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This paper presents the writing of an inmate, Whispers, who participated in a writing project taught by the author at San Quentin State Prison. The inmate was a student in a class called Write Your Life and it was in that class that he wrote Storm on the Horizon, a story he would author/re-author three times. Through the process of re-authoring he creates a story situated in the real world that ultimately helps him in rendering new meaning from his lived experience. Reauthoring his story allowed Whispers to explore varying perspectives that succeed in making his experience comprehensible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the method used by the author in teaching the course Sociology of Education at the University of California, Davis. The class covers classical and contemporary theories of educational production and reproduction, and it introduces students to empirical research on issues of race/ethnicity, gender/sexuality, and social class. As the major research project and final exam for the course, students produce a Critical Education Autobiography. Early in the course, I distribute a list of full-length autobiographies that deal with the educational experiences of the authors. Student choose one of these, and I tell them that their midterm exam will be a sociological analysis of the educational memoirs presented by the author. They may use other course readings to support their claims and submit a 4-6 page analysis. Many students struggle with this assignment but I find this assignment useful in gauging student's understanding of theoretical concepts so I can review these concepts when necessary. After completing this assignment, students concentrate on the collection of data for their major project. I distribute a list if reflection questions to guide the making of a Critical Education Biography. The last two days of the course are devoted to discussing the experiences of students in producing the autobiography.

Background: Dignity Therapy is a brief, empirically supported, individualized psychotherapy designed to address legacy needs among patients at the end of life. To date, this psychotherapy has not been implemented in a 'real-world' community-based hospice setting. This study was designed to offer information about the pragmatic aspects of implementing Dignity Therapy for patients receiving hospice care. Method: Twenty-seven patients completed Dignity Therapy as part of a clinical service newly offered at a community-based hospice. Referral and enrollment procedures, as well as the logistics of therapy implementation were monitored. Patients' legacy transcripts were also qualitatively analyzed to measure emergent themes. Results: Patients were most commonly referred by social workers, and on average produced Dignity Therapy legacy transcripts approximately 3000 words/8 pages in length. The mean number of sessions spent with patients was 4, equating to an average of 380 minutes of clinician time per patient. Qualitative analyses revealed the most commonly discussed topics among patients were (in rank order): autobiographical information, love, lessons learned in life, defining roles in vocations or hobbies, accomplishments, character traits, unfinished business, hopes and dreams, catalysts, overcoming challenges, and guidance for others. Discussion: This was the first study to implement Dignity Therapy in a community sample, with results highlighting the practical aspects of treatment as well as the most common themes discussed by clinical patients in a hospice setting. These findings provide useful data for clinicians or organizational leaders who may consider offering Dignity Therapy in their setting, and offer general insight regarding the legacy topics most frequently discussed by patients near the end of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My childhood upbringing in no way suggested that I would become an astronomer, but accidents of fate pushed me in the direction of science, and I have benefited greatly from being in the right place at the right rime. I grew up in Seattle, earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in mathematics at the University of Washington, and eventually a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley. I was a postdoc at the Mr. Wilson Observatory, an assistant professor at Indiana University, later the Yerkes Observatory (University of Chicago), and still later I became a staff member of the Mr. Wilson and Palomar Observatories. After several years, I returned to the University of California, this time with the Lick Observatory staff at its new academic home on the Santa Cruz campus, where I have been ever since. My research has focused on the relation of Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars to problems of Galactic structure, the binary nature of cataclysmic variables, the decay of angular momentum of solar type stars, and the chemical history of the Galaxy as revealed by the abundances of very old stars in globular clusters and the Galactic halo field. None of this work would have been possible without the help of excellent teachers and mentors, great colleagues, and superb postdocs and graduate students. Most of all, I am grateful for the educational opportunities afforded me by state-supported public Universities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an autobiographical essay on the life of four undergraduate years of professors at teh University of California in Los Angeles, California.

This article considers the different media narratives about the 1992 Los Angeles uprising, in order to explain how the genre of tragedy became the most powerful representational form for talking about race and civil society during the 1990s. Three narrative mechanisms were used to shift discussions of race and civil society toward the tragic frame: (1) a change in temporality, (2) the rhetorical failures of politicians, and (3) the emplotment of new events into the dominant tragic narratives. Because most crises get their dramatic power from the tension between romance and tragedy, the shift to tragic discourse led to cynicism, skepticism, resignation, and inaction. The article concludes by arguing that the search for genre imbalance is an important tool for those interested in studying culture and ideology during times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article shares the author's experiences relative to his profession as a professor of anthropology and sociology emeritus at the University of California in Los Angeles. The year 1980 marks the fiftieth anniversary, both of the receipt of his doctorate and his first field trip to Mexico. Upon further reflection, the author felt less satisfaction with his achievements. According to him, the more he reflect on his professional career, the more he realized how much he owed his intellectual inheritance to many predecessors in anthropology.