Californian Flânerie in Karolina Waclawiak’s How to Get into the Twin Palms

Unlike most of the immigration novels created by contemporary Polish American female writers, How to Get into the Twin Palms written by Karolina Waclawiak, does not focus on the hardships of assimilation into American culture but depicts experiments with ethnic cross-dressing. Waclawiak, a representative of the so-called one-and-a half generation of Polish immigrants from the 1980s Solidarity wave, reinvents the immigration story as her protagonist, Zosia, a Polish American resident of Los Angeles, yearns to become Russian in order to be granted entrance to the mysterious and appealing Russian nightclub. The protagonist’s transformation into Anya goes hand in hand with her exploration of the City of Angels, thepostmodern megalopolis with neon lights and pavements reaching the horizon. Thus, Zosia/Anya becomes a Californian flâneuse, the urban scrutinizer and strolling observer of the what is known as the most photographed but least photogenic city in the United States. In this context, the main aim of this presentation will be to explore Californian flânerie in Waclawiak’s novel: while walking down the city streets the narrator flâneuse reflects on her home (Polish) culture, underscores her status as an immigrant outsider, and delves into the questions of alienation as well as defamiliarization. Hence, one may assume that flânerie itself contributes to the transformation of Waclawiak’s protagonist.

Iaşi Art Residency International Artist Residency Program. American Artist-In-Residence John Dillard

Iași Art Residency is an artistic residency program that takes place in Iasi and involves the monthly invitation of an international visual artist, in order to materialize a specific art project related to the experience lived in the cultural space of Iasi. The program aims to connect the students of the Faculty of Visual Arts and Design within “George Enescu” National University of Arts in Iași with the invited artists, in order to exchange artistic experiences. This article will briefly present the activity of the American resident artist John Dillard whuch took place here, in Iasi, in January and February 2019.

Minerva Diaz de Sá Barreto e o Atendimento às Pessoas com Deficiência em Barbalha-CE

O estuda trata do atendimento às pessoas em situação de vulnerabilidade da cidade de Barbalha-CE, mais especificamente das crianças com deficiência intermediado por uma americana residente no Brasil. Objetiva-se biografar Minerva Diaz de Sá Barreto, fundadora da Associação Pestalozzi, com ênfase no seu envolvimento com as práticas caritativas e de assistência social que fomentaram atendimento às pessoas com deficiência da cidade de Barbalha-CE (1964-2010). Utilizou-se a metodologia da história oral, com a realização entrevistas livres e individuais com oito mulheres que conviveram com a biografada na referida instituição. As narrativas oralizadas foram gravadas, transcritas, textualizadas e validadas, consolidando-se em fontes orais documentadas. Reconstituiu-se a vida de Minerva Barreto desvelando as particularidades da trajetória de uma americana que foi morar no interior do Ceará, ao casar-se com um cidadão da região do Cariri, após lograr de formação educacional diferenciada. Averiguou-se que, em Barbalha, Minerva Barreto se empenhou em assistir às pessoas empobrecidas por meio de práticas caritativas e assistenciais, desde o desenvolvimento de projetos para a garantia da sobrevivência a promoção da inclusão às crianças com deficiência com a criação de instituições para atende-las, sendo a fundação da Associação Pestalozzi um dos seus maiores feitos. Conclui-se que o seu reconhecimento social e sua atuação junto às crianças com deficiência foi possível graças ao capital cultural adquirido fora do Brasil, a sua sensibilização pessoal e a condição de esposa do prefeito da cidade. Palavras-chave: Biografia. Minerva Diaz. Associação Pestalozzi. Assistência social. Abstract The study deals with the care of people in situations of vulnerability in the city of Barbalha-CE, more specifically of children with disabilities mediated by an American resident in Brazil. The aim is to biograph Minerva Diaz de Sá Barreto, founder of the Pestalozzi Association, with an emphasis on her involvement with charitable and social assistance practices that fostered care for people with disabilities in the city of Barbalha-CE (1964-2010). The oral history methodology was used, with free and individual interviews with 08 women who lived with the biography in that institution. The oralized narratives were recorded, transcribed, textualized and validated, consolidated in documented oral sources. Minerva Barreto's life was reconstructed, revealing the particularities of the trajectory of an American woman who went to live in the interior of Ceará, when she married a citizen of the Cariri region, after achieving a differentiated educational background. It was found that, in Barbalha, Minerva Barreto endeavored to assist impoverished people through charitable and assistance practices, from the development of projects to guarantee survival to the promotion of inclusion for children with disabilities with the creation of institutions to assist them, the foundation of the Pestalozzi Association being one of its greatest achievements. We conclude that her social recognition and her work with children with disabilities was made possible by the cultural capital acquired outside Brazil, her personal awareness and the condition of wife of the mayor of the city. Keywords: Biography. Minerva Diaz. Pestalozzi Association. Social assistance.

RACIAL BIAS IN STAFF OPTIMISM ABOUT ADL IMPROVEMENT AMONG NURSING HOME RESIDENTS

Research on bias in health care has shown disparity in provision of care to and health outcomes of African Americans. Patient optimism was associated with improved physical and psychosocial outcomes, and nurse optimism was correlated with patient perceptions of care. We estimated effects of race using logistic regression, controlling for ADLs, cognitive impairment, and gender on both staff optimism and resident optimism about capacity for improvement in ADLs in a probability sample (n=2604) of nursing home residents who were evaluated with the resident assessment instrument (RAI). We found no difference between African American and White residents’ optimism about their own capacity for improvement. Staff findings were quite different. Staff were most optimistic about the potential of residents who needed ADL assistance OR=1.82; 95% CI [1.42-2.32] over those who were ADL dependent or those who only needed oversight. Most importantly, it was in the oversight category of ADL impairment where the greatest indication of racial prejudice occurred. Staff were much less likely to be optimistic about African American residents (16%) compared to White residents (30%). With all control variables entered, staff were still less willing to be optimistic about African American resident improvement (AOR=0.65; 95% CI [0.44-0.96]. The implications of these findings are troubling. It is unlikely that staff would expend energy on improving the functioning of the African American residents whom they believe cannot improve. Further research is needed on the extent to which prejudice in nursing homes is accompanied by discrimination and how the bias can be overcome.

African Americans

This chapter discusses the dilemma of African Americans: whether to support a war to make America safe for democracy, even though they were often denied civil rights and democratic freedoms such as the right to vote. Louisville African American resident and newspaperman Roscoe Conklin Simmons supported the US entry into the war and tried to rally Kentucky blacks to the war effort. Black newspaper publisher Phil Brown of Hopkinsville was also active in this endeavor. He initially assisted federal food administrator Fred Sackett in food conservation efforts and then turned his attention to garnering and organizing black support for other war-support activities. This included African Americans who joined the military, many of whom trained at Camp Taylor. The chapter includes the experiences of Austin Kinnaird, a white officer from Louisville who commanded black troops, and Charles Lewis, a black soldier still in uniform when he was lynched in Fulton County a month after the armistice.

Wendy Jones Nakanishi : an American resident in Japan, her life and work through the English language and literary creativity

Wendy Jones Nakanishi is a professor of English Language and Comparative Cultures at a small private college located in the south of Japan: Shikoku Gakuin University in Kagawa prefecture. It is a life far removed from her roots. She grew up in a tiny town in the northwestern corner of Indiana and spent her childhood holidays at her grandparentsʼ farm in the central part of the state. She received graduate degrees in Indiana, in England and in Scotland and she also spent a year in France and half a year in Holland. Nakanishi has published widely in America, Japan and Europe. Her academic research ranges from eighteenth-century English literature to the analysis of contemporary Japanese and British authors to sociological topics related to Japan. She was an Associate Member of the Ruskin Programme, based at LancasterUniversity in England, and currently belongs to the Iris Murdoch Society of Japan. She has published a considerable body of academic work - critical monographs, articles and book reviews - and, in recent years, has embarked on writing short stories and Žcreative non-fictionʼ pieces based on her experience of living in Japan for the past twenty-seven years as an American 'ex-patʼ, as a university professor, and as the wife of a Japanese farmer and the mother of three sons. Her stories have been published in various literary magazines in Japan and abroad and reflect her Žlife storyʼ asa foreigner residing in that country. In this article, I will focus on her 'creative non-fictionʼ stories.