Toward a feminist theory of disability

We need a feminist theory of disability, both because 16 percent of women are disabled, and because the oppression of disabled people is closely linked to the cultural oppression of the body. Disability is not a biological given; like gender, it is socially constructed from biological reality. Our culture idealizes the body and demands that we control it. Thus, although most people will be disabled at some time in their lives, the disabled are made "the other," who symbolize failure of control and the threat of pain, limitation, dependency, and death. If disabled people and their knowledge were fully integrated into society, everyone's relation to her/his real body would be liberated.     

Traditions and texts: how two young women learned to interpret the Qur’an and hadiths in Kazakhstan

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, translations of the Qur’an and books of hadiths became widely available in Kazakhstan for the first time in 70 years. However, most Kazakhs do not read the Qur’an or books of hadiths on a regular basis. This essay examines the ways in which two young Kazakh woman who do read the Qur’an and hadiths learned to interpret and use these texts. I describe how the first young woman, who is a member of the piety movement in Kazakhstan, reads the Qur’an and books of hadiths on a daily basis using a schema that emphasizes the Prophet, the Qur’an, hadiths, and the differences between Muslims and non-Muslims. The second young woman, who is a member of Ata Zholy, an Islamic movement in Kazakhstan that focuses on revitalizing Kazakh traditions, reads these texts only occasionally and uses a schema that emphasizes ancestors, saints, tradition, and linking contemporary Kazakhs with an idealized Kazakh Islamic past. I link the ways that these two women learned their respective interpretive schemas to their family’s practice of Islam and, more broadly, to the restriction of Islamic practice in the Soviet era.     

Portrait of a creatively gifted child facing cancer

Creativity can be demonstrated in various ways. The following case study describes how one creatively gifted boy applied creative skills from one dimension of his life to a totally new one. When cancer halted his musical career, he chose to channel his abilities into a new challenge: controlling pain and writing. The results demonstrated a heroism that opens new avenues to our consideration of what constitutes creativity in human lives.     

Syncretic Spirituality: Islam in Indigenous Australia

Far from being an exclusively present-day, let alone post-9/11, phenomenon, Islam in Indigenous Australia has a set of historical precedents. Focusing on three early waves of Muslim sojourners and immigrants, the article begins with an overview of the long and complex history of Indigenous engagement with Islam. Introducing readers to a broad spectrum of Indigenous identification with Islam, it examines the kin-based or informal absorption of Islamic values that occurs particularly among those with Muslim forbears (a process termed “kinversion”). The article then turns from the primarily historical material to an investigation of the contemporary experience of Islam in Indigenous Australian lives. As Islam is among the fastest growing religions in the world today, an increased rate of conversion to Islam among Indigenous communities might simply be a sign of the times. This is not, however, the case. There are uniquely Australian circumstances that inform it, and for some Indigenous people an identification with Islam has provided an alternative route back to their Indigenous roots.     

Assessment and treatment of elopement maintained by access to stereotypy

We evaluated a treatment for elopement maintained by access to stereotypic door play. First, we conducted a functional analysis of elopement that produced undifferentiated results. Next, we conducted an assessment in which we evaluated the relation between elopement and door play. Results suggested a functional relation between the 2 behaviors (i.e., elopement was maintained by contingent access to door play). Finally, we implemented functional communication training as a treatment for elopement in which access to door play was made contingent on a target appropriate communication response.     

Structural Equation Modeling in the Communication Sciences, 1995–2000

Structural equation modeling (SEM) is a viable multivariate tool used by communication researchers for the past quarter century. Building off Cappella (1975) as well as McPhee and Babrow (1987), this study summarizes the use of this technique from 1995–2000 in 37 communication‐based academic journals. We identify and critically assess 3 unique methods for testing structural relationships via SEM in terms of the specification, estimation, and evaluation of their respective structural equation models. We provide general guidelines for the use of SEM and make recommendations concerning latent variable models, sample size, reporting parameter estimates, model fit statistics, cross‐sectional data, univariate normality, cross‐validation, nonrecursive modeling, and the decomposition of effects (direct, indirect, and total).