Violence Onstage and Off: Drama and Society in Recent American Plays

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Vandenbroucke
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Theatre Arts ◽  
Cultural Violence ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
University Of Louisville ◽  
Tectonic Theater Project ◽  
Dead Man ◽  
The University ◽  
Artistic Director

Direct and bloody violence has a long history on stage. In recent years, a different mode of violence can be distinguished in the work of prominent American playwrights – less direct than indirect, more covert than overt, and likely to affect a group rather than individuals. In this article Russell Vandenbroucke applies concepts from Norwegian sociologist and Peace Studies scholar Johan Galtung to examine structural and cultural violence in Suzan-Lori Parks's Father Comes Home from the Wars (Parts 1, 2, & 3) and traces similar representations of violence in Anna Deavere Smith's Fires in the Mirror, Tony Kushner's Angels in America, Lynn Nottage's Ruined, Ayad Aktar's Disgraced, The Laramie Project by Moisés Kauffman and the Tectonic Theater Project, and Tim Robbins's adaptation of Dead Man Walking by Sr Helen Prejean. These writers have in common the status of traditional outsiders – black, female, gay, Muslim – and this informs their engagement in the social and political vitality of the stage. The shift in focus of these plays from direct violence echoes observations in Steven Pinker's recent The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. Russell Vandenbroucke is Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Louisville and Director of its Peace, Justice, and Conflict Transformation programme. He previously served as Artistic Director of Chicago's Northlight Theatre. His publications include Truths the Hand Can Touch: the Theatre of Athol Fugard and numerous articles on South African theatre.

The American Musical and the American Dream: from ‘Show Boat’ to Sondheim

1985 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-38
Author(s):  
David Hirst
Keyword(s):  
American Dream ◽  
Musical Form ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Theatre Arts ◽  
Critical Methodology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post War ◽  
The University ◽  
Depression Era ◽  
International Success

The musical has long been recognized as one of the few distinctively American art forms. How far do these roots result in an ‘Americanism’ of ideological content – and how, indeed, does one measure the ‘content’ of a musical, with its fusion of the spoken word, song, and choreography? David Hirst, who teaches in the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts of the University of Birmingham, here examines the problems of critical methodology posed by the musical form, and also traces the development of the musical as an expression (at times a critical expression) of the American way of life and the ‘American dream’. After demonstrating its reflection of themood of the Depression era, he analyzes its response to the social and political mood of the war and post-war years, and to the changing standards which made Hair an international success, yet which have consigned the work of Sondheim to Broadway failure – in a world where ‘failure’ and ‘success’ carry their own, pervasively American connotations.

Research Facilities in Tunisia

1972 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-36
Author(s):  
Michelle Raccagni
Keyword(s):  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Part Time ◽  
The Government ◽  
The University

Research in the social sciences in Tunisia is stronger than it is in most Arab countries and compares favorably with Lebanon and Egypt. The several reasons for this position include an increasingly favorable attitude by the government toward the benefits of research, strong leadership within the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (CERES), the long financial support of the Ministry of Education and the Ford Foundation, and the large number of higher degree holders who are motivated for research. CERES, a section of the University of Tunis, is the focus of the social science research with a full and part-time staff of more than sixty professionals. While most of the staff have been trained in France, several have taken higher degrees in North America. Because of the rapid increase in the number of foreign researchers in the past few years, it will only be a matter of time before an incident occurs and the government places conditions or restrictions on all research activities. A serious incident has so far been avoided in large part because of the close communication that most foreigners have maintained with their Tunisian colleagues.. The single most important thing that can be done to maintain the present research climate, in addition to the usual courtesies, is the distribution of both preliminary and final reports of research for comment and publication. Distribution should include the relevant ministries plus those individuals who personally aided the work. The editors of the Revue des Sciences Sociales Tunisiennes, the periodical of CERES, are interested in publishing articles in either French or English, as well as short pieces on the status of research.

scholarly journals Áhrif orðalags á svör við spurningum Stjórnlagaráðs

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-216
Author(s):  
Vaka Vésteinsdóttir ◽  
Ragnhildur Lilja Ásgeirsdóttir ◽  
Vera Óðinsdóttir ◽  
Snæfríður Birta Björgvinsdóttir ◽  
Helena Ólafsdóttir ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
University Student ◽  
Web Survey ◽  
Cognitive Interviews ◽  
Student Sample ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Consistent Manner ◽  
The University

The focus of this study was to evaluate the questions used in the advisory referendum on the proposals for a new Icelandic constitution by the Constitutional Council on October 20, 2012. Cognitive interviews (N=60) were used to evaluate if the questions are understood in a consistent manner. Two survey experiments were conducted where three different versions of the questions were used; a) the original version, b) a version estimating the effect of status quo on responses, and finally c) a version where the prefix “are you opposed” was used instead of the prefix “would you like” used in the original questions. A web survey was conducted using both a sample of university students (n=209) and a social media sample (n=528). The first hypothesis was that people would be more likely to agree with the status quo when the question did not involve change. The second hypothesis was that people would be less likely to agree with a cause by disagreeing with a negatively worded question (“are you opposed”) than agreeing with a positively worded question (“would you like”). The results indicated that a status quo effect on responses was found in two questions in the university student sample and three questions in the social media sample and an effect of using a negatively worded prefix was found in two question in the social media sample but not in the university student sample.

SHAPING A SETTLER ELITE: STUDENTS, COMPETITION AND LEADERSHIP AT SOUTH AFRICAN COLLEGE, 1829–95

2000 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
WAYNE K. DURRILL
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Cape Of Good Hope ◽  
The Social ◽  
Writing Class ◽  
University Of Cape Town ◽  
The University ◽  
Colonial Government ◽  
The Devil

Shortly after South African College, the predecessor of today's University of Cape Town, opened its doors in 1829 faculty members found that they had a problem. In one meeting of the Faculty Senate alone, four students were brought up on charges that one had been ‘fighting and noisy’, another ‘fighting – kicking open the door of the Messenger's Room’, another ‘writing on the Professor's desk with chalk’ the words ‘Ziervogel is a vagabond’ as well as ‘threatening the messenger with his fist’, and another ‘idle, insolent & insubordinate in writing class’ who, in replying to a reprimand from the writing master, said: ‘You may go to the Devil’. Several others were noted in the records as absent from class and lying about it. Moreover, the young college had only two dozen or so books, but already nine of them had been ‘mutilated by tearing out the leaves & c’. And virtually all the means for securing property from theft – ‘various locks, claps and staples’ – had been ‘broken in the College, apparently by some of the Students.’ So intractable had the students become, in fact, that the college authorities constructed a small one-room prison with no windows on campus, which they called the ‘Black Hole’, in which to confine offenders who could be identified and condemned. Students were regularly sentenced to terms of three or four hours per day without bread or water, usually in the early evening, the number of days depending on the severity of the offense.Students at South African College engaged in violence and intimidation of all sorts in the first half of the nineteenth century. They attacked professors and townspeople in Cape Town, preyed on each other, stole and destroyed property, and continually disrupted the operations of the college. These were not boys striving to become upstanding citizens, yet in the end they did for the most part, largely because in organizing campus violence some SAC students produced a reputation for leadership and a constituency that followed them. And that reputation proved useful later in securing positions in the city's merchant houses and in the colonial government. Later in the century, however, the violence subsided and was replaced with different means by which to produce a reputation for leadership, mainly structured competitions among students in a debating society, in sports and for high rankings in the examinations offered by the University of the Cape of Good Hope. What I wish to argue here is that the social relations created among students at South African College were important to forming elites in each successive generation. Moreover, it is important to know how these social relations were formed – mostly in competitions among students which centered around acts of violence, at first physical and later symbolic.

scholarly journals Diversity management in a South African university: A case study

1998 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Strydom ◽  
R. Erwee
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Diversity Management ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Case Study Approach ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Stage Of Development ◽  
Residential University ◽  
The Status ◽  
The University

To establish the perception of employees regarding diversity management at South Africa's largest residential university, the questionnaires of Gardenswartz & Rowe (1993) was adapted and a case study approach with a sample of 25 employees was used. The diversity audit measured the sample's perceptions on symptoms of diversity related problems; openness to change of the university; the status quo regarding diversity management; organisational barriers to diversity; the valuing of diversity; and the management of diversity by managers or supervisors. It was found that a high number of symptoms of diversity-related problems are perceived and that respondents believed that the university is relatively unresponsive to the need to change. The university was believed to be in a mono cultural stage of development and barriers to developing into a multicultural organisation were identified. Respondents did report a very positive attitude towards diversity but perceived that certain procedures are not supportive.<p> Opsomming <br>Die vraelyste van Gardenswartz en Rowe (1993) en 'n gevalstudiebenadering is benut om die persepsies van 'n steekproef van 25 personeellede aangaande die bestuur van diversiteit in 'n Suid Afrikaanse universiteit te ondersoek. Die diversiteitsaudit meet die steekproef se waameming van simptome van diversiteitsverwante probleme, die bereidwilligheid van die universiteit om te verander, die huidige stand van diversiteitsbestuur, organisatoriese hindemisse, die waarde wat aan diversiteitsbestuur geheg word, en die bestuur van diversiteit deur bestuurders en toesighouers. Die resultate toon dat 'n beduidende aantal simptome van diversiteitsverwante probleme gei'dentinseer word en dat die respondente meen dat die universiteit relatief min bewustheid vir die nodigheid van verandering toon. Respondente meen dat die universiteit in 'n monokulturele fase van onfrwikkeling is en hindemisse in die ontplooїng na 'n multikulturele organisasie is bespeur. Respondente toon aan dat positiewe houdings ten opsigte van diversiteit voorkom maar dat bestaande prosedures hierdie houdings nie ondersteun nie.

scholarly journals THE SOCIAL DIAGNOSTICS OF STROKE-LIKE SYMPTOMS: HEALERS, DOCTORS AND PROPHETS IN AGINCOURT, LIMPOPO PROVINCE, SOUTH AFRICA

2004 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
GILLIAN LEWANDO HUNDT ◽  
MARIA STUTTAFORD ◽  
BULELWA NGOMA
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Limpopo Province ◽  
Health Seeking ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Social ◽  
The University ◽  
Surveillance Area

This paper focuses on the clinical and social diagnostics of stroke-like symptoms in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The research questions addressed here are: what are the lay understandings of strokelike symptoms and what are the health-seeking behaviours of Tsongan Mozambican refugees and South Africans in this area? The study site is ten villages in the Agincourt sub-district of Limpopo Province which are within the health surveillance area of the Agincourt Health and Population Unit (AHPU) of the University of Witwatersrand. The population are Tsongan who speak Shangaan and comprise self-settled Mozambican refugees who fled to this area during the 1980s across the nearby border and displaced South African citizens. The latter were forcibly displaced from their villages to make way for game reserves or agricultural development and moved to this area when it was the former ‘homeland’ of Gazankulu. The team collected data using rapid ethnographic assessment and household interviews as part of the Southern Africa Stroke Prevention Initiative (SASPI). The main findings are that stroke-like symptoms are considered to be both a physical and social condition, and in consequence plural healing using clinical and social diagnostics is sought to address both these dimensions. People with stroke-like symptoms maintain their physical, mental and social well-being and deal with this affliction and misfortune by visiting doctors, healers, prophets and churches.

scholarly journals How Theatre Encourages Well-being – and Can Engage a Wider Audience

2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 374-382
Author(s):  
Russell Vandenbroucke ◽  
Suzanne Meeks
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Psychological Benefits ◽  
National Politics ◽  
University Of Louisville ◽  
The University ◽  
Artistic Director

A recent study of single-ticket buyers and subscribers at a major regional theatre – Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky – focused on measuring quantitatively the psychological benefits of engaging with theatre and gathering qualitatively observations by focus groups. Both confirmed the hypothesis that regular attendance promotes flourishing and meaningful social interaction, psychological stimulation, and positive emotions. The study also affirms that attending theatre contributes to a shared sense of community, this at a time when such community appears starkly diminished in the United States. In addition, focus groups wished that audiences better reflected the demographic diversity outside the auditorium. Evident disparities include urban vs. rural, prosperous vs. not, more education vs. less, black vs. white – reflecting those that splinter national politics. One microcosm of one theatre's audience provokes suggestions to foster a more democratic audience and plural istic culture that endeavours to cross rather than ignore the divides. Russell Vandenbroucke is Professor of Theatre at the University of Louisville and Director of its Peace, Justice & Con flict Transformation programme. He was previously Artistic Director of Chicago's Northlight Theatre. Suzanne Meeks is Professor and Chair of the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department, University of Louisville. Her research focuses on mental health in later life.

scholarly journals “. . . What Is Going On in the Lives of These People?”: Encouraging Community Engagement in Development Economics Studies

SAGE Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824401982955
Author(s):  
Carike Claassen ◽  
Derick Blaauw
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
South African ◽  
Development Economics ◽  
Informal Economy ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
North West ◽  
The Social ◽  
University Town ◽  
The University

To respond to the numerous socioeconomic challenges facing South Africa, universities must equip students to actively participate in economic development initiatives. Students from Economics and all disciplines in the Social Sciences have a pertinent role to play in this regard. This article presents an initiative to implement service learning as part of the curriculum for Development Economics students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at a South African public university. Undergraduate and postgraduate students acted as fieldworkers who carried out survey research in the local informal economy in the university town of Potchefstroom in South Africa’s North West Province. The experiences of students and lecturers in these two complimenting projects are compared and contrasted. The enthusiasm for the project was a clear theme emerging form the pilot projects. Future endeavors must employ even more resources to enable even more reflection in the learning experience. The possibility and benefits of converting the complete curriculum of Development Economics into a service learning approach also emerged from the research.

scholarly journals THEATRE MANAGEMENT INVESTIGATION OF FEMALE PROMISCUITY: PREGNANCY AND ABORTION IMPACT ON UNIVERSITY EDUCATIONAL THEATRES IN NIGERIA

2021 ◽  
pp. 023
Author(s):  
Vincent O. Diakpomrere
Keyword(s):  
Extensive Study ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Educational Theatre ◽  
Theatre Arts ◽  
Female Promiscuity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Theatre Programs ◽  
The University ◽  
Theatre Management

This study investigates promiscuity impacts, pregnancy impacts and abortion impacts of female undergraduates on management of the University of Benin educational theatre program, with implications on general theatre practice including Muson and Nollywood, in Nigeria. There are widespread speculations that female undergraduate theatre students are promiscuous and therefore highly prone to pregnancies and abortions for reasons or factors not confirmed by research. At least no such specific extensive study has been carried out in the University of Benin Theatre on this topic. Yet many female students are branded and treated merely as ‘debased females and prospective prostitutes’, and do not enjoy the goodwill, support, respect and honor their counterparts in the social, basic and environmental sciences as well as other fields of academic studies enjoy. This would be tantamount to a great disservice and injustice that need to be urgently addressed if a rigorous academic inquiry proves otherwise. Not to mention the undiscovered negative impacts the problem may have had, or currently be having on the training and practice of theatre arts in Nigeria: hence this investigation. The methodology, the subjects of study and study sample were carefully and systematically determined. The findings are mostly positive regarding the negative behavior investigated. Hence the recommendations point to measures aimed at checking and restricting these vices as well as their impact to a minimum as well as towards improving the moral, academic and managerial framework of educational theatre programs in Nigeria.

Implementing an Interfaculty Elective “Sustainable Development”

2017 ◽  
pp. 60-73
Author(s):  
Renate Hübner ◽  
Franz Rauch ◽  
Mira Dulle
Keyword(s):  
Social Institution ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Public Funds ◽  
Educational Mission ◽  
General Acceptance ◽  
Research And Teaching ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
The University

A university is a place of organized scientific rationality, but as a social institution it is also committed to future generations. Therefore, it can be argued that universities should act as “models for sustainability”. It is thus not sufficient to spend public funds efficiently in achieving their educational mission. Beyond that, the social and the environmental effects of their actions also have to be considered. Having this in mind, the status quo of sustainability in research, teaching, and administration at the Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt in Austria was examined in 2010. Results showed that although important approaches and several internationally acknowledged contributions in research and teaching do exist, at the same time a concise and focused strategy for these actions is missing. However, there was some commitment that a coherent strategy would strengthen our University. The major challenge is that a system based on individual freedom in research and teaching needs to intervene in order to create, implement and live such a strategy. The conception and implementation of an interdisciplinary elective open for all Master and PhD students seemed to be a first appropriate step to implement sustainability at the University across disciplinary and structural borders. To increase general acceptance of such an intervention and to cause impacts towards sustainability at the university as a whole an interfaculty approach was chosen. The corresponding processes and challenges are described in this chapter.

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