University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

In contemporary society, distinct traditions are bleeding into one another, blurring traditional lines of inquiry and historically significant boundaries. This phenomenon frames this project and creates the context for the Yoga-Christian praxis dialogue this study constructively critiques. Unfortunately, this dialogue exhibits an Eliadean concern for essentialism and universality. I challenge this trend by juxtaposing two distinct texts, Patañjali‘s Yoga-Sūtra and Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses. These texts point to the similar idea that without striving and personal transformation neither the yogic practitioner nor practicing Christian logically subsists. More importantly, however, from this point of correspondence I constructively critique the Yoga-Christian praxis dialogue by concretely engaging these texts and paying particular attention to the differences inherent in them. My comparison, then, suggests how attention to particularity points to a more authentic dialogue: what I wish to call a dialogue of distinction without separation.

This essay traces two trends in current philosophical and theological debates concerning forgiveness. One, advocated by Vladimir Jankélévitch and Jacques Derrida, I label “impossible” forgiveness. The second, advanced by John Milbank and L. Gregory Jones, I label “communal” forgiveness. I explore and critically examine each of these positions in the first two sections of the thesis. In the last section of the thesis I examine a recent conversation amongst religious ethicists against the background of the theoretical conversations described in the first half of the essay. Bringing the theoretical conversation together with the religious ethicists’ conversation, I argue that whether or not we embrace forgiveness depends in large part in what tradition, religious or secular, we place ourselves.

No description available.

Abstract In this Research paper and through my Studio practice, I search for what binds me and separates me from my children. I investigate abjection theories through Julia Kristeva and Georges Bataille and focus on a particular form I call the maternal abject. This occurs at the time an infant separates from its mother, acquires language and maps its own body. I am proposing that the mapping of the body is the point at which an individual perceives social structures and learns about prohibitions and taboos, hence the abject. I also investigate the relationship between the maternal abject and the artistic process through the writings of Kristeva. Abjection is illustrated through the works of Mona Hatoum, Fiona Hall, Hieronymus Bosch, and Paul Quinn. The maternal abject is illustrated through the works of Mary Kelly, Cindy Sherman, Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois. A possible reading of the maternal abject is given through the works of Gregory Crewdson, Joel-Peter Witkin and Francis Bacon. The studio work is in two parts. The first part is a series of layered photomedia images. The layers consist of a naked female body, which has been merged with Renaissance like Madonna and Child images. Texture, such as stones and spikes, is embedded to signify the fragility and strength of the body. Children are also present and are merged with the adult female body. All images are cradled in a darkened atmosphere in order to draw the viewer inside the images. The second part is a bassinet, which has been drilled and pierced by thousands of pearl-headed steel pins. This piece signifies the dichotomy of the motherhood experience, which on the one hand is rewarding and fulfilling and on the other an abject and isolating experience of no apparent economic value. The two parts interact so that the bassinet piece with its threatening exterior acts as an aggressor towards the photomedia images.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Full text release at OhioLINK's ETD Center delayed at author's request

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Tennessee, 2007. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Mar. 31, 2008). Thesis advisor: Michael L. Keene. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 222-230).

No description available.

O presente estudo teve como objetivo a compreensão de fenômenos escolares relativos aos diferentes espaços na escola destinados aos alunos que apresentam dificuldades de aprendizagem, multirrepetência e defasagem entre idade e escolaridade. O contexto de realização do estudo foi uma rede pública que implementou alterações curriculares vinculadas aos ciclos – a Rede Municipal de Vitória da Conquista, no Estado da Bahia. As questões que nortearam o referido estudo foram: quem são, no âmbito das escolas “cicladas”, os sujeitos que apresentam dificuldades de aprendizagem, multirrepetência, defasagem entre idade/escolaridade? Quais espaços, quais contextos têm sido construídos e reconstruídos para tais sujeitos nas escolas cicladas do município pesquisado? Quais movimentos configuram as relações nesses espaços, nesses contextos? Estas questões embasaram a análise do movimento de reestruturação curricular vivenciado pelas escolas da Rede Municipal; a pesquisa quanto ao processo de instituição do espaço das turmas de progressão; a investigação da trajetória escolar dos alunos agrupados nestes espaços. Com base nas reflexões do pensamento sistêmico de Gregory Bateson, este estudo foi conduzido por meio da pesquisa qualitativa, sendo utilizados os seguintes instrumentos metodológicos: análise de documentos, entrevistas semi-estruturadas e observação participante. Foi realizada análise dos documentos referentes à implantação dos Ciclos de Aprendizagem (1998) e dos Ciclos de Formação Humana (2005); considerou-se também os históricos escolares, os relatórios descritivos e os pareceres avaliativos dos alunos etc. As observações ocorreram em duas escolas da Rede Municipal, priorizando três contextos de sala de aula de forma mais específica. Neste estudo, foram entrevistados professores, coordenadores e diretores, com a finalidade de ampliar a compreensão acerca das questões investigadas. O desenvolvimento desta pesquisa acabou retratando a rigidez e as continuidades da escola que se propõe a mudar sua estrutura curricular da seriada para a ciclada, sem contudo alterar suas crenças e valores em relação à percepção dos sujeitos que fogem ao perfil historicamente construído de aluno. Tal rigidez tem dado forma/significado a processos de agrupamento dos alunos em espaços diferenciados, tendendo à repetição da lógica constitutiva e retroalimentando o modo de pensar do sujeito e o fazer da instituição. / The present study aimed at the comprehension of school phenomena related to the different school spaces which are destined to students who present learning difficulties, multirepetition and the discrepancy between age and school grade. The context in which the study was carried out was a public net which implemented curricular alterations linked to the so called “ciclos” (cycles) – the Municipal Net of Vitória da Conquista, in the State of Bahia. The questions which directed the referred study were: who in the circuit of “cycled” schools are the individuals with learning difficulties, multirepetition and discrepancy between age and school grade? Which spaces, which contexts have been built and rebuilt for such individuals within cycled schools of the researched municipality? Which movements configure the relations within these spaces, within these contexts? Such questions based the analysis of the curricular restructuring movement experienced by the Municipal Net schools; the research on the process of space institution in the progression classes; the investigation of students’ school trajectory within these spaces. Based on the reflections of Gregory Bateson’s systemic thought, this study was conducted by means of qualitative research and the use of the following methodological instruments: document analyses, semi-structured interviews and participant observation. The analysis of the documents concerning the implantation of the Learning Cycles (1998) and the Human Formation Cycles (2005) was carried out; school reports were also considered, as well as descriptive reports, students’ evaluating opinions, etc. The observations occurred at two schools from the Municipal Net, three classroom contexts being prioritized in a more specific way. In this study, teachers, coordinators and principals were interviewed in order to broaden the comprehension about the investigated questions. The development of this research ended up portraying the rigidity and continuities of the school which intends to change its curricular structure from the serial to the cycled one, but without altering its beliefs and values in relation to the perception of the individuals who divert from the historically built student profile. Such rigidity has granted shape/meaning to the processes of grouping students into differentiated spaces, by tending to the repetition of the constitutive logic and by feeding back the individual’s way of thinking and the doings of the institution.