levels with rhetorical and discourse analysis to demonstrate how the language of the president, together with media framing of his appearances (notably at the National Cathedral service on September 14), created an image of a strong, capable, and caring leader. Though S understates the point, the contrast between widespread negative perceptions of Bush before 9/11 and his reconstructed public self after it make the transformation particularly remarkable and disturbing. S undertakes a similar sort of analysis for Mayor Giuliani, another political figure who had a significant number of detractors pre-9/11 and virtually none in the immediate weeks following it. Perhaps the most interesting chapter for many academics will be S’s consideration of the Lynne Cheney-led ACTA report, which originally included a list of over 100 professors and their quotes, about the purportedly unpatriotic ‘blame America first’ attitude tainting US campuses. S systematically deconstructs the report, highlighting its misleading use of quotes and its various fallacies, including dangerously reducing dissent to treason. For those who never embraced the mainstream flagwaving sentiment that followed 9/11, this discussion is a timely reminder that the American freedoms which the 9/11 perpetrators were accused of trying to attack are most in danger from the actions of Americans themselves. The book ends a little abruptly, with no general conclusion, discussing news stories aimed at educating Americans about Islam. Perhaps, however, that is consonant with the state of current affairs in which 9/11 continues to loom large in US political rhetoric. Eve Ng Macalester College Copyright © 2004 Linguistic Society of America

The Science and Values of Restoration Ecology

It has been 22 years since William Jordan III and the University of Wisconsin Arboretum published the first issue of Restoration and Management Notes, 16 years since the founding of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), and 10 years since SER published the first issue of its flagship journal, Restoration Ecology. In this short time, restoration ecology has become a leader in North American conservation efforts. Believing it is important that the field has a strong scientific foundation (Bradshaw 1993), restoration ecologists have emphasized concepts such as ‘ecosystem health’ and ‘ecosystem integrity’ when articulating restoration goals and frequently have invoked ecological principles when describing and justifying their objectives (SER 2002). Although ecology plays a central and essential role in the implementation of restoration projects, we believe that defining restoration goals and objectives is fundamentally a value-based, not scientific, activity. Since its inception, SER has taken the lead in developing and articulating paradigms of restoration. SER’s most recent major publication, The SER Primer of Ecological Restoration (SER 2002), is developed around the notion that communities and ecosystems are ecological entities. In the Primer, the goal of restoration is stated to be ‘‘the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.’’ The Primer describes a recovered ecosystem as one that ‘‘contains sufficient biotic and abiotic resources to continue its development without further assistance’’ and for which ‘‘potential threats to the health and integrity of the restored ecosystem have been eliminated.’’ An ecosystem is also considered restored when it ‘‘apparently functions normally for its ecological stage of development, and signs of dysfunction are absent.’’ The idea that communities and ecosystems possess traits such as health and integrity, that they exhibit an organic development, that their ‘‘health’’ can be injured or harmed and then can be restored through informed efforts of ecologists is reminiscent of earlier ecological claims of communities and ecosystems as integrated entities (Clements & Shelford 1939). Attributes such as ‘‘health’’ and ‘‘integrity’’ can be meaningfully applied to entities that have been directly shaped by evolution, such as individual organisms. Organisms normally have clearly defined boundaries and a myriad of homeostatic mechanisms that maintain those boundaries while the organism develops, matures, and reproduces. However, communities and ecosystems are not shaped as entities by evolution. Today, communities are no longer believed to be tightly organized systems (Slobodkin 2003). They are believed to lack coherence (Gould 2002) and clear boundaries (Stiling 1999). A community or ecosystem does not possess distinct boundaries nor does it have mechanisms that have evolved to regulate particular processes. Communities do not exhibit any kind of evolutionary imperative, such as reproduction, as do individual organisms. The terms ‘‘community’’ and ‘‘ecosystem’’ are useful in a practical sense for referring to species and processes occurring in a particular locale (O’Neill 2001), but this does not mean that there actually exists some integrated entity out there called an ecosystem that grows, lives, reproduces and dies, or can be injured or healed. If ecological communities and ecosystems lack any intrinsic evolutionary or ecological purpose, one cannot validly invoke any ecological (or evolutionary) rationale to establish particular restoration goals. As noted by Diamond, ‘‘this goal [of restoration ecology] is not itself a self-evident mandate. It is a choice based on values, and it is only one of many possible choices’’ (Diamond 1987). Restorationists have often tried to justify their goals by presenting them as fulfillling various ecological imperatives, e.g., restoring ecosystem health and restoring indigenous environments. However, characterizing communities and ecosystems as ‘‘healthy’’ or ‘‘damaged’’ is a value-based, not scientific, assessment (Lackey 2001). Architecture uses mathematics, physics, and engineering in its efforts to achieve a particular result of aesthetic and social value. In an analogous fashion, restorationists must use ecology, and often geology, soil science, and more to achieve results of social value. Often, their results are also of great beauty as well. Perhaps, ‘‘ecological architecture’’ might be a more apt characterization of the work of ecological restoration, because the term acknowledges the central roles played by both values and science. Ultimately, it is important that restorationists do their best to clearly distinguish between their science and their values in their discussions with the public and policy Department of Biology, Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN 55105, U.S.A. Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, U.S.A. Address correspondence to Mark A. Davis, email davis@macalester.edu

TableView: portable genomic data visualization.

TableView is a generalized scientific visualization program for exploration of various biological data, including EST, SAGE, microarray and annotation data. Written in Java, TableView is portable, is easily used together with other software including DBMSs and is versatile enough to be applied to any tabular data TableView is freely available at: http://ccgb.umn.edu/software/java/apps/TableView/.

Review: Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis, edited by John Covach and Graeme M. Boone

Book Review| April 01 2002 Review: Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis, edited by John Covach and Graeme M. Boone Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis, edited by John Covach and Graeme M. Boone. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. xiii, 219 pp. Mark Mazullo Mark Mazullo Mark Mazullo is Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. His recent publications include “Revisiting the Wreck: PJ Harvey's Dry and the Drowned Virgin-Whore” (popular Music, 2001) and “The Man Whom the World Sold: Kurt Cobain, Rock's Progressive Aesthetic, and the Challenges of Authenticity” (Musical Quarterly, 2000). He is also an active pianist and writes regularly for the Ruminator Review. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Journal of the American Musicological Society (2002) 55 (1): 187–194. https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2002.55.1.187 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Mark Mazullo; Review: Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis, edited by John Covach and Graeme M. Boone. Journal of the American Musicological Society 1 April 2002; 55 (1): 187–194. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jams.2002.55.1.187 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentJournal of the American Musicological Society Search This content is only available via PDF. © 2002 by the American Musicological Society. All rights reserved.2002 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

The Blurring Line Between Merit and Need in Financial Aid

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsMorton Owen SchapiroMichael S. McPherson is president of Macalester College and Morton Owen Schapiro is president of Williams College. The authors wish to thank Richard Dunn for his excellent research assistance on this article.

A Conversation with Diane Glancy

Diane Glancy, who is of Cherokee, German, and English descent, is a full professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she teaches creative writing and Native American literature. An accomplished poet, playwright, essayist, and fiction writer, Glancy has published over thirty books and received numerous awards and fellowships. This conversation took place in April 2oo3 at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where Glancy was spending her sabbatical.

Chemistry Report. MAA-CUPM Curriculum Foundations Workshop in Biology and Chemistry, Macalester College, November 2-5, 2000

The Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics of the Mathematical Association of America is developing new guidelines for instruction in mathematics. As part of the thoroughgoing process, the Committee has held a number of workshops with representatives of client disciplines. In one of these workshops, a group of chemists and a group of biologists met with mathematicians at Macalester College. As requested, the chemists listed specific knowledge and skills in mathematics needed by chemistry students and indicated whether mathematicians or chemists would deliver the instruction. The course level of the instruction and the use of technological aids were also designated. The full report gives details on the interplay between the undergraduate curricula in chemistry and mathematics.The report that was submitted to the MAA is available; first choose Curriculum_Foundations, then CF_Chemistry.doc.

Society of Economic Geologists Silver Medal for 2000 Citation of Jeffrey W. Hedenquist

President Franklin, fellow members and friends: To be asked to propose someone for the Society’s Silver Medal is a great honor. So when Jeff asked me if I would do this, I naturally agreed. But it immediately put me in a quandary. It is rather like being asked to be best man at a wedding—you are expected to say lots of nice things about someone you have knocked about with and experienced life’s ups and downs with. What is worse, you have to say them with the person there. Coming as I do from Australia, that poses an even worse problem. Culturally (and I uses that word hesitantly, because I can’t think of a better one)...culturally, I come from a tradition where you show how close you are to your male friends by roundly abusing them to their faces, while praising them behind their backs. This is a cultural tradition I have always assiduously observed with Jeff, and I am not sure he would recover from the shock if he suddenly heard me praising him. The best way to deal with this problem, I decided, was to deal simply with the facts and let them speak for themselves. Fortunately they speak volumes about why Jeff was selected to receive the Society’s medal. Jeffrey Wayne Hedenquist was born in Lake Woebegone country—Minnesota, in the United States. He gained a B.A. degree in geology from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1975. From there he …

Acceptance of the SEG Silver Medal Award for 2000

President Franklin, members and friends of the Society of Economic Geologists: Looking back 10 to 20 years at those who have been granted this medal, I see people who are now among the leaders of our profession. Their subsequent careers are examples of academic excellence and ever-increasing service to the community of economic geologists, and this is quite a challenge to follow. As is the case for many of us during our student careers, it was the personal interaction with professors that was very influential during my formative years. At Macalester College, I became enthused about geology, despite the normal undergraduate shenanigans. I was challenged at The Johns Hopkins University by academic excellence, and I was given free rein to follow my interests at the University of Auckland. In addition, I was fortunate to be mentored by several people in the U.S. Geological Survey and the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR). I regret that the changes in these and many other national institutes means that there is much less opportunity now for students to benefit from such a critical part of their professional development. Indeed, today there are fewer young economic geologists, and this should be our most serious concern, as individuals and as a professional society. I have also been extremely fortunate in my professional career, having had a tremendous amount of academic freedom. I spent over 19 years with two national institutes, first with the old DSIR—now a New Zealand government corporation—and subsequently at the Geological Survey of Japan (GSJ)—which has just become a …

New map reveals origin and geology of North American mid‐continent rift

New aeromagnetic data from the north central United States are helping geophysicists and geologists better understand the 1.1‐billion‐year‐old mid‐continent rift, one of the fundamental components of the Precambrian basement of North America.A detailed geologic map of part of the rift is being made and a myriad of new details concerning the history of rift subsidence, volcanism, sedimentation, and inversion are being deciphered. The data are also helping to establish a link between well‐known parts of the rift in the Lake Superior region, where exposures of rift‐related rocks are abundant and where a comprehensive geophysical data base has existed for more than a decade, and the buried extension of the rift to the southwest. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the Minnesota Geological Survey the Wisconsin Geological and Natural History Survey and Macalester College are using the new data in conjunction with field and laboratory investigations in a joint study that promises to produce new insights into the history and formation of the rift.

China in the Contemporary American Geopolitical Imagination

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsAndrew A. LathamAndrew A. Latham is an assistant professor of political science at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

REPLY

Research Article| June 01, 2001 REPLY Henry Fricke; Henry Fricke 1Department of Geology, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80903, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Raymond R. Rogers Raymond R. Rogers 2Department of Geology, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota 55105, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Geology (2001) 29 (6): 566–567. https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(2001)029<0566:>2.0.CO;2 Article history first online: 02 Jun 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Henry Fricke, Raymond R. Rogers; REPLY. Geology 2001;; 29 (6): 566–567. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/0091-7613(2001)029<0566:>2.0.CO;2 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGeology Search Advanced Search We are pleased that our research has drawn the attention of others interested in applying stable isotope techniques to questions of paleobiology, and we are happy to reconsider our paper in light of the comments of Barrick and Kohn. However, we remain convinced that our interpretation of the data is the most parsimonious, and we maintain that δ18O-latitude gradients can be used to infer that some theropod dinosaurs were endothermic homeotherms. Lastly, we are glad that others are beginning to recognize the paleoclimatic implications of this research. Rationale. Assessing behavior and physiology in the fossil record is a... You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.

Introduction: Area Studies and Study Abroad in the 21st Century

Introduction: Area Studies and Study Abroad in the 21st Century

Immigration, Exodus, and Exile: Academic Theology and Higher Education

Recently scholars of religion have disputed whether theology properly belongs to the study of religion in institutions of higher education (McCutcheon 1997a, 1997b; Cady 1998; Brown and Cady forthcoming). At the same time, religious authorities have increasingly censored the work of theologians in seminaries and church‐related schools; witness the loyalty oaths required of scholars in religious studies programs at some Protestant denominationally related colleges and the Catholic Church's recent stand expressed by Ex Cordae Ecclessiae. Both scholars who would exclude theology as a field from the study of religion and ecclesiastical authorities who would censor it fail to acknowledge the emergence of academic theology as a field that does not depend on institutional religious affiliation or personal confession of faith, a field that by its nature does depend for its continued existence on academic freedom. This article suggests a working definition of academic theology and then poses three questions: What might studying different kinds of theology academically teach us about religion? How, properly speaking, is theology as performed in a non‐sectarian environment now a nomad wandering within the formal study of religion? What are the implications of this shift in status for how academic theologians teach? The article is a revision of the inaugural address, by the same title, given for the Margaret W. Harmon professorship in Christian Theology and Culture at Macalester College, Saint Paul, Minnesota, November 18, 1999.

Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the Dawn of the Civil Rights Revolution

Journal Article Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the Dawn of the Civil Rights Revolution Get access Peters Shawn Francis, Judging Jehovah's Witnesses: Religious Persecution and the Dawn of the Civil Rights RevolutionLawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000. x, 342 pp. $34.95. Norman L. Rosenberg Norman L. Rosenberg Macalester College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar American Journal of Legal History, Volume 44, Issue 4, October 2000, Pages 488–489, https://doi.org/10.2307/3113824 Published: 01 October 2000

BOOK REVIEWS

Journal Article BOOK REVIEWS Get access Under the Canopy: Ritual Process and Spiritual Resilience in South Africa. By Linda Elaine Thomas. University of South Carolina Press, 1999. 174 pages. $29.95. Anthony B. Pinn Anthony B. Pinn Macalester College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 68, Issue 3, September 2000, Pages 677–680, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/68.3.677 Published: 01 September 2000

War and the Illiberal Conscience

Journal Article War and the Illiberal Conscience Get access War and the Illiberal Conscience by Latif Abul-Husn. Boulder, CO, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1998. 171 pp. $42.00. David L. Blaney David L. Blaney Macalester College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 114, Issue 3, Fall 1999, Pages 536–537, https://doi.org/10.2307/2658235 Published: 15 February 2013

Computational science as an interdisciplinary bridge

The computer science department at Macalester College recently implemented a new undergraduate course sequence in computational science. This was done to better meet the course work needs of students in the physical and natural sciences as well as introduce into our curriculum an important and growing area of application. One of the unexpected benefits of our new program has been the creation of academic links between our department, mathematics, and the other sciences. In this paper we describe the role of computational science as an interdisciplinary bridge between computer science and other academic disciplines.

The Paradox of Acting in the Traditional Chinese Theatre

Traditional Chinese theatre seems to appeal to audiences across the world more for its exquisite acting than for its literary qualities. Yet Mei Lanfang, Tang Xianzu and Li Yu all assert that good acting must be firmly rooted in its literary base. What compelled these masters to go out of their way to emphasize the importance of the written text, argues William H. Sun, was precisely the failure of many traditional actors to take it seriously, preferring to rely on superficial virtuosities. From this constant struggle in traditional Chinese theatre between a theoretical respect for textual quality and practical emphasis on performance has emerged the peculiar paradox of acting here explored. The author, William H. Sun, is a Shanghai-born playwright, author, and associate professor of drama at Macalester College. A contributing editor of TDR, he has taught at Tufts University, California State University, Northridge, and the Shanghai Theatre

The Cold-and-Hunger Dance

Influenced by her rich Cherokee heritage and Christian faith, Diane Glancy's writing, like her multicultural background, is simultaneously liminal and transcendent. Being a 'marginal voice in several worlds' does not victimize Glancy but empowers her 'to tell several stories at once'. She describes this migratory process of Native storytelling and the narrative multivocality it produces as a 'cold-and-hunger dance'. Cold-and-Hunger Dance, Glancy's boldest and most stimulating collection of essays to date, is an imaginative and honest account of journeys to and from the margins of memory, everyday life, and different cultural worlds.Along the way, familiar images and concepts are juxtaposed to create a literary terrain both engaging and unsettling: the Bible and Black Elk Speaks converse; Glancy's dispute with a local bakery is played out as if on a world stage of warring nations; eggs and cultural identity implicate each other; and, lost Native languages speak powerfully through their silences to modern Native writers. The creative twists and darting metaphoric excursions engendered by this journey provide an intimate glimpse into the process and problematics of language for modern Native authors. Diane Glancy is an associate professor of English at Macalester College. She is the author of Claiming Breath (Nebraska 1992), which won the North American Indian Prose Award and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation; West Pole; and, other books of fiction, short stories, poetry, and essays.