Individuals from communities characterized by high crime rates, violence, poverty, and social disadvantages are of greater risk to develop PTSD. Due to high comorbidity rates between PTSD and...Show moreIndividuals from communities characterized by high crime rates, violence, poverty, and social disadvantages are of greater risk to develop PTSD. Due to high comorbidity rates between PTSD and borderline personality disorder (BPD), recently, complex PTSD was introduced. Complex PTSD contains, next to PTSD symptoms, the additional symptoms as disturbances in self-organization (DSO) and negative alterations in cognitions and mood (NACM). However, it remains unclear how symptoms of complex PTSD, PTSD, and BPD are related in an at-risk, urban sample. The present study explored the relations between PTSD, BPD, DSO symptoms and NACMs using a network approach. The symptoms were assessed using semi-structured clinical interviews. Participants (N = 470; 98.1% female; 97.7% African-American) were recruited by Powers et al. (2022) from medical clinics within urban areas in the USA. Two network analysis were estimated using EBICglasso model to create regularized partial correlation networks. The first to explore the overall structure of PTSD, BPD, and complex PTSD, the second to investigate the relatedness of the NACM and DSO symptoms. The results were in line with previous studies and indicated that the NACM symptoms play a crucial role in the PTSD structure, in connecting PTSD with the DSOs. BPD and DSO symptoms were related via emotional dysregulation. Of the specific NACM symptoms, trauma-related amnesia was more related to BPD than to PTSD, and DSO symptom. This suggests BPD and PTSD to be distinct, complex PTSD to be phenomenologically related to both and the NACM and DSO symptoms to be associated with each other.Show less
This thesis provides an analysis of three marginal historical movements from the inter-war period in the 20th century; German neocolonialism, Japanese Pan-Asianism and Pan-Africanism. All three...Show moreThis thesis provides an analysis of three marginal historical movements from the inter-war period in the 20th century; German neocolonialism, Japanese Pan-Asianism and Pan-Africanism. All three movements represent trends that present alternative views of the dominant ideologies of the century which they were ultimately suppressed by with the onset of the Second World War. Based on what documentation they left behind however, a model can be constructed that attempts to explain how these movements could have survived or otherwise have seen a resurgence in the absence of global liberalism and communism. Alternative histories found in video games, such as the popular Hearts of Iron IV expansion made by its (non-academic) community The New Order: Last Days of Europe provide an opportunity to put this model into practice, but the shortcomings in its existing narrative regarding Africa must first be addressed.Show less
This study aims to interpret Soviet propaganda posters published in the 1960s and 1970s using a selection of multidisciplinary analytical tools. More specifically this selection of eight Soviet...Show moreThis study aims to interpret Soviet propaganda posters published in the 1960s and 1970s using a selection of multidisciplinary analytical tools. More specifically this selection of eight Soviet posters are inspired by America's race relations, the Civil Rights era and the Cold War, with a particular focus on the USSR’s symbolic depictions of the state of African American civil rights during this time. To this end, the research questions is as follows: What can be interpreted from the state of African American civil rights as depicted in the Soviet Union’s propaganda posters from the 1960s and 1970s? The research question is answered through interpretation that is guided through the selection of academic research that looks at content analysis as well as the use of logical inference, such as the close analysis of visual ideology and linguistic meaning. This paper hopes to demonstrate one way in which the Soviet Union wished to contradict America’s democratic, free and liberal façade. Furthermore, it will exhibit how the Soviet Union worked to present their ideological enemy as a capitalist hypocrite in order to win the hearts and minds of its domestic audience, during a war that focused on a battle of political propaganda. On this basis, it can be interpreted that the intentions of the Soviet Union were to undermine the United States of America shown through the selection of these eight posters, although I do recognise that this in no way a definitive representation of all Soviet propaganda posters that depicted African Americans. Future research and the analysis of a wider pool of propaganda material published within a greater time frame, that targets an international audience would reveal other lines of ideological criticism, symbolic messages and would therefore draw broader conclusions.Show less
The portrayal of African Americans in mainstream media has subjected us to a succession of images which depict poverty, crime, violence and suffering but omit the circumstances of quotidian life...Show moreThe portrayal of African Americans in mainstream media has subjected us to a succession of images which depict poverty, crime, violence and suffering but omit the circumstances of quotidian life which lie beneath the stereotypes of towns in Northern America. The complicated and often frustrating history of African Americans has played a material role in the discourse of black representation. Today, the majority of poorer African American communities inhabit the outskirts of larger cities like Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Here, they seek to create a comfortable environment for themselves and their families. However, given that the history and experience of African American life has frequently been portrayed in the media as being at odds with that of white communities, it is unlikely that they will be left to pursue their lives freely and independently, especially when black men and boys are coupled with criminality and violence, and there is increased public support for a more rigorous approach to policing and punishment. Contemporary black representations provoke debate because they bring the material world to life. What is more, these photographic images also liberate the viewer’s mind by offering previously unknown facts and information. While the media focuses on communities when there is violence to be written about, once the violence subsides, communities like Braddock and Watts are left to their own devices, with little or no attention being paid to the bigger picture of social and economic disparity. The cause of these communities has been taken up by local photographers like LaToya Ruby Frazier and Western photographers like Dana Lixenberg, with both women taking particular interest in the documentation of life as an African American living in an unforgiving environment. Frazier meshes her work in photography with human rights activism to create visibility for the African American communities, while Lixenberg seeks to counter stereotypical images of these communities. This paper will focus on Frazier’s The Notion Of Family and Lixenberg’s Imperial Courts. Rather than dwelling on the negativity and violence that has historically been associated with the communities’ state of being, the two photographers have chosen to produce images of African Americans which stand as visual resistance to prevailing negative black stereotypes. The shared aim of both photographic projects is to counter the negative stereotypes that circulate the media today, and is the reason for choosing these projects. Given the shared aim, the photographers might be expected to adopt a similar approach to documenting their subjects. This paper will consider whether the photographers’ approach is indeed the same and, on the basis of the observations made, will carry out a further comparison of the methodology used by Frazier and Lixenberg respectively in the field of representation of African Americans. When examining the bodies of work of Frazier and Lixenberg, specific consideration will be given to the photographers’ divergent cultural backgrounds, the historical representation of African Americans and the role that the ‘observational’ and ‘participatory modes’ play within this discourse of representation.Show less
