WWW www.habermas.org

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: January 6, 2006
Latest Update: January 12, 2006
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Topic of the Week:
Evocations of Winter in Art

Kassab Winter Wonderland Snow 96x5.jpg
on Care to Share Site.

Compare the feelings you get from Mikhail Larionov's painting, Winter, and Cindy Kassab's photograph, Winter Wonderland. The figure in Larionov's painting brought to mind guelphs. And the multiple scenes brought to mind naked space. Marionov's colors, as I noted them, were white for the figure and blue, Prussian or dark blue, and chocolate for the background. I added hair to the figure; I think to cover up the fact that I had not drawn the head properly; it needed more depth. The hair was an easy fix, since I work in ink and don't erase.

I'm not sure what all the pieces or scenes mean in my rendering of the painting; but it feels the way I felt when I saw Larionov's painting. His verse was in Russian; no idea what it was about; I just thought of Whitman's leaves of grass, and loveless leaves and leafless loves. This painting was packed with strong emotions for me. It brought to mind guelphs.

Kassab's photograph brought to mind the feelings I always had on top of a mountain as I paused to take off downhill. Peace, calm, the miracle of white. Very different feelings; both full of winter. But I would choose to put Larionov's Winter on a wall in my home. My mother, I think, would have picked Kassab's Winter Wonderland. Now that prompts me to think, about my mother, about myself. Such is the power of art, and our ability to interact with that art in our own world of events and feelings.

References:

• Renderings as a Stimulus to Personal Art Discussion issues on Winter in California.
• Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass On Barleby's site. Poem: "One's-Self I Sing."
• Winter Wonderland By Elizabeth Feisst. On Care to Share site.

NEWS, Announcements, and

Current Events Discussion Topics:

Learning Records Posted all the learning records that were actually on Learning Records site. Some of you left your messages on transform_dom, which has over 9000 messages. If I've missed you, e-mail me at Learning Records. Look at the site records. I've usually left you a message if stuff was missing. jeanne (You can leave me a message at 323-876-1389 if you're having

• Statistics - Sociology 220
• Moot court - Sociology 370
• Helping Professions - Sociology 386
• Love 1A - Sociology 395
• Grad Love 1A - Sociology 595
• Directed Reading and Practicum - Sociology 597, 599

  This is the last week of the Fall Issues. Next week I hope to start uploading lectures and projects for the Spring semester, No Child Left Behind.

We don't have an office anymore. They moved us out during the last week of classes, while I was having a reaction to the radiation therapy. All our stuff got moved across the hall, but it's in no condition for immediate use. So communicate with me over the site and transform_dom. We hope to get moved into the office across the hall by late January. jeanne

Dear Habermas Students Recognized for Community Work:

Miguel Ortiz (Sociology 220, Fall 2005) with Theatre Arts Group

Miguel is part of Teatro Dominguez:

Call for Papers

Casazine - Online Magazine for members of Casa. "CASA offers a platform for people to discuss and combine efforts and information working towards social transformation. For more information on CASA 2005 Borders, Markets, Movements and to find out about the summer meeting CASA 2006: Constructing Social Change go to http://www.casa.manifestor.org/." Jeanne joined this group a couple of years ago, though she couldn't make their summer meeting. I think our goals fit. Some of you should consider following this. I think their summer meeting this year might be in Montreal. Check out the site. Contribute a paper to CASAZINE.

Conference in June 2006

Please check out the proposal I submitted on Christmas Eve. If you want to go, we need to start thinking about money NOW!

The Ecstasy Exhibit at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art through February 20.

"Ecstasy" is the trippy, messy, highly entertaining survey put together by Paul Schimmel of the Museum of Contemporary Art here. It sprawls through the Geffen Contemporary, the museum's cavernous warehouse in Little Tokyo, which too often begs for attention but is now jammed with blissed-out mobs.

Visual Sociology

• jeanne's first rendering of The Traces of War by Gelii Korzhev (b. 1925)

  

  The Russian exhibit at the Guggenheim was long, and I had little time to sketch. But the monochromatic portrait of this soldier made me stop to try to capture some of the feeling. A handsome young man. One eye permanently closed by a war he may well have not understood and probably didn't choose. On Renderings as a Stimulus to Personal Art, you'll find the sketch from which I drew this. There's also another sketch very near this portrait, of a young man lost in his father's overcoat. Both these pieces made a profound impression on me as I contemplated the

• Agency Foibles and Governance Discourse: "Records indicate that the DWP [Department of Water and Power], which supplies the city's water, spent $31,160 --- the most among 23 city agencies that bought bottled water." (Mayor Reasserts Ban on Bottled-Water Purchases, by Ptrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times, Friday, January 6, 2006.
  

  Issues of Water and Power, Growing

  See Index on 'Water Issues for story of Bechtel and water in Bolivia.

• Codes from Liberal Education Learning: Magritte - Ceci N'est Pas Une Pipe
  

  I am not a car. / This is not a pipe.

  “I'm not lying, this is not a pipe”: Foucault and Magritte on the Art of Critical Pedagogy by James Palermo, Buffalo State College, Philosophy of Education, 1994. Backup.

Lectures, Notes, and Texts

Lecture notes with self tests on the substantive concepts discussed. These are not a "substitute" for actual lectures in class or workshops, but I have tried to cover the main concepts so that absence from class will not critically deprive you of the substance of our discussions. The tests are for your own understanding of how well you have grasped the concepts. If you are confused, please make sure you clarify the concepts with jeanne when she is available in the office.
• In the Matter of Wars Being Fought Over My God Is The "Right" God - Investigating the Murder of a Pharaoh Include the quote on no wars ever being fought in polytheistic cultures over which gods were the right gods.Cite also Guilford on many kinds of "knowing," or intelligence.

  • Self Test on One Right Answer for God Not Yet Up Up soon. jeanne

• Mathematical Models and Reality: More Problems with the Arrogance of Knowingness - Reliable Knowledge and Error in Simulation Models By Mark Boyland, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. March 9, 2002. Our social constructs are really mathematical models by which we've approximated what we see for reality. Though we don't really calculate them mathematically, as one does with computer simulations, we do a rough calcuation with our brains. Unfortunately, we then confuse the social constructs with reality itself.

  CompareRemarques sur les simulations Ceci n'est pas une pipe (René Magritte).

  • Self Test on Models; Can We Trust Them? Do we distort them? Include gender M/F model and compare to homosexuality gender and sexuality model. Not Yet Up Up soon. jeanne

• Tradition As a Source of Knowledge - Folk Remedies and the Arrogance of Knowledge We cling to knowledge because it matters to us. We need to "know," for knowledge is power. When someone counters our knowledge by offering alternative possibilities or concepts, our power is threatened. That's personal. We fight to preserve our knowledge as the "right" knowledge.

  • Self Test on Folk Remedies and the Arrogance of Knowledge Not Yet Up Up soon. jeanne

• The Classics As a Source of Knowledge - Why Study the Classics Many of today's articles are founded on the classic studies in sociology, psychology, anthropology, and even philosophy. By failing to acknowledge the importance of those who went before us we lose a sense of the historical depth of our field and trivialize the discipline by trying to fit it into easily publishable bits that can be replicated and extrapolated with relative ease for promotional objectives. Publishers want to sell new books, and authors want to get paid for writing new books. Distortion of the field if we forget the role of the classics.

  • Self Test on the Classics as Lending Depth to the Discipline Not Yet Up Up soon. jeanne
  • Self Test on a Quick Insight to Secondary Analysis of Data Huff's delightful choice of measurement in his article on Defending Our Study of the Classics. Not Yet Up Up soon. jeanne

• Foucault, Magritte, and Critical Pedagogy “I'm not lying, this is not a pipe”: Foucault and Magritte on the Art of Critical Pedagogy by James Palermo, Buffalo State College, Phikosophy of Education, 1994. Backup.

  • Self Test on Critical Pedagogy and Standardized Testing Not Yet Up Up soon. jeanne

• Costs of War Costs of War A visual sociology piece on the way framing alters our perception of art work. Frames provide a context which lends meaning to that which is constrained within that context.

  • Self Test on Costs of War Art Project included.

• Urban Legends There is no overall librarian for the Internet who can check sources for you. You need to be aware of hoaxes and rumors that are reproduced so often on the Internet they seem true.

  • Self Test on Urban Legends Not up yet.

Famous People and Concepts We Should Have Heard Of, But Often Haven't

• Allport

  "Although he was no friend of Freud's depth psychology, Gordon Allport was convinced, along with Freud, that what Freud called "the American approach to psychology" was not only boring, but misleading. Compiling ranks of statistics, averaged across individuals, leads us to what Dan McAdams (1996) has called the psychology of the stranger. It describes everyone in general and no one in particular. It misses the personal meaning of life's events, and the individual ways of responding to life's events that Allport called traits. Allport called this statistical approach to understanding human nature the nomothetic method, and contrasted its emptiness and aridity to the richness of the idiographic approach -- an approach centered on the meanings and stories of the individual." from Chuck Huff, Why Should We Care?
  Backup.

  • nomothetic approach - "Compiling ranks of statistics, averaged across individuals . . . It describes everyone in general and no one in particular." (Huff, ibid.)
  • idiographic approach - "an approach centered on the meanings and stories of the individual. . . " (Huff, ibid.)

• Bandura - learning from modelling behavior (Bandura and Walters - well-known research team)

Academic Support and Resource Links

• A Range of Sources on Global Info

  Left/Right Perspectives - Cursor - New York Times - The National Review
  Arts and Letters Daily - The Economist - The Sierra Club - The Guardian
  Wall Street Journal - The Weekly Standard - The Nation - The Cato Institute (Libertarian)
  BBC NEWS | Americas - truthout - Museum of Tolerance, Los Angeles
  Los Angeles Times - Chicago Tribune - La Opinion - The Washington Post
  Cursor's Al Jazeera Archive - Ha'aretz - Palestine Monitor - Palestine Report

  Indymedia - Mother Jones - BBC News - New Profile - KPFK Progressive Radio
  Progressive Sociologists Network Environmental Working Group - Mirror of Justice

• Mentoring

  Graduate Exams Study

  • University of Chicago Prelim Study
  • Revised Syllabi for jeanne's Fall 2005 Classes
    
  • Instructions for Tutoring and Learning Records Requests

    Some older files not yet revised for Fall 2005, but useful.

  • Mentoring Help for New Students with Frequently Asked Questions
    
  • Mentoring Help for Returning Students with More Frequently Asked Questions
    
  • Shared Reading Suggestions
  • Learning Styles

  • Home Page for transform-dom You can read all the messages on Transforming Dominant Discourse from this page. Just click on messages in the left hand frame. You can read the messages, even if you're having difficulty signing up.

  Preparing for Graduate Study:

• Test Prep Preview Joshua L. Stewart, recommended this site because it has free practice tests. If you're thinking of taking the GRE, the LAST, or any other graduate entry test, this might be a good place to gather some early information. Joshua suggested it for Praxis Practice, but a quick first look suggests they don't mean by praxis what we do. Check it out, anyway, if you have some spare time. jeanne

Resource Literacy

• Urban Legends Reference Pages. They post rumors and scams and phony e-mails circulating, to offer you a quick check. It worked for me. I entered "Fat Boy" as a google seacrch, and when I saw the Snopes.com link, I knew it would help, and it did. To not check your sources is as grievous as to plagiarize someone else's information and writing. A Page from Urban Legends As an Example.

• the-artists.org Good quick reference site with many of the artists, art schools, and visual approaches to present social issue that we discuss. Added April 8, 2005.

• Plagiarism Watch www.streetgangs.com site. The intelligent and effective use of resources means that you have to be careful not to plagiarize other people's material. We have several files on plagiarism, but I think the one that might make the most sense to you is this complaint on streetgangs.com. They give you samples of sites that have taken their material without citation, even at colleges, and they also give you examples of sites that have used their material with proper attribution. I find the irony poetic, and hope that their message will get through to you the importance of attribution. Dr. O'Connor on his Mega Criminal Justice site led me to streetgangs.com and noted that others frequently hack into the site. For that reason I have created a backup copy for your use in case you cannot access the actual site. Please be sure to attribute any citation to streetgangs.com. jeanne Backup.

  You might want to consider also the information on Dr.Woo Suk Hwang of South Korea:

  "Therapeutic Cloning Was a Fraud"
  By Hsien Hsien Lei, PhD | Related entries in Genetic Engineering

  One of the year’s biggest stories in bioscience appears to have been make-believe. In May, scientists in South Korea announced they’d been able to clone eleven embryonic stem cell lines containing the DNA of patients who suffered from diseases such as Parkinson’s, diabetes, and spinal cord injury. The hope was that the cloned stem cells could be used therapeutically via transplantation without fear of rejection.

  Now Dr. Woo Suk Hwang has admitted to fabricating the results. Nine of the 11 colonies of stem cells featured in the study published in the journal Science apparently don’t exist and the other two may not have been real either. The researchers involved have asked Science to retract their paper." From geneticsandhealth.com, consulted on December 26, 2005.

Using Academic Language Effectively

Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:

and Careers

• Resumes:

  • College Journal Resume Suggestions . . . Backup

• Letters of Recommendation:

  • Letters of Recommendation: How to get me to respond to your request. Many of you need letters. If you will follow this format, I can do them quickly and make them good.
  • Dog Letters If you do not give me adequate information, but do manage to get my attention, you may end up with a dog letter. That is a letter that says that you work well with people, that you are enthusiastic, that you persist at getting things done, and that everyone likes you. Of course, my dog gets along well with people, brings his ball to them, is enthusiastic, and persists at getting them to take his ball. Everyone likes my dog. That's a dog letter. It's so general it could be about my dog. jeanne

• Career Options You Might Not Have Considered

  • visual media and their interdependence with other means of knowing to understand that we are not totally rational creatures deciding things apart from our feelings and values. Wolfowitz (new President of the World Bank to aid developing countries AND principle advocate of the Iraq War) might feel very differently when he is exposed to visual and aural images of the poor developing countries that have not before been his primary concern. So we want to know how best to present those developing countries visually. And we might find that we can have a career doing that sort of thing, so it does reflect on us as individuals. Added April 2, 2005.

Sneaky Strokes and Flying Good Dogs

Flying Dog is also a painting by Zhang Kai. Best I've ever come across to illustrate our site with magic numbers and unicorns and whipped cream cats and now, flying dogs, oh, and Faupel's Flying Fish.:

• Icons and acronyms and what they mean in Internet Speak

• Index of Nice Things We've Said to Each Other

  • I Was Scared of Statistics
    • Jennifer Schwind, Fall 2005

  • It Feels Good to Make a Difference
    • Olivia Guttierez, Love 1A, Fall 2005

  • The Site Goes On - You're Always Welcome Back
    • From Angelique Hawley on December 16, 2005: Message No. 9072 on transform_dom.

      Merry Christmas! Jeannne and Pat and all the marvelous students at CSUDH that has shared in "Naked Space"

      I wish I had a lot of money so that I could reward all of you properly. Transform_domDigest is so wonderful.

      I can recall when being one of the first users in 2004 and I see we are at digest 594. my how time flies when we are learning and having fun.

      Jeanne you and Pat are the bomb!

      I continue to read the digest although I am not taking any of your classes now. The digests have been more informative than the school paper. Please continue to keep it going.

      Get rest ! I hope to see you .

• Flying Good Dogs: Whenever something happens in this or any other class that works out well, that inspires you, that helps in studying, whatever, take a few minutes to send us an e-mail. We'll post it where all of us can learn from it, including other teachers.

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