Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The presidential candidates of the rightwing Alianza opposition coalition in Chile in 1999 and 2005 ran in dramatically different political, economic and social contexts. Though the Alianza was defeated by the Concertación in both contests, Joaquín Lavín received 48.7% of the vote in 2000 while Piñera got 46.5% in 2006. Although both candidates failed to win, can we suggest that Lavín did better than Piñera?_x000d__x000d_Since the economic and social context was different and because they faced different Concertación presidential candidates, which of the Alianza two candidates was more effective in threatening the Concertación electoral dominance? Using public opinion poll data conducted before both elections, we test the effect of different social and economic indicators on the vote intention for Lavín and Piñera before the run-off elections of 2000 and 2006. Using presidential approval indicators, expectations on future economic growth, long-term political party identification (with parties, coalitions and right-left continuum) and socio-economic indicators, we determine which of the two Alianza candidates made more of an inroad on traditional Concertación voters and on independents.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In 1706 John Machin cleverly combined the tangent addition formula with Gregory's power series representation of the arctangent function to approximate the circular constant $\$\backslash pi\$$ to 100 digits. Following in Machin's footsteps today gives students in a second calculus course the opportunity to see a significant application of Taylor series techniques in action. With the help of a computer algebra system such as $\backslash emph\{Mathematica\}$ they can also quite effortlessly explore possible alternative designs for such an approximation formula. In our talk we will present a hands-on lesson that is suitable both for an in-class laboratory activity or an out-of-class project assignment.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: We describe Euler's role in calculating $\pi$ to 140 decimal places without actually having to do the work himself. The mysterious and romantic Slovenian hero Jurij Vega plays a key role in this drama.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper I examine "A Lower East Side Poem" as a poetic last will and testament, a rhetorical act that is a three-pronged petition: (1) to request that the author’s “ashes be scattered” throughout the neighborhood he called home, (2) to cross a metaphysical border between life and death by persuading audiences to keep him alive or present through memory even after his remains are dispersed and he is physically absent and (3) to traverse physical (US/Puerto Rico) borders by asking that the Nuyorican community persist, expand, survive and thrive.

I begin with a brief biographical sketch of the author and a discussion of relevant historical-contextual information about his cultural background, neighborhood and immediate rhetorical problem. I continue with a close textual analysis of "A Lower East Side Poem" to determine the inner workings that make it function persuasively. I conclude by evaluating Piñero’s poem according to criteria consistent with that perspective. My analysis reveals how the author makes meaning—by defining personal and cultural identity in a hybrid fashion through, what I call, a "rhetoric of passing" that seeks to translate presenence into absence through memory. Additionally, I suggest that critical attention to this Nuyorican poem not only adds a previously marginalized voice to rhetoric's canon but also offers opportunities for: (1) attending to the material conditions and structural inequalities that come to define the situations in which such work is invented, (2) considering the legacy of "passing" the poem leaves for contemporary writers, scholars, and audiences and, (3) addressing, remembering, imagining and joining in the process of constructing a personal, national or transnational identity.

Ultimately, I find that the poem works to establish identity by embracing continuous movement in the realms of language, of space and place and time. So before answering the question of who am I, one must first answer the questions: Where am I? When am I? What am I? As such, Piñero addresses many social pressures and diasporic concerns between Puerto Rico and New York/United States as well as the interchanges between various racial and ethnic groups in each location. For Piñero identity construction becomes a process of passing from one language/space/time/place to another, a forensic-epideictic exercise. This requires an understanding of motives and an honest accounting for one’s life. It constructs memories about past events and deliberates about the future. It creates an image to leave in the mind of the audience. It involves naming involuntary and voluntary actions and determining one’s own standards of justice and injustice. Finally, it extends beyond any single rhetor and exists as an invitation to connect with the shifting identities, cultures, lives and philosophies of populations within and without the United States.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This essay explores some of the common current perspectives attributed to sense making with respect to the communicative phenomenon of advice giving. Communicative activities that surround the phenomenon of advice giving are discussed, including those of face and social networks. Personal advice giving within relationships is then explored as a concept understood through the theories of politeness and social support. Politeness theory and theories of comforting are framed as privileging the speaker, the advice giver. As an alternative perspective, Problematic Integration Theory privileges the hearer, and the advice seeker/receiver is postulated as a lens through which to reexamine and explore the phenomenon of personal advice giving within relationships.