<p> This dissertation consists of a scholarly edition of Bertrand Russell's letters to Helen Thomas Flexner and Lucy Martin Donnelly. Although Russell's reputation as a writer of voluminous letters is well-known, to date there are no collected editions of his personal correspondence. As an editorial project this thesis is very much concerned with the problematic and often controversial methods of editorial procedure. Another major concern is the assessment of a set of letters that span nearly half a century of riveting social upheaval.</p> <p>Russell's letters to Helen Flexner and Lucy Donnelly convey the personal and public sides of his life. The correspondence with them provides biographical information for the reader who is unfamiliar with Russell's life and thought as well as for the specialist. The letters, however, represent more than just an account of one man's life. As historical documents they recount major world events such as the Great War and discuss significant issues such as political elections and women's suffrage. Thus, in its scope, this thesis embraces various disciplines that reflect the multifarious aspects of Russell's activities and writings.</p> <p> Undoubtedly, the editor's role in the preparation and transformation of private documents to public ones is a crucial part of any editorial undertaking. The strategies employed in this edition involve techniques of selecting and presenting annotative material in the most comprehensive manner. The purpose of such notes is to provide the reader with a sense of the historical, sociological and literary themes in Russell's correspondence.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Background and aims: The individual’s experience of living with epilepsy is often neglected with the dominant focus being upon seizure control. However, the experience of living with epilepsy is more than the seizures. Epilepsy is an illness that is understood in many different ways and the narratives the person draws from will impact their own understanding, experience and management of the condition. Based upon this gap in the literature this study sought to hear the narratives of people diagnosed with epilepsy in adulthood as told to an outsider with the hope of developing understanding, informing clinical practice and improving support for people diagnosed with epilepsy in adulthood. Methodology: A qualitative approach was chosen for this project. A purposive sample of eight individuals diagnosed with epilepsy in adulthood was recruited. Individual interviews were conducted, audio-recorded and transcribed. Narrative analysis was used to analyse the transcripts with a focus upon both what was spoken about and how it was told. Analysis and findings: Each participant is introduced individually, presenting a ‘global impression’ of their narrative. This is followed by a consideration of the similarities and differences across all participants under the shared plots of stories of: onset; changes and challenges; and meanings of epilepsy. Within the shared plot of stories of onset are the storylines of ‘affirmation’ of self; ‘continuation’ of self; biographical disruption and searching for a cause. Within the changes and challenges shared plot there are storylines of: dependency; emotional expression; ‘I try to think positively’ and ‘It’s like talking about someone else.’ Within the final shared plot of meanings of epilepsy there are storylines of: something ‘normal’; something ‘all a bit scary’; something ‘people used to get locked up for’; a ‘hidden illness’ and ‘it’s not to be spoken about.’ The narratives show that having epilepsy is a journey that has different effects on people at different times of their lives and in different contexts. The findings are discussed in relation to clinical implications; strengths and limitations of the methodology and directions for future research.

AbstractThis essay discusses the concepts of eugenics and social caste in Brave New Worldin relation to Aldous Huxley, from a biographical perspective. The essay analyzes how events and personal relationships of Aldous Huxley have influenced the depiction of the concepts social caste and eugenics in his novel Brave New World. Using sources which recount the travels and the personal encounters that Aldous Huxley made throughout his life, this essay makes comparisons and draws conclusions as to how these eventsand relationshipshave affected the depiction of social caste and eugenics in Brave New World

Institutions of higher education in the United States have long been attractors for international students from all over the world. The number of international students had been constantly growing until the past couple of years. This is a concerning issue because international students play several important roles in higher education institutions. International students bring different points of view that enhance other students’ learning and institutions gain financial benefits from the presence of international students. Thus, it is important to understand how to improve the experience of international students. For the present study I used a phenomenological approach to explore the experiences of international students and their spouses. Participants in this study included 16.5 dyads from 12 different countries. The sample included both graduate international students and their spouses for various reasons. When studying acculturation, studies have traditionally focused on undergraduate students. The needs and experiences of undergraduate students are different from graduate students because they are usually in a different stage of life. It is also true that graduate students often relocate with their dependents, unlike undergraduate students, and therefore they have different challenges and responsibilities. It is important to include spouses because they are often an invisible population. Dependents have critical limitations such as the prohibition to work or study. This study was conducted through the lens of biographical disruption and participants’ accounts were analyzed to better understand the added communication work that they must manage. The findings showed that there was a relationship between acculturation categories and the amount and type of acculturation work. Finally, the study shows how international students and their dependents reconstruct their biographies by molding their identities. This study should be used to create new policies and services for international students and their dependents.

Published Article / Employees working in municipalities and especially those who have to support other municipal employees (such as human resource management personnel), are constantly working in difficult working circumstances which may have a negative effect on their levels of job satisfaction. The effect of gender and ethnicity on the job satisfaction of human resource management employees working in a municipality has not yet been demonstrated. This information could help to improve the working circumstances of employees working in the municipality. Results indicated that employees are dissatisfied about the following job satisfaction components: company policies and practices, remuneration, promotion, security, acknowledgement for good performances, status, supervisor skills, working conditions, equipment and facilities. White employees in particular are found to be less satisfied in terms of the way their bosses handled personnel matters, on variety and on independent functioning in their job context. In the light of the above-mentioned, a few recommendations were made.

Background: Dementia is a public health priority due to the growth in the ageing population, resulting in an increase of people living with dementia both nationally and internationally. Whilst dementia has been framed as an economic and societal burden, this is not the whole story. People living with dementia have rights and an asset-based approach outlines the contribution that they bring to relationships in the everyday places and spaces where life is lived. To continue to enable people living with dementia to stay in their own home and community and to offer opportunities for social participation and contribution, the neighbourhood is one focus of ageing and dementia policy supporting enabling environments. Although the literature illustrates the significant impact, from multiple dimensions, of the neighbourhood on people living with dementia and their carers, there is a scarcity of evidence about how they define, construct, and interact with their neighbourhood. Aims: This longitudinal study employed narrative inquiry as a methodological frame and used a participatory approach, together with multiple data collection methods, to uncover the meaning, construction and place of neighbourhood in the lives of people with mild dementia and their carers to gain in-depth knowledge of the dynamic relationships between people and environment and of their daily lived experience of dementia. Findings: A total of five couples, where one partner had mild dementia, located in an East Midlands county of England, participated in the study and the age range for people living with dementia was from 66 to 86 years. Participation was longitudinal with the researcher conducting a total of 65 home visits and collecting over 57 hours of interview data alongside other data sources, such as participatory neighbourhood maps. Each case was outlined using the same headings allowing for cross-case analysis and emphasis was placed on the creation and pictorial representation of the neighbourhood maps with data collection led by the persons living with dementia and/or their carers. A cross-case analysis was then applied to the data set where a meta-theme of biographical connectivity to the neighbourhood emerged, supported by two themes of connecting to people and connecting to places. The meta-theme highlighted the significance of personal biographies in influencing neighbourhood connectivity, which further shaped personal biographies. Within this cumulative process, resources and relationships had an effect on biographical connections to the neighbourhood, particularly affecting how the persons living with dementia negotiated environmental opportunities and challenges. The resulting model illustrated the fluid, dynamic relationships between participants and their neighbourhood through the lens of personal biographies. Conclusions: The meta-theme of biographical connectivity to the neighbourhood presented the significance of personal and relational biographies in influencing the subjective view of the experiences of interactions with the neighbourhood. This is the first study where people living with dementia and their carers co-produced neighbourhood maps with the researcher to bring their understanding of spaces, places, and people to life. The study is also an early attempt to support a bottom-up approach to neighbourhood constructions and meanings where the intersection of the life of the person to their self-identified neighbourhood becomes the focal point for supportive interventions. The thesis concludes with a re-contextualisation of biographical connectivity to the neighbourhood and its supporting properties to the literature and outlines its implications for policy, practice, education, and research.

Hans Kohn (1891-1971) continues to be considered as a founding father of the academic research on, and interpretation of, nationalism. In more than thirty books and hundreds of articles he outlined his theory of this worldwide phenomenon. His theory is well-known as the so called “Kohn Dichotomy”. Based on the main categories of West and East, understood as metaphors and not geographic locations, he differentiated between two forms of nationalism: The Western model, based on the 18th century Enlightenment, emphasized rationality and individual liberty as the basis of progress, tending to limit the state power and aiming at world unity. Its non-Western (Eastern) counterpart is characterized by a reaction against the Enlightenment: it is irrational and romantic, and it glorifies the state power, tending to narrow and exclusivist views. However, Kohn was more than just a theoretician of nationalism – he spent the first half of his life as an active and influential member of the Jewish national movement. As a Zionist he advocated a concept of ethical nationalism that would take the rights of other peoples, particularly the Arab population in Palestine, into consideration. Contemporary research views Kohn either as a theoretician of nationalism or as a Zionist. Therefore, this study is the first attempt to present Kohn's intellectual biography by emphasizing both dimensions. Based on and intertwined with the four main stages of Kohn's life – his youth in Prague (1891-1914), as a prisoner of war in Russia (1915- 1920), as a Zionist in London and Palestine (1921-1934) as well as an academic researcher in the United States of America (1934-1971) – it examines the main threads of his thinking. The leading interpretative idea of this thesis is that throughout his life Kohn kept the conviction that nationalism based on ethical grounds can be a positive force leading to the unity of the world.

One woman examines her experiences with epilepsy over the past twenty years.

The purpose of this research project was to explore a model of transformative learning for the promotion of successful aging in group counselling and psychotherapy. This project explored how a model of life review, including guided autobiography (Birren & Deutchman, 1991) and enactment(s) in group psychodrama (Westwood, 1997) contributes to transformative learning (Mezirow, 1991, 1998). Successful aging emphasizes the potential for psychological growth rather than decline across the life span. In a field study, I used an ethnographic approach with an emphasis on reflexivity (Atkinson & Hammersley, 1994; Fisher, 1995). For this model, seven co-researchers, graduate students and professionals in practise, engaged in life review enactments in the context of group psychodrama. Evidence for communicative and emancipatory action two major domains of transformative learning (Mezirow, 1991), emerged from the data analysis. Six major themes, including four process themes and two content themes emerged: 1) the reflexive reconstruction of the self; 2) co-construction of the meaning of experience; 3) moral betrayal and social injustice; 4) leadership and creating a democratic public space; 5) action planning: individual and social action; and, 6) dreams as a template for actions. These central themes are described. Case examples from the stories of the co-researchers are offered as clarification. Suggestions and implications for future research and practise are discussed.

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