Click, Click, Click: Cliché in the poetry of Emily Berry, Heather Phillipson and Sam Riviere

In his lecture series The Poetics of Cliché, Mark Cousins suggested that the cliché is a peculiarity of modernity. Linked not only with the production but also the reproduction of talk, a poetics of the cliché asks at what point does the stereotype solidify? And is the process reversible? We call clichéd that which is hackneyed or overfamiliar but also a turn of phrase that has attempted an elevation but in which the elevation has failed. This essay will argue that the poetry of Emily Berry, Heather Phillipson and Sam Riviere can be best characterised as poetry of the cliché. That it is poetry that works precisely at the point of tension between the worn out and the elevated image or phrase, between the click that announces the dislocation of a voice, the click allows us to continue, and the cliché that gets stuck where it stands. The vernacular was one of the recurring themes in Cousins' lecture series. Looking at it through the lens of the cliche permits a new and somewhat sceptical stance. The poetry of Berry, Phillipson and Riviere can also be seen to approaching common experience and language with a similar sidelong gaze

The Woman Who Helps

This paper follows the work of the woman-who-helps, a figure who must be part of many French rural histories, but who I will talk about in the context of Yvonne Verdier’s 1970 anthropological study of the town of Minot, in Burgundy. The woman-who-helps is talked about as being the person who ‘does the births’. Her work is an expression of bodily tending to bodily needs, and her place, if it can be called that, is all over town. Her history, told to Verdier and her co-researchers, is an oral history, it is made of memories of memories, passed along stories and anecdote. In the context of Silvia Federici’s ‘house of the future’, a house at the centre of collective life, the woman who helps is a radical and exemplary figure

Strayed homes: a reading of everyday space

This thesis puts forward the category of ‘strayed home.’ Might it be possible to locate public spaces which are temporarily transformed by the homely things that take place in them? Places which permit or invite intimate ways of behaving? Through an interrogation of a series of spaces in which people do things in public that might be thought of as private the thesis asks questions about habitual experience of space, about attachments to practices and places. Each chapter presents a close reading of a strayed home that takes into account its cultural representations (in film, literature and advertisements) alongside a reading of the space as the author finds it today. The collision of these imaginary and immediate spaces is explored as inseparable from the way space is experienced. As such the thesis follows the logic and the poetry of everyday speech and imagery and the way realities of expression shape reality. Taking the Jewish tradition of eruv as its starting point the thesis moves from the launderette, to the sleeper-train, the fire escape, the greasy spoon and then to the postcard. Each space (or object) is explored separately but themes that emerge highlight the simultaneous pleasure and trauma involved in the experience of a strayed home. These spaces are at once too small and pleasurably confined, sites of exposure but also encounter, of contagion but also mixing, of solitude and of society. These are spaces which trouble our natural sensitivity to time and space but which permit a certain and rare figuring of the one through the other. The handling of time in these spaces or the way in which they disrupt the handling of time is suggestive for conceptions of home, domesticity and privacy. This investigation suggests that wasted time, as well as the other bodily wastes of dirt, sound and smell, might be integral to what it is that makes a space (temporarily) a home

Space is the Place: Space, Place and Transformation in the work of James Attlee

While place and movement are central to much of my published work, this critical appraisal concentrates on two non-fiction travel books: Isolarion: A Different Oxford Journey (Attlee, 2007/2020) and Station to Station (Attlee, 2015), as well as one locative digital fiction, The Cartographer’s Confession (Attlee, 2017). The appraisal is structured around key statements by the geographer Fi-Fu Tuan, particularly from his book Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience (1981) and his Farewell Lecture, delivered in 2014. I will be examining how undifferentiated space can be transformed into meaningful location in life and on the page, as well as in the emerging form of locative digital fiction; how place itself can become a prison to which space offers an escape; and how the new dimension offered by digital technology can, when harnessed for literary ends, expand rather than detract from our engagement with the world around us. Investigation of my own work will be contextualised through reference to authors, philosophers and spatial theorists ranging from the 17th to the 21st centuries, including Robert Burton, Roland Barthes, Horatio Clare, Guy Debord, Richard Mabey, Herman Melville, Iain Sinclair and James Wood, among others

An exploration of coaching practices in leading South African companies

Thesis (M.M. (Business Executive Coaching))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, Graduate School of Business Administration, 2013.This research uncovered the coaching practices of the leading South African companies. The objective of the study was to explore whether these companies use coaching in their organisations and to provide other South African organisations and coaches with an understanding of how the most successful South African companies manage the coaching process and whether they evaluate the outcomes of the coaching process. This study used an explanatory sequential mixed methods design. The quantitative phase consisted of an online questionnaire completed by 49 of the top 100 companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The qualitative phase involved semi-structured interviews with 11 of the top 100 JSE listed companies. Coaching programmes in the leading companies of South Africa have been in place for one to three years and are predominantly used for leadership development and performance management. The main recipients of coaching in these companies are executives, senior managers and up-and-coming talent. Leading South African companies integrate coaching with the organisation’s talent management strategy or the organisation’s business strategy. The leading South African companies select external coaches based on coaching experience, business experience, recommendations and qualifications and contract them to work with executive and senior management levels. They also use internal coaches but mostly to coach up-and-coming talent and graduates. They do not enforce the supervision of coaches and engaging in supervision is mostly decided by the coaches themselves. Measuring of coaching outcomes is important to the leading companies of South Africa and therefore most of these companies measure its impact. This research provides key insights into the coaching practices of the leading South African companies. The research also provides guidance to coaches and organisations in South Africa on how coaching can be used to develop individuals and organisations

Strayed homes: a reading of everyday space

This thesis puts forward the category of ‘strayed home.’ Might it be possible to locate public spaces which are temporarily transformed by the homely things that take place in them? Places which permit or invite intimate ways of behaving? Through an interrogation of a series of spaces in which people do things in public that might be thought of as private the thesis asks questions about habitual experience of space, about attachments to practices and places. Each chapter presents a close reading of a strayed home that takes into account its cultural representations (in film, literature and advertisements) alongside a reading of the space as the author finds it today. The collision of these imaginary and immediate spaces is explored as inseparable from the way space is experienced. As such the thesis follows the logic and the poetry of everyday speech and imagery and the way realities of expression shape reality. Taking the Jewish tradition of eruv as its starting point the thesis moves from the launderette, to the sleeper-train, the fire escape, the greasy spoon and then to the postcard. Each space (or object) is explored separately but themes that emerge highlight the simultaneous pleasure and trauma involved in the experience of a strayed home. These spaces are at once too small and pleasurably confined, sites of exposure but also encounter, of contagion but also mixing, of solitude and of society. These are spaces which trouble our natural sensitivity to time and space but which permit a certain and rare figuring of the one through the other. The handling of time in these spaces or the way in which they disrupt the handling of time is suggestive for conceptions of home, domesticity and privacy. This investigation suggests that wasted time, as well as the other bodily wastes of dirt, sound and smell, might be integral to what it is that makes a space (temporarily) a home

Assessment of Body Composition, Endurance and Nutrient Intakes among Females Team Players in Sports Club

Aim: The aim of the study was to assess the body composition, endurance level and usual nutrient intakes in female players representing a Sports Club in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Materials and Methods: Twenty-six adult female players aged between 15-24 years were selected from three different teams (basketball=12, tennis=4, volleyball=10) using convenience sampling technique. All participants were assessed for body composition through bioelectrical impedance method, endurance level using step test and nutrient intakes using 24-hour recall method. Significant differences (P < 0.05) were determined among the three teams in relation to body composition, endurance levels and nutrient intakes. Results: Body composition of players in three sports was significantly different in terms of body mass index, body fat mass, and percentage body fat and fitness scores. Tennis players had significantly higher body fat mass (28.5 ± 8.2 kg) and percent body fat (41 ± 7%) in contrast to that in basketball players (body fat mass: 19.2 ± 10.5 kg; percent body fat: 30.6 + 7.9%) and tennis players (body fat mass: 13 ± 4.2 kg; percent body fat: 26.5 ± 6.5%), respectively. On the other hand, volleyball players had significantly higher fitness score (72.2 ± 3.5) as compared to basketball players (71 ± 6.7), and tennis players (63 ± 8.2). On an average, volleyball players scored “very good” endurance level in contrast to “good” scores in basketball and tennis team players. However, this difference was not statistically significant. The average intakes of all nutrients including energy, protein, vitamins and minerals were below the recommended intakes among players of all sports teams.   Conclusions: Body composition and endurance level differ with the type of sports. Volleyball team players had the lowest BMI, body fat mass as well as percent body fat and highest fitness score and endurance level. However, the overall nutrient intakes of the female players representing the three teams were less than the recommended allowances for highly active women and did not differ with the type of sports played

Winston Churchill's "crazy broadcast": party, nation, and the 1945 Gestapo speech

Copyright © 2010 by The North American Conference on British Studies. Published version reproduced with permission of the publisher.Article doesn't contain an abstract

A Global Intercultural Project Experience (Gipe): Reflections on combining online and onsite project-based learning across four continents

The concept of “Internationalisation at Home“ has gained momentum with the increasing digitalization of education and limitations on mobility. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is an innovative, cost-effective instructional method that promotes intercul-tural learning through online collaboration between faculty and students from different countries or locations. The benefits of using COIL courses have been widely recognized, with learners developing intercultural competencies, digital skills, international education experi-ence, and global awareness. However, multicultural communication in project environments can be complex and demand awareness of cultural variations . The creation and development of effective cross-cultural collectivism, trust, communication, and empathy in leadership is an important ingredient for remote project collaborations success. This is an area that has been least explored in re-search on communication in virtual teams. The GIPE projects are mainly carried out as so-called Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) events. However, to gain a “real world“ experience abroad in an intercultural team, students from all partner universities can participate in the Spring School being held for two weeks in Germany and the Germany students present and hand-over the results in the country of the partner university. The main objective of this research was to examine the experiences of students participating in the GIPE project and to evaluate the effectiveness of the project in enhancing intercultural competencies and fostering collaboration among stu-dents from different continents. This paper will also explore the implications of the GIPE project for Education 2.0 considering the COVID-19 pandemic and the future of education delivery and administration transformation