This book is the first comprehensive account of 'body language' as 'paralanguage' informed by Systemic Functional Semiotics (SFS). It brings together the collaborative work of internationally renowned academics and emerging scholars to offer a fresh linguistic perspective on gesture, body orientation, body movement, facial expression and voice quality resources that support all spoken language. The authors create a framework for distinguishing non-semiotic behaviour from paralanguage, and provide a comprehensive modelling of paralanguage in each of the three metafunctions of meaning (ideational, interpersonal and textual). Illustrations of the application of this new model for multimodal discourse analysis draw on a range of contexts, from social media vlogs, to animated children's narratives, to face-to-face teaching. Modelling Paralanguage Using Systemic Functional Semiotics offers an innovative way for dealing with culture-specific and context specific paralanguage.

Teacher attrition is endemic in education, creating teacher quantity and quality gaps across schools that are often stratified by region and racialized nuance (Cowan et al., 2016; Scafidi et al., 2017). This reality is starkly reflected in South Carolina. Not too long ago, on May 1, 2019, a sea of approximately 10,000 people, dressed in red, convened at the state capital in downtown Columbia, SC (Bowers, 2019b). This statewide teacher walkout was assembled to call for the improvement of teachers' working conditions and the learning conditions of their students. The gathering was the largest display of teacher activism in the history of South Carolina and reflected a trend in a larger wave of teacher walkouts that have rippled across the nation over the last five years. The crowd comprised teachers from across South Carolina, who walked out of their classrooms for the gathering, as well as numerous students, parents, university faculty, and other community members that rallied with teachers in solidarity. Undergirding this walkout and others that took hold across the country is a perennial and pervasive pattern of unfavorable teacher working conditions that have contributed to what some are calling a teacher shortage "crisis" (Chuck, 2019). We have focused our work specifically on the illustrative case of South Carolina, given the extreme teacher staffing challenges the state is facing. Across numerous metrics, the South Carolina teacher shortage has reached critical levels, influenced by teacher recruitment and retention challenges. For instance, the number of teacher education program completers has declined annually, dropping from 2,060 in 2014-15 to 1,642 in the 2018-19 school year. Meanwhile, the number of teachers leaving the teaching field has increased from 4,108.1 to 5,341.3 across that same period (CERRA, 2019). These trends are likely to continue as COVID-19 has put additional pressure on the already fragile teacher labor market. Some of the hardest-to-staff districts are often located in communities with the highest diversity and poverty. To prosper and progress, reformers and public stakeholders must have a vested interest in maintaining full classrooms and strengthening the teaching workforce. An important element of progress towards tackling these longstanding challenges is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the problem. While teacher shortages are occurring nationwide (Garcia & Weiss, 2019), how they manifest regionally is directly influenced by its localized historical context and the evolution of the teaching profession's reputation within a state. Thus, the impetus of this book is to use South Carolina as an illustrative example to discuss the context and evolution that has shaped the status of the teaching profession that has led to a boiling point of mass teacher shortages and the rise of historic teacher walkouts.

This volume provides an insightful overview of renewable and alternative energy technologies and policies in the United States and around the world. Are renewable and alternative energy solutions needed to combat many of the negative effects of fossil fuel (including global warming)? Can such solutions be "clean," and still economically viable? For readers wanting clear, objective answers to questions like these, this fascinating, highly informative volume is the ideal source. Renewable and Alternative Energy Resources: A Reference Handbook provides an authoritative, unbiased overview of existing and potential renewable and alternative energy technologies, covering the benefits and drawbacks associated with each. It then looks at a number of specific questions and controversies on this issue, examining the social, political, and economic aspects of renewable and alternative energy use in the United States and other countries—detailing different approaches and activities of international organizations, national governments, and private sector initiatives.

In A Non-Philosophical Theory of Nature Anthony Paul Smith asserts that the old theological and philosophical ideas about the unnatural are no longer tenable. Parts of nature seem to be at war with one another - the human against the rest of the biosphere - and this is because our very understanding of the idea of nature that comes to us from philosophy and theology has perpetuated that war. Smith argues that the very idea of nature must be rethought as ecological, and towards that purpose uses the methodology of Francois Laruelle's non-philosophy to bring together the fields of philosophy, theology, and scientific ecology and treat them as ecological material. Out of this ecology of thought, a new theory of nature emerges for an ecological age.

The relationship between the presidency and the press has transformed-seemingly overnight-from one where reports and columns were filed, edited, and deliberated for hours before publication into a brave new world where texts, tweets, and sound bites race from composition to release within a matter of seconds. This change, which has ultimately made political journalism both more open and more difficult, brings about many questions, but perhaps the two most important are these: Are the hard questions still being asked? Are they still being answered? In Columns to Characters, Stephanie A. Martin and top scholars and journalists offer a fresh perspective on how the evolution of technology affects the way presidents interact with the public. From Bill Clinton's saxophone playing on the Arsenio Hall Show to Barack Obama's skillful use of YouTube, Twitter, and Reddit as the first "social media president," political communication appears to reflect the increasing fragmentation of the American public. The accessible essays here explore these implications in a variety of real-world circumstances: the "narcotizing" numbness of information overload and voter apathy; the concerns over privacy, security, and civil liberties; new methods of running political campaigns and mobilizing support for programs; and a future "post-rhetorical presidency" in which the press is all but irrelevant. Each section of the book concludes with a "reality check," a short reflection by a working journalist (or, in one case, a former White House insider) on the presidential beat.

In 1861, Jimmy Carl Gray and Lew McManus travel west to escape the horrors of the American Civil War and to seek silver, wealth, and peace. Their plans are changed, however, when the Texas Brigade invades the New Mexico Territory. The ambitious miners are forced to join the Confederate Army, unable to avoid the war they left behind.

Although mired in violence, Jimmy and Lew make the acquaintance of several intriguing characters. They meet a Mescalero Apache healer named Rodrigo Red Water, an unforgettable Colorado gold miner named Dirt Bradshaw, and even Wild Bill Hickock before he became a legend.

The Southwest is a wild place, full of diverse people, who face battles and other struggles as their various stories unfold. In this wild and colorful journey through their lives, these characters discover love, fear, greed, and the thirst for revenge as they struggle to live through a war that tore a country apart.

Sixteen-year-old twins, Frank, Jr. and Gerry wanted to help their mother make ends meet after their father became estranged from their Boston family. The year was 1942; America was at war in Europe and the South Pacific. The twins saw the chance to earn military pay to send back home to Mom. There was one problem. The minimum age for enlistment in the United States military was 17. Together they hatched a plan to enlist. Gerald is accepted into the US Navy. Frank finds a way into the US Coast Guard. These are Frank's stories, sometimes funny, of the brave young men and women he served with until President Harry Truman announced the end of World War II on September 2, 1945.

The Great Coharie River, named for an Indian tribe, became a place of retreat and solitude for author James A. Smith. This was where he felt at ease and could become one with nature. It was the place where he was accepted without criticism. And it was his safe place, away from beatings he had come to expect.

The Great Coharie: Stories of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is Smith's personal account of the severe abuse he experienced as a child. Raised in poverty by a bootlegger, Smith endured physical and emotional child abuse as well as impossible work demands. This is the story of how he coped with the situation and how he continues to cope even today with deep and traumatic scars.

This personal history also seeks to offer hope. Smith makes vulnerable youth aware of the brutality he suffered while simultaneously acknowledging ways to possibly avoid uninvited harshness. He helps people realize they do not have to accept the label of "victim" and that they do not have to be defined by their childhoods. There is help available for those in need. Seek this help without fear of retaliation, and you, too, can be a survivor.

This work treats presidential leadership as persuasive communication. The major theories of presidential leadership found in the literature establish the central role of persuasion, and introduce the interpretive systems approach to political communication as a theoretical framework for the study of presidential leadership as persuasion. Case studies examine recent presidents' use of public persuasion to perform their leadership functions. Particular attention is devoted to coalitional constraints on presidential pardoning rhetoric, presidential leadership through the politics of division, the political significance of conflicting political narratives, the sermonic nature of much 20th-century presidential discourse, the difficulties inherent in persuading the public to make sacrifices, and the dangers of relying too heavily on public rhetoric. The concluding chapter considers the rhetoric that contributed to the demise of the Bush presidency, the election of Bill Clinton, and the challenges facing the Clinton presidency.

Since the landmark 1965 Supreme Court ruling "Griswold" v. "Connecticut" established a Constitutional right to privacy, the regulation of sexuality has become an extremely volatile area of American politics. From reproductive rights to sex education, pornography to gay marriage, the balance between community norms and individual autonomy has been fiercely contested. These and related subjects are often viewed in isolation, as though they were entirely separate issues. Yet as the documentary record makes clear, they are in fact closely interrelated, and their impact is cumulative. By addressing a broad array of topics at the intersection of sexuality and politics, this volume highlights the connections and makes an important contribution to a debate that touches every American.

Taking as a starting point the 1965 "Griswold" decision--sometimes said to have launched the sexual revolution--the approximately 100 primary source documents assembled here either mark watersheds in themselves or are representative of a broad range of political developments. The documents are drawn from all quarters of U.S. political life. They include legislative texts; proposed laws and constitutional amendments; state and federal court rulings; political party platforms; and interest-group position statements.

This book examines recent energy use trends and their potential consequences for the global population. Global energy needs have increased dramatically over the past 100 years, and they will continue to increase, creating energy, environmental, and social crises. Can we solve this problem? The first step, according to the authors of Energy Use Worldwide: A Reference Handbook, is to understand fundamental energy issues. Combining their knowledge from the complementary fields of science and policy, the authors begin by explaining the basic facts of energy—what it is, where it comes from, why it is important. Then they show how energy use is linked to global economics, identify key players, and examine the social and environmental consequences of our energy decisions. For readers interested in—or worried about—our use of fossil fuels, this book provides a keen understanding of both the problem and the possible solutions.