When Nancy was in her late twenties, she began having blinding headaches, tunnel vision, and dizziness, which led to the discovery of an abnormality on her brain stem. Complications during surgery caused serious brain damage, resulting in partial paralysis of the left side of her body and memory and cognitive problems. Although she was constantly evaluated by her doctors, Nancy's own questions and her distress got little attention in the hospital. Later, despite excellent job performance post-injury, her physical impairments were regarded as an embarrassment to the "perfect" and "beautiful" corporate image of her employer. Many conversations about brain injury are deficit-focused: those with disabilities are typically spoken about by others, as being a problem about which something must be done. In Living with Brain Injury, J. Eric Stewart takes a new approach, offering narratives which highlight those with brain injury as agents of recovery and change in their own lives. Stewart draws on in-depth interviews with ten women with acquired brain injuries to offer an evocative, multi-voiced account of the women's strategies for resisting marginalization and of their process of making sense of new relationships to self, to family and friends, to work, and to community. Bridging psychology, disability studies, and medical sociology, Living with Brain Injury showcases how--and on what terms--the women come to re-author identity, community, and meaning post-injury. In the Qualitative Studies in Psychology series J. Eric Stewart is a Clinical-Community Psychologist and Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell.

"Reagan's Mandate-Anecdotes from Inside Washington's Iron Triangle," describes how Washington's Iron Triangle--the combination of Congress, lobbies, and Administration --changed our national government thirty years ago. The book recounts Dr. McLennan's journey, in the 1970s and 1980s, from university professor to minority staff member on the House Budget Committee., to the office of a young Senator, to the Treasury Department to work on tax reform, and to the Commerce Department where as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Trade Information and Analysis she represented the U.S. to international organizations and supervised the preparation of numerous government publications. The memoir is unique because Dr. McLennan was the only Congressional staff member to work both on Reagan's first budget in the House and his first tax bill in the Senate. These bills passed Congress with strong bipartisan support. In 1984, as the only Congressional staffer to move to the Treasury Department, she participated in the preparation of the study that proposed tax reform. Based on this study, Congress in 1986 reformed the income tax with bipartisan support. All of these events occurred at a time when very few women held senior positions in the U. S. government When Dr. McLennan entered the job market many women didn't work, and most didn't pursue higher education. The only female in many college classes, she became one of very few women in 1965 who earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin. Only small numbers of women then worked as business executives, professors, lawyers, doctors, or senior government officials. "Reagan's Mandate" tells about women's progress in the U.S. job market over the last part of the twentieth century. "Reagan's Mandate" shows how our federal government made decisions when the President set the agenda, Congress passed the laws, and elected political majorities were small and weak. The memoir addresses election year issues of concern to people who care about the day-to-day operations and policy change in our government: budget balancing, taxes, and international trade.

This book is an essential addition to the study of comparative black literature of the Americas; it will also fill the gap that exists on theoretical studies exploring black women's writing from the Spanish Caribbean. This book examines literary representations of the historic roots of black women's resistance in the United States and Cuba by studying the following texts by both African American and Afro-Cuban women from four different literary genres (autobiographical slave narrative, contemporary novel on slavery, testimonial narrative, and poetry): Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) by the African American former slave Harriet Jacobs, Dessa Rose (1986) by the African American writer Sherley Ann Williams, Reyita, sencillamente: testimonio de una negra cubana nonagenarian Simply Reyita. Testimonial Narrative of a Nonagenarian Black Cuban Woman] (1996), written/transcribed by the Afro-Cuban historian Daisy Rubiera Castillo from her interviews with her mother Maria de los Reyes Castillo Bueno, "Reyita," and a selection of poems from the contemporary Afro-Cuban poets Nancy Morejon and Georgina Herrera. The study argues that the writers participate in black women's self-inscription in the historical process by positioning themselves as subjects of their history and seizing discursive control of their (hi)stories. Although the texts form part of separate discourses, the book explores the commonalities of the rhetorical devices and narrative strategies employed by the authors as they disassemble racist and sexist stereotypes, (re)constructing black female subjectivity through an image of active resistance against oppression, one that authorizes unconventional definitions of womanhood and motherhood. The book shows that in the womens' revisions of national history, their writings also demonstrate the pervasive role of racial and gender categories in the creation of a discourse of national identity, while promoting a historiography constructed within flexible borders that need to be negotiated constantly. The study's engagement in crosscultural exploration constitutes a step further in opening connections with a comparative literary study that is theoretically engaging, in order to include Afro-Cuban women writers and Afro-Caribbean scholars into scholarly discussions in which African American women have already managed to participate with a series of critical texts. The book explores connections between methods and perspectives derived from Western theories and from Caribbean and Black studies, while recognizing the black women authors studied as critics and scholars. In this sense, the book includes some of the writers' own commentaries about their work, taken from interviews (many of them conducted by the author Paula Sanmartin herself), as well as critical essays and letters. Black Women as Custodians of History adds a new dimension to the body of existing criticism by challenging the ways assumptions have shaped how literature is read by black women writers. Paula Sanmartin's study is a vivid demonstration of the strengths of embarking on multidisciplinary study. This book will be useful to several disciplines and areas of study, such as African diaspora studies, African American studies, (Afro) Latin American and (Afro) Caribbean studies, women's studies, genre studies, and slavery studies.

By exploring the concept of the "tender gaze" in German film, theater, and literature, this volume's contributors illustrate how perspective-taking in works of art fosters empathy and prosocial behaviors. The gaze, understood as a way of looking at others that involves contemplation and the operation of power, has an extensive history of iterations such as the male gaze (Mulvey), the oppositional gaze (hooks), and the postcolonial gaze (Said). This essay collection develops a supplemental theory of what Muriel Cormican has coined the "tender gaze" and traces its occurrence in German film, theater, and literature. More than qualifying the primarily voyeuristic, narcissistic, and sexist impetus of the male gaze, the tender gaze also allows for a differentiated understanding of the role identification plays in reception, and it highlights various means of eliciting a sociopolitical critique in works of art. Emphasizing the humanizing potential of the tender gaze, the contributors argue that far from simply exciting emotional contagion, affect in art promotes an altruistic, rational, and fundamentally ethical relationship to the other. The tender gaze elucidates how perspective-taking operates in art to foster empathy and prosocial behaviors. Though the contributors identify instances of the tender gaze in artistic production since the early nineteenth century, they focus on its pervasiveness in contemporary works, corresponding to twenty-first-century concerns with implicit bias and racism.

Charting important new territory within medieval gender studies, Megan Moore explores the vital role that women played in transmitting knowledge and empire within Mediterranean cross-cultural marriages. Whereas cross-cultural exchange has typically been understood through the lens of male-centered translation work, this study, which is grounded in the relations between the west and Byzantium, examines cross-cultural marriage as a medium of literary and cultural exchange, one in which women's work was equally important as men's. Moore's readings of Old French and Medieval Greek texts reveal the extent to which women challenged the cultures into which they married and shaped their new courtly environments. Through the lens of medieval gender and postcolonial theory, Exchanges in Exoticism demonstrates how the process of cultural exchange - and empire building - extends well beyond our traditional assumptions about gender roles in the medieval Mediterranean.

The Devil Wants YOU Busy, Bound and Burnt Out challenges us to dig deep to see if we are burying our emotional pain or are we working for other reasons. God spoke one time and said "You don't like it when your children assume anything and I don't like it when my children assume either." Building the temple was a good thing that David wanted to do, but the fact remained, God said "NO " Now if God had no problem saying "NO" and we are made in the image and likeness of God, why can't we say it?

God wants us to have life and more abundantly but first we must learn when to say no regardless of our internal drive to keep busy. Yes, the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy our health, relationships and even our lives; but Jesus came to give us life and more abundantly. However, in order for us to receive HIS life, we must first discover why we go beyond the call of duty and do things God or even we intended to do. As you read, The Devil Wants YOU Busy, Bound and Burnt Out, I want you to think of these words:

Why do you do the things you do Is a question that I'm asking you Do you do it to please the Master Or is your hand reaching out For the praise of men Time and Again If you are then your motives are wrong So listen very carefully To this little song Who do you love? The creature or Creator Who do you love The Giver or the gift Which do you love? The praise of men or Jesus 3 out of 6 Take your pick In Whom and which do you love Barbara A. Desormo

Carefree and beautiful, Peggy Yeats fell in love with an American serviceman stationed in Australia. After a hasty marriage in Queensland, Peggy's beau Hart was shipped off to war. During his absence, she gave birth to Diana Marie, the author who wrote this biography of her mother's life. When the war ended in 1945, the Australian wives of American servicemen received free passage to the United States to be reunited with their husbands whom they hadn't seen in years. Peggy, Diana, and hundreds of other Australian brides boarded the S.S. Lurline for the long voyage to the states. Peggy and Hart were reunited in San Francisco and the new family boarded a train to Wichita, Kansas, where they would live with Hart's parents until they could earn a living. Peggy found life in the United States difficult and longed to return to Australia. Weaving historical detail into the narrative, this poignant biography provides a vivid account of the life of one of more than 12,000 Australian war brides and of her journey to return her homeland. Dunny Mann's Picnic captures the feelings and thoughts of one woman's struggles and triumphs.

In the past century, South Asia underwent fundamental cultural, social, and political changes as many countries progressed from colonial dominations through nationalist movements to independence. These transformations have been intricately bound up with the spatiality of social life in the region, drawing further attention to the significance of social spaces within transformative politics and identity formations. Gender, Place, and Identity of South Asian Women studies contemporary literature of South Asian women with a focus on gender, place, and identity. It contributes to the debate on gender identity and equality, spatial and social justice, women empowerment, marginalization, and anti-discrimination measures. Covering topics such as partition memory narrative, spatial mobility, and diasporic women's lives, this book is an essential resource for students and educators of higher education, researchers, activists, government officials, business leaders, academicians, feminist organizations, sociologists, and researchers.

Naida Drew Anderson's journey spans nine decades, beginning in the early 1920s. Her story begins on her aunt and uncle's farm near Belleville, Ontario. Her childhood was clouded by the deaths of her sisters, as well as her mother's painful struggle with mental illness. Through it all, Naida stood strong, surviving these hardships to come of age at the beginning of World War II. Living near Canada's largest air force base provided her the opportunity to meet young pilots from all over the world. One handsome American flying ace named Johnny Anderson captured her heart and made her his wife. What followed was a story of love lost and love gained and of Naida's struggle to find a place in an alien world not of her choosing. All around her, society's perceptions of women and their roles were ever changing, redefining what women could achieve in the world. Open to possibilities, Naida nurtured romantic notions of life and eventually came to grips with the reality of human existence. People would come and go from her life, each contributing to her experience, her wisdom, her understanding; each helping her to answer the question that defined her journey: Who am I? Daughter, wife, lover, mother, cancer survivor-Naida has worn many titles. Now, comfortable in her retirement, she looks back at the path. Ultimately, it has been a lesson in resilience, living with the consequences of one's choices, and the value of remaining true to oneself.