Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Nationalism and its attendant support for government policies abroad is relatively easy to promote when foreign policies are popular, when a common enemy is readily available, or when the national community feels threatened from forces abroad, whether physically, economically, or culturally. Many scholars have traced the effects of the “rally ‘round the flag” phenomenon and have written at length on the psychological underpinnings of nationalism and jingoism. But given the difficulties faced by the current administration in garnering public support for its arguably misguided policies in the Middle East, maintaining morale among the troops and their families is a crucial task. Keeping military families happy is not simply a question of keeping the home fires burning—it is a question of maintaining the military’s core support system in the face of growing opposition to government policies.This paper tracks the Bush adminsitration's efforts to construct and maintain a familial and social support system during the four year of the Iraq war, and evaluates the effectiveness of these efforts. I argue that the administration has created an important distinction between the "troops" (whom we must support) and the war, which may be despised, but cannot be separated from the construction of the troops. This distinction is a key element for maintaining control of the domestic military support structure.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This research report describes the findings of a study on mathematics teachers� models or interpretations of students� responses to middle school algebraic tasks involving equivalent expressions. A cohort of five teachers implemented the reform-based Connected Mathematics Project (Lappen et al, 1998) for the first time. The research design drew upon a models and modeling perspective of teacher development (Doerr & Lesh, 2003). The teachers in this study created �Ways of Thinking� sheets to help them recognize the multiple ways in which their students interpreted the given tasks. Results of the analysis of the practice of one of the teachers showed that the teacher became aware of the multiple ways his students solved these algebraic tasks.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The spread of manufacturing processes across national borders has spurred debates about whether globalization or localization more accurately depicts the changing structure of production. Certainly, the language of globalization is used routinely to justify the relocation of multinational corporations to overseas production sites or to source inputs and goods from locations with lower factor costs. But are commodity chains truly global, or do local, often sub-national regions constitute the main geographic units of production? An emerging consensus accepts the existence of localized industrial complexes and situates them within an increasingly globalized production framework. Within these local nodes in global production chains, there is considerable room for innovation and flexibility in production techniques. This paper confirms the node-based model of globalized manufacturing but questions the scope for innovative, context-specific manufacturing approaches within these nodes, particularly for producers in low and middle-income developing countries. Rather, a uniform set of supply-chain management practices, transmitted through industry consultants and the demands of multinational firms, have contributed to the increasing homogenization of production. To address these issues, the paper will explore the shifting nature and structure of production in the apparel industry, with particular focus on the implications for low and middle-income developing countries. The apparel industry is a critical case for exploring how the material and rhetorical globalization of production has reshaped development strategies: with low start-up costs and simple technology, apparel engages almost every country in the world and is often the first step in long-term national industrialization strategies. The research for the paper is based on almost two years of field research on the apparel sector. Interviews with managers of multinational garment retailers and agents who source products internationally for these firms provided an important data source. Standardized interviews with about 100 exporters and sub-contractors in Morocco and Tunisia, two middle-income countries linked tightly to the European market, provided a micro perspective on the impact of changing production trends on local production strategies. Information from international consulting firms specializing in apparel supplemented these data and situated the findings in a broader context. The homogenization of production highlights precise ways in which competition has intensified in an industry on which almost every industrializing country has pinned its hopes for development. As such, it has profound implications for the life experiences of many workers in the developing world and for broader issues of global inequality.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In the late 1830s, the initial popularity of blackface performance was marked by bawdy routines and raunchy songs played to rowdy audiences of working class men in northern cities; in America, association with the medium was something no proper lady would venture and few upright gentleman would acknowledge. Surprisingly, within ten years, minstrel sheet music was commonplace in even the most genteel parlors, purchased and played predominantly by refined young ladies. In my presentation, I will explore how the British sheet music industry aided minstrelsy's transition from rowdy dance hall spectacle to refined home entertainment in the late 1830s and early 1840s America.

My research builds from close analysis of sheet music�covers, lyrics, and musical notation�not as evocations of minstrel hall performance but rather as intelligence into 1840s parlor culture. For this presentation, I will offer analysis four early print versions of the popular minstrel song "Jim Along Josey" to explore how music publishers first in Britain then in America policed and adjusted minstrel images and themes, making them less threatening and more meaningful to parlor players in general and women in particular. Subtle at first but ultimately more grotesque, the images demonstrate the evolving and fluid nature not only of the blackface phenomenon but also of presumptions about race embedded in minstrel material. Ultimately my presentation will demonstrate how the varied depictions of blackface minstrels on sheet music covers reveal a Transatlantic debate in print on the "problem" and potency of the black body.