Social Networks Workshop in May

FYI, for those interested in social network analysis you should sign up for this as soon as possible:

Network Analysis Workshop at Ohio State University

The Political Science Department, in conjunction with Complex Systems Innovation Group, Program in Statistics and Methodology (PRISM), and the National Science Foundation, is pleased to host a one day workshop on Network Analysis on Thursday, May 5th, from 9:00 - 3:00. The workshop will be taught by Bruce A. Desmarais, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts-Amherst (http://www.people.umass.edu/bruced/).

The course will provide an introduction to political network analysis and will cover the basics of network analysis including: terminology, data collection/storage and basic description. We will also consider advanced topics in description and exploration such as graphical representation and community detection. Additionally, the course will introduce methods of statistical inference with network data including regression with quadratic assignment procedure (QAP), exponential random graph models (ERGMs), and bilinear random effects models. All methods will be demonstrated in the R statistical software, and commented code will be made available in conjunction with the course.

There is limited space available for interested participants, so we ask all of those hoping to attend to RSVP as soon as possible (link below). If you have any questions regarding the workshop, please feel free to contact Janet Box-Steffensmeier (steffensmeier.2@osu.edu) or Jason Morgan (morgan.746@osu.edu). Additional information and a detailed schedule will be emailed to registered participants as soon as they become available.

RSVP here: https://secure.polisci.ohio-state.edu/networkshortcourse.htm

Engel: Fashioning Celebrity

Fashioning Celebrity

Eighteenth-Century British Actresses and Strategies for Image Making

Laura Engel

This volume takes a new approach to the study of late eighteenth-century British actresses by examining the significance of leading actresses’ autobiographical memoirs, portraits, and theatrical roles together as significant strategies for shaping their careers.

In an era when acting was considered a suspicious profession for women, eighteenth-century actresses were “celebrities” in a society obsessed with fashion, gossip, and intrigue. Fashioning Celebrity: Eighteenth-Century British Actresses and Strategies for Image Making, by Laura Engel, considers the lives and careers of four actresses: Sarah Siddons, Mary Robinson, Mary Wells, and Fanny Kemble. Using conventions of the era’s portraiture, fashion, literature, and the theater in order to create their personas on and off stage, these actresses provided a series of techniques for fashioning celebrity that still survive today.

By emphasizing the importance of reading narratives through visual and theatrical frameworks and visual and theatrical representations through narrative models, Engel demonstrates the ways in which actresses’ identities were imagined through a variety of discourses that worked dialectically to construct their complex self-representations.

Fashioning Celebrity suggests that eighteenth-century practices of self-promotion mirror contemporary ideas about marketing, framing, and selling the elusive self, providing a way to begin to chart a history of our contemporary obsession with fame and our preoccupation with the rise and fall of famous women.

http://www.ohiostatepress.org

Berlatsky: The Real, the True, and the Told

The Real, the True, and the Told

Postmodern Historical Narrative and the Ethics of Representation

Eric L. Berlatsky

The Real, The True, and The Told: Postmodern Historical Narrative and the Ethics of Representation, by Eric L. Berlatsky, intervenes in contemporary debates over the problems of historical reference in a postmodern age. It does so through an examination of postmodern literary practices and their engagement with the theorization of history. The book looks at the major figures of constructivist historiography and at postmodern fiction (and memoir) that explicitly presents and/or theorizes “history.” It does so in order to suggest that reading such fiction can intervene substantially in debates over historical reference and the parallel discussion of redefining contemporary ethics.

Much theorization in the wake of Hayden White suggests that history is little better than fiction in its professed goal of representing the “truth” of the past, particularly because of its reliance on the narrative form. While postmodern fiction is often read as reflecting and/or repeating such theories, this book argues that, in fact, such fiction proposes alternative models of accurate historical reference, based on models of nonnarrativity. Through a combination of high theory and narrative theory, the book illustrates how the texts examined insist upon the possibility of accessing the real by rejecting narrative as their primary mode of articulation. Among the authors examined closely in The Real, The True, and The Told are Virginia Woolf, Graham Swift, Salman Rushdie, Art Spiegelman, and Milan Kundera.

http://www.ohiostatepress.org

Mayday! Mayday!

Yesterday I went to see my doctor about a gimpy knee/leg. This time it was the left knee that's been bothering me; a few years ago, it was the right knee. She pronounced my patella out-of-whack and prescribed some physical therapy. Nothing major.

What concerned me during the visit wasn't my knee pain or my doctor's diagnosis but alarmingly high number that showed up on the scale when the nurse weighed me at the start of the visit. It was a full five pounds higher than when I went to the doctor for a nagging cough a month ago. FIVE POUNDS! For a short person like me, that's no small number. As much as I try to wave it off by attributing to heavy clothing, I really doubt that the jeans, t-shirt, and little cardigan I was wearing yesterday weigh five pounds more than the jeans and sweater I wore at the last visit. My weight at that visit was already high enough to to go to yellow alert, being nearly 10 pounds more than my lowest happy weight from about 18 months ago. YIKES!!

Friends, this is dire.

I have started exercising regularly again, after the winter's semi-hibernation, but apparently it's not enough because my lumps continue to become lumpier.

More-focused--even severe--action must be taken, lest my waist continue its rapid expansion until my already-snug pants become obsolete. I am determined not to let that happen. I will not become another Kirstie Alley (who, incidentally, did very well last night on Dancing with the Stars)!

Plan of action:
1. Smaller portions, especially at breakfast
2. Stop eating before I feel full (pay attention to my body!)
3. Exercise for at least an hour, 4-5 times a week (already doing this for the most part)
4. No more bread or crackers
5. No more cookies! At all!
6. Walk/move more during the day

These are all small changes that won't overwhelm me, which gives me a greater chance of success.

Send encouraging, supportive thoughts and words my way!!

Ivan Dylko Accepts Position at New Mexico State

Please join me in congratulating Ivan Dylko. Ivan recently accepted a position of assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at New Mexico State University. Ivan came to us for his MA degree, and then after a brief hiatus returned to earn his Ph.D. Ivan is currently wrapping up his dissertation project -- an explication of political user-generated content online combined with a content analysis using the mix of attributes framework -- and will be starting his position at New Mexico State in the fall.

In a very tough economy and academic job market, our students continue to demonstrate the benefits of their hard work by securing multiple interviews and great job offers. Congratulations Ivan!

The Biggest Loser

Wasn't I just saying the other day that I needed to start working out with someone who was less fit and weighed more than me? I found the next best thing today (sort of) when I worked out at the hotel gym while watching The Biggest Loser. I am so glad to say that I did not let myself be swayed by any of my lame excuses yesterday or today; I spend some quality time on the treadmill both days and feel much better for it.

Yesterday I did 37 heart-healthy minutes of brisk walking at an elevation of four. Today I cranked it up a notch by doing that same brisk pace at an elevation of 4.5, for a full 60 minutes. The equivalent of walking/hiking quickly uphill for an hour. GO ME!!

Watching The Biggest Loser contestants giving their all in grueling work-outs and challenges to lose weight, reduce their risk of disease and early death, and reclaim their lives definitely inspired me to keep moving on that treadmill--and reclaim the fitness level I used to have.

While I was watching, I was also thinking about all my overweight relatives and the myriad health problems they've had as a result of their poor choices. They haven't taken care of themselves and now they're suffering from high blood pressure, diabetes, clogged arteries, joint and muscle pain, and heart problems. They don't have the energy to live their lives fully. I do not want to end up like that!

My reward for tonight's excellent workout was some sweet, heavenly raspberries, that burst with flavor in my mouth and reminded me of good, healthy times to come.

Thunder Thighs

Several years ago there was a commercial on TV that showed two men out plowing snow on a cold winter night. As their plow chugged along down the neighborhood streets, their headlights caught sight of a big mass lying in the middle of the road and they got out to investigate.

"What is it?" one of them asked, bewildered.

"Looks like a pair of thunder thighs," the other replied. "Someone probably lost them when they were playing with their kids in the snow."

I'm so glad it's not snowy right now. And that lack of snow gives me even less excuse to stay in the house and not exercise, especially when the weather was so gorgeous and mild on Saturday afternoon. I chose to work off some of my thunder thighs that day by chasing my niece and nephew around their neighborhood. Those little kids can run! We were out there playing chase for at least 20 minutes, maybe 30, and what a delightful and invigorating time it was, for all of us!

Garrett published rumoring paper in Human Communication Research

Congrats to Kelly Garrett for his publication in the April 2011 issue of Human Communication Research entitled "Troubling Consequences of Online Political Rumoring." You can read the abstract here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2010.01401.x/abstract

ADDED BY KELLY:

Scientific American posted a short podcast on the study, too. Entertaining to hear the whole project distilled to 60-seconds.

Williams: Inventing Womanhood

Inventing Womanhood

Gender and Language in Later Middle English Writing

Tara Williams

In Inventing Womanhood, Tara Williams investigates new ideas about womanhood that arose in fourteenth-century Britain and evolved throughout the fifteenth century. In the aftermath of the plague and the substantial cultural shifts of the late 1300s, female roles expanded temporarily. As a result, the dominant models of maiden, wife, and widow could no longer adequately describe women’s roles and lives.

Middle English writers responded by experimenting with new ways of representing women across a variety of genres, from courtly poetry to devotional texts and from royal correspondence to cycle plays. In particular, writers coined new terms, including “womanhood” and “femininity,” and refashioned others, such as “motherhood.” These experiments allowed writers to develop and define a larger idea of womanhood underlying more specific identities like wife or mother and to re-imagine women’s relationships to different kinds of authority—generally masculine and frequently religious.

By exploring the medieval origins of some of our most important gender vocabulary, Inventing Womanhood defamiliarizes our modern usage, which often treats those terms as etymologically transparent and almost limitlessly capacious. It also restores a necessary historical and linguistic dimension to gender studies, providing the groundwork for reconsidering how that language and the categories it creates have determined the ways in which gender has been imagined since the Middle Ages.

http://www.ohiostatepress.org

Groovin'

I've been getting back in the exercise groove. On Saturday, I went for an hour-long walk in the delicious spring weather, even managing to get some hills in my route. I felt sluggish and slow, but at least I was out there, moving my legs.

Yesterday (Monday) afternoon, I did more-or-less the same walking route again, this time in just under an hour. I think I missed a turn in there somewhere. Whatever. I felt less sluggish on yesterday's walk, although I felt pathetic to be so breathless at the tops of those hills. I think I need to start exercising with someone who's in really bad physical shape to make me feel fit. It's all about perspective, right?

Beam accepts position at Washington State U.

Congratulations to Michael Beam on accepting a position as an Assistant Professor in Digital media in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. Michael has been actively involved in COPS for several years, and we will miss him, but he is joining a fine faculty where I'm sure he will do great things.

New publications by COPS members

COPS members have several publications in print or in press this month. More details below:

Epstein, D., Nisbet, E. C. & Gillespie, T. (2011). Who's Responsible for the Digital Divide? Public Perceptions and Policy Implications. The Information Society: An International Journal, 27(2), 92-104. doi: 10.1080/01972243.2011.548695

Garrett, R. K. (2011), Troubling Consequences of Online Political Rumoring. Human Communication Research, 37: 255–274. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2010.01401.x

Holbert, L., Hmielowski, J., and Weeks, B. (in press). Clarifying Relations between Ideology and Ideologically-Oriented Cable TV News Use: A Case of Suppression. Communication Research.

Yin and Yang

Yesterday's healthy eating choices:

• Lunch: Grilled chicken wrap with lettuce and a little Caesar dressing--and waffle fries from Chick-Fil-A
• Dinner: Very healthy salad with butterhead lettuce, two small tomatoes, an avocado, and a little crumbled feta, drizzled with Balsamic vinegar and olive oil
• Followed by: Five small cookies made with various amounts of chocolate and sugar, and several slices of dried apple half-dipped in chocolate, all consumed at Dave's party at Artfully Gifts and Chocolate

I think it all balances itself out, don't you?

Wettlaufer: Portraits of the Artist as a Young Woman

Portraits of the Artist as a Young Woman

Painting and the Novel in France and Britain, 1800–1860

Alexandra K. Wettlaufer

As women entered the field of cultural production in unprecedented numbers in nineteenth-century France and Britain, they gradually forged a place for themselves, however tenuous, in artistic movements and exhibitions, in academies and salons, and finally in the public imagination. Portraits of the Artist as a Young Woman: Painting and the Novel in France and Britain, 1800–1860 focuses on a decisive period in that process of professional self-invention and maps out the concrete and symbolic roles played by women painters, real and fictional, in the construction of female artistic identity in the aesthetic and the public spheres. Alexandra K. Wettlaufer examines the diverse and complex ways canonical and non-canonical women painters and novelists—including Anne Brontë, Sydney Owenson, Margaret Gillies, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, George Sand, and Hortense Haudebourt-Lescot—figured and brought forth the radical image of a female subject representing the world.

Wettlaufer brings to light a rich and nearly forgotten culture of women’s artistic production, allowing us to understand the nineteenth-century in more complex and nuanced ways across the borders of gender, genre, and nation. In her close readings of paintings by women and novels about women painting, she charts the political and cultural resonances of this artistic self-representation, tracing its evolution through themes of “The Studio” (Part I), “Cosmopolitan Visions” (Part II), and “The Portrait” (Part III). By pairing painting and literature in a single study that also considers works from two distinct but closely related cultures, Portraits of the Artist as a Young Woman locates the interpretation of these works in the dialogic context in which they were created and consumed, highlighting aesthetic and political intersections between nineteenth-century British and French art, literature, and feminism that are too often elided by the disciplinary boundaries of scholarship.

http://www.ohiostatepress.org

Back in the Saddle

After a couple of boxes of Girl Scout cookies, almost a month of being sick with a bad cough that made cardio painful if not impossible, and just plain lethargy, I finally got back in the exercise saddle today. Holly and I strong-armed each other into working out in our individual homes this evening. We set our plans this afternoon, then I called to check up on her at 8pm and again at 9:30pm, both to make sure she was following through on her pledge and so she could hold me accountable for doing so too.

It worked! I did the Jillian Michaels workout I got back in January. I think it was even harder this time than the first time I did it, thanks to the overall fitness atrophy I've been experiencing. I confess I had to stop a few times to catch my breath and I did the beginner modifications for several of the moves--like the plank press (I think that's what it's called), which is when you go into plank position, holding your hand weights and then pull the weights up one at a time, using the same motion as when you pull the cord to start a lawn mower. I couldn't do the full plank; I had to balance on my knees instead of the balls of my feet. I did try the full plank for the second set but after just a few arm pulls my legs threatened to give out and I switched back to the knees.

Oh well. You have to start (over) somewhere, right?