Survival and song: Women poets of the Harlem Renaissance

This paper concerns Black women poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Considered by modern critics to have adopted anachronistic subject matter and to be out of step with the militant race‐consciousness of the period, these poets have been largely neglected in discussions of the 1920's, despite the fact that this was the most significant flowering of Black women's writing until the 1960's. I provide an interpretive model that reveals the rebellious messages in this verse, one that helps explain the poets’ imaginative choices by placing them in their historical context and linking them to a female poetic tradition. This approach makes clear the affirming nature of Renaissance poetry by women and makes it accessible to us today, anticipating as it does contemporary issues and forging a modern sensibility.     

Rite of passage: The impact of teaching methods on first year law students

Abstract

SEVERAL RECENT articles suggest that the undergraduate law program harms students in many ways. What we do not know, however, is the cause of these harms. More specifically, we do not know the way in which law students are impacted by current teaching and methods. This is the first empirical research that looks at this specific question.

In 2005 I conducted doctoral research on recent law graduates about both their understanding of undergraduate law school teaching practices and more importantly, the impact of these practices on them personally. The result of the research confirms recent literature and provides new and important information about the extent to which teaching methods harm students.

Specifically, the research suggests that the two main teaching methods used in first year law school, the case method and the lecture method, are not entirely effective or efficient for student learning; the law school curriculum is based on an epistemology of objectivism that makes learning law difficult and the first year law school examinations impact students in several negative ways. This research suggests that the combination of first year teaching practices causes many students to feel isolated, disoriented, disengaged, and ultimately resigned to having no control. This article is a summary of my doctoral research.     

Behavior Problems in Sexually Abused Children of Depressed Versus Nondepressed Mothers

Children's psychological adjustment following stressors, such as sexual abuse, is impacted by environmental variables. One such factor is parental support, which can be hampered when a caregiver suffers from psychopathology. The purpose of this study was to determine whether maternal depression would impact the children's adjustment to sexual abuse. It was hypothesized that depressed mothers would report more behavior difficulties for their sexually abused children than nondepressed mothers. Participants were 58 children (and their mothers) who were referred for trauma symptoms related to sexual abuse. Mothers completed the Beck Depression Inventory as a measure of their depression and rated their children's behaviors on the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist. The children completed the Children's Depression Inventory and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale. Results revealed that depressed mothers reported more conduct problems, inattention/immaturity, and psychotic behavior than nondepressed mothers. Differences were not observed for mothers' report of depressive or anxious behaviors across groups. The children of depressed mothers reported increased levels of depression, but not anxiety, when compared to children of nondepressed mothers. Although both groups of mothers reported symptoms to be clinically significant, the children did not endorse their symptoms in clinically significant ranges.     

The Judge as 'Political Advisor': Behind the Scenes at the National Industrial Relations Court

The recent opening under the 30-year rule of official papers concerning the Industrial Relations Act 1971 makes it possible to reappraise the conventional view of this short-lived statute and also more general implications of the process of policy making at a time of acute political crisis. The papers shed new light on the relationship between the government and the judiciary, in particular the President of the National Industrial Relations Court, Sir John Donaldson. They provide empirical evidence of how the judicial and political arms of government dealt with social and industrial upheavals and they prompt reflections on the nature of the separation of powers in the United Kingdom's constitutional arrangements. It is argued that, in examining the nature and extent of judicial independence, constitutional law scholars have hitherto concentrated on executive influence on the judiciary and tended to ignore the extent to which judges may secretly influence politicians.