Ever since Eve tempted Adam with her apple, women have been regarded as a corrupting and destructive force. The very idea that women can be used as... interrogation tools, as evidenced in the infamous Abu Ghraib torture photos, plays on age-old fears of women as sexually threatening weapons, and therefore the literal explosion of women onto the war scene should come as no surprise. From the female soldiers involved in Abu Ghraib to Palestinian women suicide bombers, women and their bodies have become powerful weapons in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. In Women as Weapons of War, Kelly Oliver reveals how the media and the administration frequently use metaphors of weaponry to describe women and female sexuality and forge a deliberate link between notions of vulnerability and images of violence. Focusing specifically on the U.S. campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, Oliver analyzes contemporary discourse surrounding women, sex, and gender and the use of women to justify America's decision to go to war. For example, the administration's call to liberate "women of cover," suggesting a woman's right to bare arms is a sign of freedom and progress. Oliver also considers what forms of cultural meaning, or lack of meaning, could cause both the guiltlessness demonstrated by female soldiers at Abu Ghraib and the profound commitment to death made by suicide bombers. She examines the pleasure taken in violence and the passion for death exhibited by these women and what kind of contexts created them. In conclusion, Oliver diagnoses our cultural fascination with sex, violence, and death and its relationship with live news coverage and embedded reporting, which naturalizes horrific events and stymies critical reflection. This process, she argues, further compromises the borders between fantasy and reality, fueling a kind of paranoid patriotism that results in extreme forms of violence.

Diversity, Oppression, and Change explores the relationship between cultural diversity, oppression, and social change and their implications for the... social work profession and allied fields. The culturally grounded perspective describes specific ways of helping and integrates these methods into social work practice, policy, and research. This book moves beyond cultural awareness to provide a theoretical framework, a comprehensive review of methods, and applied case studies as tools for integrating essential knowledge about the cultural backgrounds of communities and clients into everyday interactions.

Using the “Person-In-Environment” (PIE) theoretical framework, this diversity practice text teaches students how to think about their personal... reactions and assumptions about diversity and what constitutes cultural competent “assessment” and “intervention” when working with a broad range of diverse populations.   The diverse populations presented in the text are described within an ecological, strengths perspective. The authors’ thesis is that, in order to work effectively with diverse populations, it is necessary to take into consideration the complex dynamics of social functioning and social oppression. The “Person-In-Environment” theoretical framework provides a basis for analysis of the social, economic, and political reality of these diverse populations. The text presents an affirmative practice approach and builds on the available diversity practice literature.   This text can be used in diversity practice courses, courses on working with oppressed populations, and other practice courses (such as advanced practice) that focus on diversity issues.

Focuses on preparing teachers for how to teach diverse populations in a school setting. Multicultural education. Designed for undergraduate and... graduate-level courses on multicultural education in colleges of education.

This book examines the prevailing theoretical frameworks for viewing diversity in social work practice and helps readers develop competencies for... work with and on behalf of diverse populations. The theoretical frameworks presented in the book cover three major dimensions of the diversity theme in social work practice: ethnocultural diversity, oppression and social justice, and vulnerable, at-risk populations. While other books in the market tend to explore these dimensions through a single theoretical framework, Anderson provides an overview of these separate approaches. Social workers and anyone in the helping professions

This is a groundbreaking volume that provides informed, balanced yet frank discussion of US workplace diversity and diversity resistance issues. The... chapters in this book put a name on behaviors and practices that have existed in the workplace for a long time, yet until recently have had no name. Further, the majority of the chapters innovatively link existing psychological and organizational factors such as fear, uncertainty, power, emotions, and organizational change and development. The book's editors and authors emphasize that we need to know more about diversity resistance, both in overt and covert forms. To guide us, we can draw on existing research and practice literature that have both theoretical and empirical depth. This timely volume's first chapter deconstructs the growing prevalence of hangmen's nooses as a manifestation of resistance to diversity that is visibly overt, hostile, and interpersonal. The authors also shed light on how nooses surprisingly exemplify diversity resistance that is also frequently covert, subtle, and frequently silent. The book is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students in industrial and organizational psychology, human resources management, diversity management, sociology of work, organizational change, and cultural diversity within organizations. It provides a central resource for classes on prejudice and discrimination in organizations, emotions at work, personnel psychology, strategic human resources management and cultural issues in human resources management. Professionals and practitioners who increasingly interact with diverse employees will find this book essential to their work.

Daryl G. Smith’s career has been devoted to studying and fostering diversity in higher education. She has witnessed and encouraged the evolution of... diversity from an issue addressed sporadically on college campuses to an imperative if institutions want to succeed. In Diversity's Promise for Higher Education, she analyzes how diversity is practiced today and offers new recommendations for effecting lasting and meaningful change.Smith argues that in the next generation of work on diversity, student population mix and performance will no longer be acceptable indicators of an institution's diversity effectiveness. To become more relevant to society, the nation, and the world while remaining true to their core mission, institutions must begin to see diversity, like technology, as central to teaching and research. She proposes a set of practices that will help colleges and universities embrace diversity as a tool for institutional success.This thoughtful volume draws on 40 years of diversity studies. It offers both researchers and administrators an innovative approach to developing and instituting effective and sustainable diversity strategies.

Daryl G. Smith’s career has been devoted to studying and fostering diversity in higher education. She has witnessed and encouraged the evolution of... diversity from an issue addressed sporadically on college campuses to an imperative if institutions want to succeed. In Diversity's Promise for Higher Education, she analyzes how diversity is practiced today and offers new recommendations for effecting lasting and meaningful change.Smith argues that in the next generation of work on diversity, student population mix and performance will no longer be acceptable indicators of an institution's diversity effectiveness. To become more relevant to society, the nation, and the world while remaining true to their core mission, institutions must begin to see diversity, like technology, as central to teaching and research. She proposes a set of practices that will help colleges and universities embrace diversity as a tool for institutional success.This thoughtful volume draws on 40 years of diversity studies. It offers both researchers and administrators an innovative approach to developing and instituting effective and sustainable diversity strategies.

Part of the Longman Topic Series, this brief reader encourages an examination of diversity in America, in order to understand what both enriches and... threatens the country’s core values “of liberty and justice for all.” This collection of readings  provides opportunities for students to examine the impact “racial” and “ethnic” identity have on diverse groups, some of them challenging the notion of race as a meaningful category for thinking about human identity. Authors included in this collection write about the personal and political aspects of racial and ethnic identity in a variety of ways including describing experiences of exclusion, satirizing stereotyping, analyzing the sources of alienation, and arguing for changes that will ensure inclusion.