Martin Luther King's Civil Disobedience and the American Covenant Tradition

Daniel J. Elazar introduced the covenant idea to political sciencein his four-volume work, The Covenant Tradition in Politics.As he showed, American government and society are indebted tocovenant ways of New England Puritans and their doctrine, "federaltheology". Puritan covenants fostered polities whose framesof government and patterns of civil order established a federalmatrix antecedent to modern American federalism. The moral orientationof covenant has also influenced modern American political thought,as evidenced by the public philosophy articulated by the Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement(1954–1968). In such works as "The Letter from the BirminghamCity Jail," King challenged his contemporaries' ideas aboutlaw and justice, Americans with an opportunity to examine moderncovenant practice.     

Forensic Age-at-Death Estimation from the Human Sacrum*

Abstract: A new method is described here that incorporates seven developmental and degenerative changes for estimating chronological age from morphological features of the human sacrum. The construction of this method involved multiple stages of trait identification, character-state definition and age correlation, rank-order phase development, and percent-correct sample testing with phase and sample aggregation, all of which resulted in a six-phase component system for application on modern individuals. This phase system was first developed on European American male and female samples from the Hamann-Todd collection; then tested on African American male and female Hamann-Todd samples as well as European American male and females from the WM Bass collection to examine possible sex and/or ancestry differences. Variation in age estimates due to sex and ancestry was negligible; thus, the multiple samples were all pooled creating a robust method with a large sample size. Overall age ranges increase in width at two standard deviations as is expected from degenerative age-related processes but retain utility in forensic situations.     

Determinants and consequences of university spinoff activity: a conceptual framework

The characteristics and behavior of university spinoff activity is an important subject in economic and management studies literature. Such studies merit research because it is suggested that university innovations stimulate economies by spurring product development, by creating new industries, and by contributing to employment and wealth creation. For this reason, universities have come to be highly valued in terms of the economic potential of their research efforts. The aim of this paper is to offer a framework for the study of academic entrepreneurship that explains different aspects of university spinoff behavior in a coherent way. We suggest that the existing literature on this topic can be categorized into six separate streams and synthesized in a framework that captures the determinants and consequences of spinoff activity.      

Beyond Welfare: Framing and the Racialization of White Opinion on Social Security

In this article I argue that the framing of Social Security in political discourse has associated it symbolically with race. The linkages are subtle and symbolic, and they serve to associate Social Security with whiteness in a mirror image of the association of welfare with blackness. In turn, these associations have racialized white opinion on the program. After discussing the theoretical mechanism by which issue frames can unconsciously associate policies with citizens' racial predispositions, I review the frames surrounding Social Security. Then, drawing on two decades of nationally representative survey data, I demonstrate the racialization of opinion among whites. Using a variety of measures of racial predispositions, I find that racially conservative whites feel more positively about Social Security than do racial liberals. I conclude by considering the implications of these findings for our understanding of racialized politics and for the connections between race, whiteness, and contemporary American politics.     

外国留学生在中国主流大学的文化适应--超越留学生公寓

随着全球化的加剧,2004年在中国留学的外国留学生已经增到11万人,而且这一趋势在随后的几年内还会进一步增强.这就使得中国的大学面临着一个巨大的挑战,即如何在本地学生与外国学生平等互惠的条件下,使日益增长的外国留学生更好地适应中国主流大学的文化.面对这一问题,中国的大学需要在首次联系、校园、工作人员、教室、学生五个方面加强工作和投入,而对这些目标的实施,实际上就反映了21世纪跨文化交流的主要经验,即让学生比较容易发现到国外留学的机会,热情、友好地欢迎国外留学生,有严格的学术要求和原则,使外国留学生与本国学生之间在校园内外能密切的互动和交流,创造一个互惠互利的双赢局面.