The Legacy of Frederick Douglass’s Words

poster abstractMore than a century after his death, Frederick Douglass remains an iconic figure widely referenced by politicians, educators, editorialists, community activists, poets, hip hop artists, comedians, and more, both domestically and abroad as a legitimizing and representative historical figure. This fact raises a number of questions— why have Douglass’s rhetorical contributions remained significant to so many persons in the 21st century? What types of individuals and organizations continue to find the legacy of Douglass’s words relevant and what is the underlying significance therein? How well have Douglass’s 19th century words and ideas been adapted to more modern forms of media and audience expectations that have arisen in the subsequent centuries since his 1895 death?—that this exploration into Douglass’s enduring legacy helps to identify. In order to address these issues, we employed techniques from two disciplines, History and Communication Studies, to identify and analyze the impact of the large body of speeches, editorials, and autobiographical writings left by the runaway Maryland slave who rose to become the most influential African American of the nineteenth century. This research was conducted through careful examination of both print and online sources from the 19th through the 20th centuries as we located and then verified the accuracy of quotations purporting to be from Douglass’s works. Finally we assessed the usage of Douglass’s words by modern commentators through the employment of current scholarly lenses such as rhetorical criticism, cultural studies, and Critical Race Theory in order to judge whether this usage was consistent with the values of Douglass’s long public career as a reformer in areas of social justice and politics. This study further demonstrates the need for continued analysis and dissemination of his thinking considering the modern-day relevancy that is still found in Douglass’s commentary and opinions

Creating an On-line Training Module

Tutor training (like corporate training) can be expensive and personnel intensive. On-line tools can help make training both efficient and more effective. Most on-line training modules cannot be applied to complex interactions-such as tutoring writing--effectively without the use of video, voiceovers, and manipulation of documents. Working with another experienced Writing Center tutor, I created a multi-faceted video training system to supplement the current training program in the Writing Center. Learn more about the process of analyzing a training system and creating an on-line/virtual version of it

Impulsivity and Attention in Obsessive Compulsive and Tic Disorders: Mismatch in Self-Report and Behavioural Data

Impulsivity is a multidimensional, cross-diagnostic behavioural construct that has been described in various psychiatric disorders including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and Tourette syndrome (TS). Different interpretations of results in the past have raised the question of heightened impulsivity as an explanatory model for self-described impulsive behaviour, especially in OCD. Our study included 16 patients with OCD, 14 patients with TS, and 28 healthy control subjects (HC). Self-assessed impulsivity was examined by the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11), and the behavioural test used was the immediate and delayed memory task (IMT/DMT). Significantly heightened self-assessed impulsivity of the patient collective compared to HC could be observed in in only one dimension: lack of attention (χ2 (2) = 24.910, p < 0.001). Post-hoc tests were performed using Bonferroni adjusted alpha levels of 0.0167 per test (0.05/3) and revealed significantly higher scores in patients with OCD (M = 19.57, SD = 2.82), z = 4.292, p < 0.001 as with TS (M = 19.38, SD = 3.62), z = 3.832, p < 0.001 compared to HC (M = 13.78, SD = 3.18). In patients with OCD, correlations between the dimension of obsessive thoughts with a lack of attention in the form of first-order factor cognitive instability could be shown (n = 14, p = 0.024, rs = 0.599) while in patients with TS, tic symptomatology correlated significantly with second-order factor attentional impulsivity (n = 12, p = 0.027, rs = 0.635). In behavioural testing, no significant group differences could be observed either in impulsive behaviour (IMT: χ2 (2) = 4.709, p = 0.824; DMT: χ2 (2) = 0.126, p = 0.939) or in sustained attention (IMT: χ2 (2) = 0.388, p = 0.095; DMT: χ2 (2) = 0.663, p = 0.718). Heightened impulsivity as an explanatory model for the observed lack of attention, especially in patients with OCD, should be questioned and interpretation biases considered in the future. The necessity of a multidimensional approach to the research of impulsivity is underscored by our results