scholarly journals Clint Jones, Apocalyptic Ecology in the Graphic Novel: Life and the Environment after Societal Collapse

Belphégor ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Reyns-Chikuma
Author(s):  
Jan Baetens ◽  
Hugo Frey
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Abu Yazid Abu Bakar ◽  
Dayang Nurfaezah Abang Ahmad ◽  
Melor Md Yunus

Research has shown that using graphic novels in the classroom is one of useful approaches to promote the understanding of learners especially for lengthy and difficult literature texts. This study reports the extent of graphic novel in facilitating students’ understanding of literature and the students’ perceptions towards using graphic novel in learning literature (L2) as compared to other genre of texts. This is a mixed method study which employs quantitative and qualitative methods to obtain data. The findings indicate that most students found that graphic novel helped them to enrich their vocabularies and understand the text better. The findings also reveal that students were attracted to the illustrations in the literature text in which this helps to boost their motivation to learn literature in the classroom. The findings provide useful insights for English as Second Language (ESL) teachers in incorporating and expanding the literature learning through graphic novels in the future. The findings also imply the need of ESL teachers to use graphic novels effectively in facilitating their teaching and learning of literature in L2 classrooms particularly to suit the 21<sup>st</sup> century teaching and learning.


This is the first book to treat the major examples of megadrought and societal collapse, from the late Pleistocene end of hunter–gatherer culture and origins of cultivation to the 15th century AD fall of the Khmer Empire capital at Angkor, and ranging from the Near East to South America. Previous enquiries have stressed the possible multiple and internal causes of collapse, such overpopulation, overexploitation of resources, warfare, and poor leadership and decision-making. In contrast, Megadrought and Collapse presents case studies of nine major episodes of societal collapse in which megadrought was the major and independent cause of societal collapse. In each case the most recent paleoclimatic evidence for megadroughts, multiple decades to multiple centuries in duration, is presented alongside the archaeological records for synchronous societal collapse. The megadrought data are derived from paleoclimate proxy sources (lake, marine, and glacial cores; speleothems, or cave stalagmites; and tree-rings) and are explained by researchers directly engaged in their analysis. Researchers directly responsible for them discuss the relevant current archaeological records. Two arguments are developed through these case studies. The first is that societal collapse in different time periods and regions and at levels of social complexity ranging from simple foragers to complex empires would not have occurred without megadrought. The second is that similar responses to megadrought extend across these historical episodes: societal collapse in the face of insurmountable climate change, abandonment of settlements and regions, and habitat tracking to sustainable agricultural landscapes. As we confront megadrought today, and in the likely future, Megadrought and Collapse brings together the latest contributions to our understanding of past societal responses to the crisis on an equally global and diverse scale.


Author(s):  
Yujeong Kim ◽  
Eunmi Lee

Bioterrorism is destructive enough to cause a societal collapse, and preparation for bioterrorism is imperative. This study aims to identify the factors influencing preparedness for bioterrorism among Koreans. A total of 1,050 subjects were included in the study, which were allocated according to region and age in proportion to population. An online survey was used to examine the following factors: participants’ general characteristics; cognitive factors including perceived probability, perceived seriousness, perceived personal impact, perceived coping efficacy, and perceived resilience; social–contextual factors including perceived governmental preparedness and perceived front-line preparedness; affective responses including affective response to terrorism and anxiety; and bioterrorism preparedness. The factors influencing the level of preparedness for bioterrorism included age, marital status, experience of bioterrorism education, perceived personal impact, perceived coping efficacy, perceived resilience, and perceived front-line preparedness. The factors that most significantly affected the level of preparedness for bioterrorism were perceived coping efficacy and perceived front-line preparedness, with an R2 of 41.4%. Relevant education and public relations programs should be strengthened to help citizens minimize their exposure and known to inform relevant institutions in the event of suspected bioterrorism, and front-line responders should cultivate their ability to respond to bioterrorism quickly and accurately.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER VIALS

American studies has developed excellent critiques of post-1945 imperial modes that are grounded in human rights and Enlightenment liberalism. But to fully gauge US violence in the twenty-first century, we also need to more closely consider antiliberal cultural logics. This essay traces an emergent mode of white nationalist militarism that it calls Identitarian war. It consists, on the one hand, of a formal ideology informed by Identitarian ethno-pluralism and Carl Schmitt, and, on the other, an openly violent white male “structure of feeling” embodied by the film and graphic novel 300, a key source text for the transatlantic far right.


Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Kateřina Valentová

The figure of the superhero has always been regarded as an iconic representative of American society. Since the birth of the first superhero, it has been shaped by the most important historical, political, and social events, which were echoed in different comic issues. In principle, in the superhero genre, there has never been a place for aging superheroes, for they stand as a symbol of power and protection for the nation. Indeed, their mythical portrayal of young and strong broad-chested men with superpowers cannot be shattered showing them fragile or disabled. The aim of this article is to delve into the complex paradigm of the passage of time in comics and to analyze one of the most famous superheroes of all times, Superman, in terms of his archetypical representation across time. From the perspective of cultural and literary gerontology, the different issues of Action Comics will be examined, as well as an alternative graphic novel Kingdom Come (2008) by Mark Waid and Alex Ross, where Superman appears as an aged man. Although it breaks the standards of the genre, in the end it does not succeed to challenge the many stereotypes embedded in society in regard to aging, associated with physical, cognitive, and emotional decline. Furthermore, this article will show how a symbolic use of the monomythical representation of a superhero may penetrate into other cultural expressions to instill a more positive and realistic portrayal of aging.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 35S-43S
Author(s):  
Sarah Febres-Cordero ◽  
Athena D. F. Sherman ◽  
Joseph Karg ◽  
Ursula Kelly ◽  
Lisa M. Thompson ◽  
...  

The opioid epidemic was declared a national public health emergency in 2017. In Georgia, standing orders for the opioid antagonist, naloxone, have been implemented to reduce mortality from opioid overdoses. Service industry workers in the Atlanta, Georgia, inner-city community of Little Five Points (L5P) have access to naloxone, potentially expanding overdose rescue efforts in the community setting. To explore the issues facing L5P, our research brings together qualitative descriptive inquiry, ethnography, community-based research, a community advisory board, and a local artist to maximize community dissemination of research findings through a graphic novel that describes encountering an opioid overdose. This format was chosen due to the ethical responsibility to disseminate in participants’ language and for its potential to empower and educate readers. This article describes the process of working on this study with the community and a local artist to create sample pages that will be tested for clarity of the message in a later phase. Working with an artist has revealed that while dissemination and implementation for collaboration begin before findings are ready, cross-collaboration with the artist requires early engagement, substantial funding, artist education in appropriate content, and member checking to establish community acceptability altering illustrations that reinforce negative stereotypes. By sharing the experiences of actions taken during an opioid overdose in L5P through a graphic novel, we can validate service industry workers’ experiences, acknowledge their efforts to contribute to harm reduction, and provide much-needed closure to those who encounter opioid overdoses in the community.


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