Are we ever on the leading edge! Millie, your thesis is right up to date. While I'm in China, you check out how to reach Jennifer Portnick. And certainly you'll want to cover her story in your thesis. I'll be expecting exciting news about her and about how we shall change the dominant discourse. Her philosophy is "Fit and fat --- what a concept!" http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/08/national/08JAZZ.html Read the essay!

Announcing:

jeanne and Arnold are off to China!
No Current issues up until after June 17.
And I'm going to be shooting my first video short in China,
so please give me a few days to wake up after I get home.

love and peace, jeanne

Getting In and Getting Ahead

The Success Game A series of articles in the New York Times that illustrates privilege and access to educational preparation, to entry into colleges of privilege, and to the professional world. The New York Time offers stories of three high school teenagers applying for the college of their dreams. Read the stories for clues as to the many faces of privilege, and then consider how these stories would change for many of us at CSUDH and UWP. What does that mean to our privilege of access? Note that the New York Times is offering information to the general public on how to gain such access? Who reads the New York Times? What does that tell you about the privilege of access?

Third Annual International Conference on Restorative Justice Practices
August 8-10, 2002
Minneapolis, Minnesota

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan, Transcend Art and Peace
Latest Update: May 4, 2002
Faculty:
jeannecurran@habermas.org
Olivier at tapcourse@yahoo.com
takata@uwp.edu

Table of Contents

Reference Links:

Site Index - Topics Index - Concept Index - Vocabulary Index
Archives - Site Map - Site Stats - Syllabi - Recommending Teachers - Links
Left/Right Perspectives - PSN - ZNet - TR Young's Site - Virtual Faculty
Art and Poem Gallery - Transcend Art and Peace - The Justice Studies Association

Weekly Features:

Healing Thoughts
Theory Essays
Letters to My Students
In Other Languages
Art and the Imaginary
Conflicts Around the World
Scholastic Resources
Lagniappe! You Gotta Read This!
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Gallery Under construction.
Calls for Proposals: Conference and Article Plans
Presentations and Publications
Kids' Site
What people are saying about Dear Habermas
Who To Take

Merriam-Webster Dictionary Search:

Study and Writing Workshops:

• Graduate Study for Comprehensives:

• Collaborative Writing Projects:

  Index of Thesis Projects

  • Fat and Fit Resource material for Millie Coulter's thesis. Link added May 8, 2002.

• Moot Court, Spring 2002:
  • Moot Court Page

  • Readings: Week X

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Healing
The NOW is cracking.

• Healing Thoughts:

  MAYBE I'M OK JUST AS I AM?
  

  • Risking Limbs for Height, and Success, in China By Craig S. Smith. New York Times, International Section. May 5, 2002. Backup

    Hundreds of young Chinese, more women than men, obsessed with stature in this increasingly crowded and competitive society, are stretching themselves to new heights on a latter-day rack developed by a Russian doctor 40 years ago to treat dwarfism and deformed limbs. The often painful Ilizarov procedure, named for its inventor, adds length by allowing new bone to grow in the gap left by the gradually separating ends of broken bone. The procedure is used in the United States, but mainly for therapeutic purposes. Its cosmetic use is far less frequent than in China.

    If not done carefully, the risks are high. Bones separated too quickly will not mend or will grow together with tissue too fragile to bear the body's weight. Limbs can end up being different lengths and shanks can grow warped, deforming the knee and ankle joints. Nerves may be damaged.

    But in a country where there are tallness requirements for jobs, colleges and even spouses, many young people are willing to take such drastic measures to get ahead.

    . . .

    Given the hordes of qualified applicants that descend on any opportunity here, many institutions find height an easy way to cut down the field. That gives a distinct advantage to northern Chinese, who are on average taller than southerners.

    . . .

    Deng Xiaoping, a southerner who stood just 4-foot-11, would have been out of luck had he come of age in this decade. Many divisions of the army in which he made his mark in the 1930's and 40's now require male recruits to be at least 5-foot-3. Even the government that he once led wants only tall Chinese today in jobs that involve meeting foreigners. China's Foreign Ministry demands that would-be diplomats be at least 5-foot-7 if they are men, 5-foot-3 if they are women."

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  Theory Essays

  Topics Index

  Discussing Theory

  • Cognitive Fix and Egocentric Parallel Conversation Essay on the problems of communicative discourse. Just started this week. jeanne Link added May 7, 2002.
  • Continuing Discussion of Child Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church
    • Prior discussion
    • jeanne's first rendition of Protection and the Church
    • Institutional concerns with child sexual abuse in Canada
    • jeanne's first introduction to the subject. The stained glass windows.

    Concepts You Should Know:

    • death penalty

      • Backup of New York Times Interview with Park Dietz on the Insanity Plea Link added May 4, 2002.
      • The Insanity Defense Across States Link added May 4, 2002.

      privilege, access, and adversarialism

      • "It's Always Something!"

      slavery reparations

      • Announcement of lecture on Black Reparations Link added May 7, 2002.

        "At LACIS’ request, the WUD Distinguished Lecture Series has invited Randall Robinson to give a public lecture on the reparations issue on Tuesday, December 4th at the Wisconsin Union Theater.

        As part of an LACIS outreach initiative Mr. Robinson has agreed to participate in a community dialogue at a Madison-based community center. In preparation for this dialogue, The Madison Times, the local newspaper serving Madison's African-American community, and WORT Radio have organized an essay competition where sutdents will address the question of "Why Should the City Council of Madison Pass a Resolution in Favor of Slavery Reparations." This event will provide an opportunity for students, teachers and mentors who have been involved in this essay competiotion to meet and speak with Mr. Robinson and to discuss the future status of the reparations issue both in local schools and in national politics. The dialogue is beaing organized and hosted by local repartions activist Stan Woodard.

        For more information on Randall Robinson and TransAfrica go to http://www.transafricaforum.org .

        I am particularly anxious that you recognize the extent to which such discussions are becoming part of the dominant discourse on college campuses. The University of Wisconsin at Madison is a top-ranked university. We rely on the "trickle down" effect of such programs as LACIS (the Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies Program) offered here in 2001-2002 to help guide such issues into dominant discourse. Where do CSUDH and UWP fit in this scheme of academic contributions to issues in the local communities? Do we offer similar programs? Are they effective in bringing such issues to the local dominant discourse?

        Note also:

      • Randall Robinson to Discuss His New Book, The Reckoning: What Blacks Owe Each Other Event at Harvard Law.

        Again, this is one advantage of the elite school, it can afford to produce such events, and the students, who are less pressured because parents or scholarships are paying for their education, can afford the time to attend such events. What difference do you think that makes in the quality of education? Remember the old sign in our Social Systems Research Center: "Sometimes I just sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits." Remember also the image of the palm tree of Paul Valery, French poet of the early-to-mid twentieth century: for long periods the palm tree just sits, then one day it spurts up. It does not grow in neat linear fashion, a little every day. We're like that. We, too, grow in spurts. Maybe we should consider that with our education. Of course, tests of learning, such as are now standardized and on which so much of our access to jobs and success depend, are linear, and indicative of the background we have acquired, not indicative of the non-linear process of acquiring that background. When we say "It's about money, Stupid!" what we mean is that access to the privilege that discretionary income affords in minimal areas, such as not having to be concerned about the cost of food or rent or clothes permits a freedom to study and learn.

    Theorists You Should Know:

    • Randall Robinson

      • The Debt: The Case for Reparations to African-Americans and African Countries Audio recording of Randall Robinson's speech. Link added May 7, 2002.

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  Letters to My Students

  Index of Letters to My Students

  • Up soon.

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  Art

  Index of Artists Featured on This Site

  • Discussing Art

    • Multiple CARIBBEANS: Performance . Displacement . Identities Website for the Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies Program (LACIS) at the University of Wisconsin,

• Artists You Should Know

  • ARTIST

    • Oeuvre (work) [Pronounced "ERV"]

  • Poets You Should Know

    • POET

      • Oeuvre (work)

  • Poetry and Music We Share with Each Other

    • Up soon.

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  In Other Languages

  • ZNet en Espanol.
  • La Opinion
  • La Jornada Mexico. En espanol. Link added January 2, 2001.
  • Hactivist News Service In French. Link added January 10, 2002.

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  Conflicts Around the World:

• Present Danger

  • Up soon.

• Long-Term Effects

  • Up soon.

• History

  • Up soon.

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  Scholastic Resources:

  • Curricular and Scholarly Resources:

    • Up soon.

• The Writing Tutor:
  Basic:
  • Up soon.

  Advanced:

• Up soon.

The Methods and Statistics Tutor:

Basic:
• Up soon.

  Advanced:

• Up soon.

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Lagniappe!

You Gotta Read This

• Up soon.

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Jobs and Job-Training:

• Summer Jobs - Not Sociology Related Link added last week. April 21, 2002.

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Kids' Site

• Up soon.

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What people are saying about Dear Habermas

• Up soon.

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Who To Take

• Who To Take Site Look up professors that others have recommended. Make recommendations yourself.
• Transforming Campus Discourse:The Importance of Sharing the Good Stuff

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