DOCSLIB.ORG

The Politicization of Natural Disasters in the US and Oman

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Politicization of Natural Disasters in the US and Oman University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses April 2021 Cyclones, Spectacles, and Citizenship: The Politicization of Natural Disasters in the US and Oman Tyler Schuenemann University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the American Politics Commons, Comparative Politics Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Political Theory Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Schuenemann, Tyler, "Cyclones, Spectacles, and Citizenship: The Politicization of Natural Disasters in the US and Oman" (2021). Doctoral Dissertations. 2138. https://doi.org/10.7275/20155937 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/2138 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CYCLONES, SPECTACLES, AND CITIZENSHIP: THE POLITICIZATION OF NATURAL DISASTERS IN THE US AND OMAN A Dissertation Presented By Tyler Schuenemann Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY February 2021 Department of Political Science © Copyright by Tyler Schuenemann 2021 All Rights Reserved Cyclones, Spectacles, and Citizenship: The Politicization of Natural Disasters in the US and Oman A Dissertation Presented By Tyler Schuenemann Approved as to style and content by: ______________________________________ Amel Ahmed, Chair ______________________________________ Kevin Rozario, Member _______________________________________ Frederic C. Schaffer, Member ______________________________________ Jillian Schwedler, Member ______________________________________ Jesse Rhodes, Department Chair Department of Political Science ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS None of the research and writing that went into this dissertation would have been possible without the support and love of my parents, Dave and Denise, and my sister Keah. I feel lucky to have them. I am grateful to have had a number of official and unofficial guides on the dissertation path. Amel Ahmed’s care, insight, and encouragement has been pivotal to seeing this project to fruition. Fred Schaffer and Nick Xenos have been involved since the beginning of the project. They each encouraged me to look at the world in new ways and to stray from well-trodden paths of research. Jillian Schwedler and Kevin Rozario were very generous in providing invaluable insights on the many drafts that I sent their way. To Amel, Fred, Nick, Jillian, and Kevin, thank you for your kindness and support throughout the years. A number of other faculty have provided me intellectual, emotional, and professional guidance along the way. Thank you to Roberto Alejandro, Sonia Alvarez, Ivan Ascher, Angelica Bernal, Butterfield, Charli Carpenter, Barbara Cruikshank, Adam Dahl, Yasmeen Daifallah, Cyril Ghosh, Ron Glass, Peter Haas, Jess Hollenbeck, Eric Kraemer, Kenn Mally, David Miller, Timothy Pachirat, MJ Peterson, Everita Silina, and Regine Spector. There are several professors that have passed away before I got the chance to thank them for their support. They are Lily Ling, Don LaCoss, Stephen Clarkson, and Jeff Juris. I received generous financial support for my research through the Fulbright Program and the University of Massachusetts Amherst Graduate School. I would also like to recognize the support that I received from the Critical Language Scholarship iv program, which funded two summers of Arabic language study abroad, including a summer in Nizwa, Oman that allowed me to begin the preliminary stages of my research. The faculty and participants at the Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method provided insights into the early planning of the project. The kind folks at Tawasul hosted me during the initial stages of my research in Oman. The Omani Study Center of Sultan Qaboos University kindly provided access to their archives. Dola Algady was a wonderful tutor. Noora al Balushi was the best research assistant I could have hoped for, and will be eternally grateful to her. Thank you to my brilliant Omani interlocutors who will remain anonymous. Their insights and guidance greatly improved this project. While fieldwork and writing can get lonely and trying, I have had a number of friends and colleagues help me through it along the way. I would not have been able to finish this project without their help and friendship. Big hugs to Yuna Blajer de la Garza, Ryan Butler, Robert Darrow, Samantha Davis, Kristen and Steve Dew, Mohammed Elghoul, Usmaan Masood Farooqui, Sam Fayyaz, Sofia Fenner, Amanda Giorgio, James Heilman, Andres Fabian Henao, Kevin Henderson, Mohsen Jalali, Colleen and Zach Kimes, Andrew Leber, Ben Leiter, Travis Melin, Elva Orozco Mendoza, Benjamin Nolan, Alix Olson, Ana Maria Ospina Pedraza, Ardeshir Pezeshk, Luz Maria Sanchez Duque, Elif Savas, Christopher Schafenacker, Dan Schmitz, Mike Stein, Candice Travis, Josh and Kayla Tueting, Ethan Tupelo, Susanne M. Westerhoff-Uprety, Alper Yağcı, and Basileus Zeno. Marissa Hulett deserves her own sentence because she taught me how to write. Jenna Ciotta gets three. She tolerated my demanding writing schedule with grace, and filled my time away from the project with love and joy. For that I will be eternally grateful. v ABSTRACT CYCLONES, SPECTACLES, AND CITIZENSHIP: THE POLITICIZATION OF NATURAL DISASTERS IN THE US AND OMAN FEBRUARY 2021 TYLER SCHUENEMANN B.A., UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-LA CROSSE M.A., UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Amel Ahmed In the face of such complex, urgent threats of fires, floods, and increasingly powerful storms, many scholars warn that climate change puts us on the path to a technocratic, “rule of experts” for the sake of survival. Others warn that climate change will actually undermine the authority of governments, as they become increasingly unable to meet the basic needs of their citizens. In this dissertation, I draw from interviews, archival research, and ethnographic observations in the US and Oman to examine how power and historical context shape the way that these societies politicize natural disasters. These two countries have fundamental differences in terms of their state-society relations. Yet responses to recent tropical cyclones demonstrate that each country manifests similar contention in the face of disaster. Contemporary Americans and Omanis treat large-scale natural disasters as unplanned spectacles of interdependence, attention-grabbing symbols of their nation’s fate in an emergency. Officials and dissidents alike are seizing upon the public’s attention to these symbols, competing to anchor them to their own agendas. For example, disasters are treated as “revelations” about the legitimacy of government authorities, or “lessons” about public values other than safety from disaster, such as social justice and religious piety. Such disaster-contention in the US and Oman is a relatively new phenomena. It emerged in the early- and mid-twentieth century by virtue of the spread of new communication technologies that made it possible to conceive of “national emergencies,” and by an expanded vision for government and civic responsibility, making such emergencies problems for the government to solve. I argue that this record of contention shows that disasters are not partisan to technocratic order, nor are they conveyor belts to chaos. As the most attention-grabbing manifestations of climate change are treated as spectacles of interdependence, they provide opportunities for political entrepreneurs of many stripes, including nationalist and democratic movements that deride the rule of experts. The political consequences of climate change are therefore contingent upon the historically constructed nature of interpretive frameworks, like “citizenship” and “national emergency,” and how officials and dissidents utilize them to give political meaning to calamity. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... vi TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. vii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................1 Natural Disasters as Emergencies in Contention .....................................................3 An Interpretivist Approach to the Politics of Natural Disasters ..............................8 Research Design.....................................................................................................14 Summary of Argument ..........................................................................................22 2. HOW NATURAL DISASTERS BECAME UNPLANNED POLITICAL SPECTACLES IN THE US ...................................................................................35 Disasters as Local and National Events .................................................................38 National Emergencies with No National Scandals ................................................50 The Mississippi
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 1 BARACK OBAMA, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, and JOHN DEWEY In
    File: Schulten web preprint Created on: 1/29/2009 9:52:00 AM Last Printed: 1/31/2009 2:13:00 PM BARACK OBAMA, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, AND JOHN DEWEY SUSAN SCHULTEN In the last few months, there has been a spate of comparisons be- tween Obama and some of our most influential former presidents. Just days after the election, Congress announced the theme of the inaugura- tion as “A New Birth of Freedom,” while reporters and commentators speculate about “A New New Deal” or “Lincoln 2.0.”1 Many of these comparisons are situational: Obama is a relatively inexperienced lawyer- turned-politician who will inherit two wars and an economic crisis un- equalled since the Great Depression.2 The backlash has been equally vocal. Many consider these com- parisons both premature and presumptuous, evidence that the media is sympathetic toward an Obama Administration or that the President-elect has himself orchestrated these connections.3 Indeed, Obama frequently invoked Lincoln as both a model for and an influence over his own can- didacy, which he launched on the steps of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois. He introduced Vice-President Joe Biden in the same spot, where the latter also referenced the memory of Lincoln.4 Cer- tainly it makes sense for Obama to exploit Lincoln’s legacy, for no other figure in American history continues to command such admiration, the occasional neo-Confederate or other detractor notwithstanding.5 To posi- tion Obama in front of the State House is surely meant to place him as a kind of an heir to Lincoln.
    [Show full text]
  • TRANSFORMATIONS Acomparative Study of Social Transfomtions
    ' TRANSFORMATIONS acomparative study of social transfomtions CSST WORKING PAPERS The University of Michigan Ann Arbor "Reclaiming the Epistemological 'Other': Narrative and the Social Constitution of Identity" Margaret R. Somers and Gloria D. Gibson CSST Working CRSO Working Paper #94 Paper #499 June 1993 RECLAIMING THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL "OTHER": NARRATIVE AND THE SOCIAL CONSTITUTION OF IDENTITY* Margaret R. Somers and Gloria D. Gibson Department of Sociology University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (313) 764-6324 Bitnet: userGD52@umichum or Internet: [email protected] Forthcoming in Craig Calhoun ed., From Persons to Nations: The Social Constitution of Identities, London: Basil Blackwell. *An earlier version of this chapter (by Somers) was presented at the 1992 American Sociological Association Meetings, Pittsburgh, Pa. We are very grateful to Elizabeth Long for her comments as the discussant on that panel, and to Renee Anspach, Craig Calhoun, and Marc Steinberg for their useful suggestions on that earlier version. RECLAIMING THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL "OTHER": NARRATIVE AND THE SOCIAL CONSTITUTION OF IDENTITY "A Word on Categories" As I write, my editor at Harvard University Press is waging something of a struggle with the people at the Library of Congress about how this book is to be categorized for cataloging purposes. The librarians think "Afro- Americans--Civil Rights" and "Law Teachers" would be nice. I told my editor to hold out for "Autobiography," "Fiction," "Gender Studies," and "Medieval Medicine." This battle seems appropriate enough since the book is not exclusively about race or law but also about boundary. While being black has been the powerful social attribution in my life, it is only one of a number of governing narratives or presiding fictions by which I am constantly reconfiguring myself in the world.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Craig Calhoun Administrative and Leadership Experience
    Craig Calhoun Administrative and Leadership Experience University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Founding Director, Program in Social Theory and Cross-Cultural Studies, 1989-96 (Acting Director, 1988-89); Director, Office of International Programs and Chair, Curriculum in International Studies, 1989- 93; Oversaw study abroad, Fulbright and other faculty exchanges, and one of the largest majors on campus Founding Director, University Center for International Studies, 1993-96; Led successful effort to bring 5 Title VI Centers to UNC; Directed one Center Dean of the Graduate School, 1994-96. Founded Carolina Society of Fellows substantially increasing PhD student funding Other: Administrative Board of the Library, 1981-84; Committee on Computers in the Arts and Sciences, 1982; Graduate School Nominating Committee, Social Sciences, 1982-83; 1986-87 (chair); Committee on Research in African Studies, 1984-85; Faculty Advisor, Carolina Symposium, 1985-86; 1987-8; Faculty Council, 1985- 88, Executive Committee, 1993-94; Organizer, Institute for Research in Social Science Working Group on Social Theory, 1985-87; Advisory Committee on International Programs, 1985-88; Campus Housing Committee, 1986-7; Chancellor's Bicentennial Task Force on the University and Undergraduate Education, 1986-87; Faculty Advisor and Instructor, UNITAS: An Experiment in Multicultural Living and Learning, 1986-88; Chair, UNITAS Advisory Committee, 1990-96; Honors Advisory Board, 1987-90; Division of Social Sciences Advisory Council, 1987-90; Faculty Advisor, Fine Arts
    [Show full text]
  • Historical Sociology in International Relations: Open Society, Research Programme and Vocation
    George Lawson Historical sociology in international relations: open society, research programme and vocation Article (Accepted version) (Refereed) Original citation: Lawson, George (2007) Historical sociology in international relations: open society, research programme and vocation. International politics, 44 (4). pp. 343-368. DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.ip.8800195 © 2007 Palgrave Macmillan This version available at: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/2742/ Available in LSE Research Online: August 2012 LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website. This document is the author’s final manuscript accepted version of the journal article, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer review process. Some differences between this version and the published version may remain. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. Historical Sociology in International Relations: Open Society, Research Programme and Vocation Article for International Politics forum on Historical Sociology April 2006 Abstract Over the last twenty years, historical sociology has become an increasingly conspicuous part of the broader field of International Relations (IR) theory, with advocates making a series of interventions in subjects as diverse as the origins and varieties of international systems over time and place, to work on the co-constitutive relationship between the international realm and state-society relations in processes of radical change.
    [Show full text]
  • U Capital Morning Brief 7 May 2017
    U Capital Morning Brief 7 May 2017 GCC Market Indices Current Close Previous Close Change D/D MTD YTD Index Index Point % % % U Capital Oman 20 Index 1,011.87 1,014.76 -2.89 -0.28% -0.30% -3.91% U Capital GCC 50 Index 1,141.23 1,142.72 -1.49 -0.13% -0.54% -3.14% U Capital MENA 200 Index 1,012.36 1,006.01 6.35 0.63% 0.61% -0.62% Bloomberg GCC200 Index 63.69 63.88 -0.19 -0.30% -0.61% -2.35% Muscat Securities Market 5,475.92 5,492.42 (16.50) -0.30% -0.68% -5.31% Saudi Stock Exchange 6,924.08 6,967.71 (43.63) -0.63% -1.27% -3.97% Kuwait Stock Exchange 6,752.79 6,798.73 (45.94) -0.68% -1.32% 17.48% Qatar Exchange 9,938.28 9,955.40 (17.12) -0.17% -1.25% -4.78% Bahrain Stock Exchange 1,331.22 1,330.90 0.31 0.02% -0.33% 9.08% Dubai Financial Market 3,419.73 3,419.06 0.67 0.02% 0.14% -3.15% Abu Dhabi Sec. Exchange 4,617.16 4,581.26 35.90 0.78% 2.09% 1.56% Source: Bloomberg World Markets* Country Value Change D/D Commodity Prices* Price Change D/D Europe % USD USD % FTSE 100 United Kingdom 7,297.4 49.33 0.68 Brent Crude (per bbl) Updated 49.10 0.72 1.49 DAX Germany 12,716.9 69.11 0.55 WTI Crude (per bbl) Updated 46.22 0.70 1.54 CAC 40 France 5,432.4 59.98 1.12 Oman Crude Oil (Last Closing) 48.38 0.79 1.66 United States DJIA USA 21,006.9 55.47 0.26 S&P 500 USA 2,399.3 9.77 0.41 Gold100 OZ (per oz) 1,221.60 (6.50) (0.53) NASDAQ USA 6,100.8 25.42 0.42 Silver (per oz) 16.34 0.02 0.09 Asia Pacific NIKKEI 225 Japan 19,445.7 135.18 0.70 Platinum (per oz) 913.46 9.81 1.09 HANG SENG Hongkong 24,476.4 (207.53) (0.84) Copper, MT 5,585.00 42.00 0.76 Selected
    [Show full text]
  • Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements
    Passionate Politics Passionate Politics Emotions and Social Movements Edited by Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper, and Francesca Polletta The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London Jeff Goodwin is associate professor of sociology at New York University and author of No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945–1991. James M. Jasper is an independent scholar and the author of Restless Nation and The Art of Moral Protest. Francesca Polletta is associ- ate professor of sociology at Columbia University, and the author of Free- dom Is an Endless Meeting: Democracy in American Social Movements (forthcoming). The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London 2001 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2001 Printed in the United States of America 10987654321 54321 ISBN (cloth): 0-226-30398-5 ISBN (paper): 0-226-30399-3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Passionate politics : emotions and social movements / edited by Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper, and Francesca Polletta. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-226-30398-5 (cloth) — ISBN 0-226-30399-3 (pbk.) 1. Social movements. 2. Emotions. 3. Political science. I. Goodwin, Jeff. II. Jasper, James M., 1957–. III. Polletta, Francesca. HM881 .P38 2001 303.48′4—dc21 2001000938 ᭺∞ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992. To all those who have pursued social justice with passion Contents Preface and Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Why Emotions Matter Jeff Goodwin, James M.
    [Show full text]
  • NATASHA N. ISKANDER Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public
    NATASHA N. ISKANDER Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service New York University The Puck Building, 295 Lafayette Street, rm. 3403, New York, NY 10012 [email protected] (212) 998-7479 Education Ph.D., Management, Institute for Work and Employment Research Sloan School of Management – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2006 Dissertation: “Innovating Government: Migration and Development Policy in Mexico and Morocco” M.C.P., International Development, Department of Urban Studies and Planning Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1999 (National Science Foundation Fellow – 1997-2001) B.A. Cultural Studies, with Honors and Distinction Stanford University, 1994 Current Associate Professor of Public Policy Position Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service New York University Faculty Associate Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies New York University Faculty Affiliate Department of Environmental Studies New York University Course Institutions, Governance, and Economic Development, Graduate Seminar Offerings Advanced Project in Qualitative Research Methods: Studies in International Migration Advanced Project in International Public Finance and Planning, Graduate Seminar Water Sourcing and Delivery in an Era of Climate Change, Graduate Seminar Immigration Politics and Policy, Graduate Seminar Book Iskander, N. 2010. Creative State: Forty Years of Migration and Development Policy in Morocco and Mexico. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ILR imprint. (International Studies Association – Distinguished Book Award -- Ethnicity, Nationalism and Migration Track; Social Science Research Council—Featured Publication) Peer-reviewed Iskander, N. forthcoming. “The Political Right to have ‘Society in the Bones’: The Skill and Brawn of Articles. Male Workers in Qatar.” Women’s Science Quarterly. ~1 of 10~ [email protected] Natasha Iskander Lowe, N.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae Professor Shane Mitchell Greenstein the Martin Marshall Professor of Business Administration Harvard Business School Jan, 2021
    Curriculum Vitae Professor Shane Mitchell Greenstein The Martin Marshall Professor of Business Administration Harvard Business School Jan, 2021 Department address: Technology Operation and Management Morgan Hall 439 Harvard Business School Harvard University Boston, MA 02163 Contact Information: E-mail:[email protected] Phone: 617-384-7472 Fax: 617-384-4072 Publications Books and edited volumes 1. 2016, (and Josh Lerner and Scott Stern, editors) Innovation, Policy and the Economy, Volume 17, Special issue devoted to the economics of digitization. NBER conference volume, University of Chicago Press. 2. 2015, How the Internet Became Commercial: Innovation, Privatization, and the Birth of a new Network, Princeton University Press. http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10574.html. Winner of the 2016 Schumpeter Prize. 3. 2015, (and Avi Goldfarb and Catherine Tucker, Editors), Economic Analysis of the Digital Economy, NBER conference book, University of Chicago Press. 4. 2013, (and Avi Goldfarb and Catherine Tucker, Editors), The Economics of Digitization, Edward Elgar; Cheltenham, UK. 5. 2007 (and Victor Stango, Editors), Standards and Public Policy, Cambridge Press. Second edition (paperback), 2011. 6. 2006 (Editor), Computing. Edward-Elgar Press, UK. 7. 2004, Diamonds are Forever, Computers are Not, Economic and Strategic Management in Computing Markets, Imperial College Press: London. 1 8. 2002, (and Lorrie Cranor, Editors), Communications Policy and Information Technology: Promises, Problems, Prospects, MIT Press. 9. 2001, (and Ben Compaine, Editors), Communications Policy in Transition: The Internet and Beyond, MIT Press. Articles in Refereed Journals 1. 2021. (Ran Zhuo, Bradley Huffaker, kc Claffy), The Impact of the General Data Protection Regulation on Internet Interconnection. Telecommunication Policy, (Also NBER Working paper 2648.) 2.
    [Show full text]
  • EPSA Censorship of the Arab Spring in MENA Media Last
    Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2016 Censorship of the Arab Spring in MENA media Ciocan, Dumitru ; Wüest, Bruno Abstract: The press should ideally be the eyes, ears and voice of the public in any state. However, freedom of the press varies across states and is especially lacking in autocratic ones. This paper asks how the press in autocracies tackles the challenge of reporting on contentious mobilization, i.e. protests events that threaten the very survival of the regime. For this, it relies on count and structural topic models applied to an original dataset of roughly half a million newspaper articles published before and after the events of the Arab Spring (January 2009 – December 2011), and on new protest event data from the Mass Mobilizations in Autocracies Dataset. We find that both the extent of coverage and its content is influenced by the overall degree of censorship in MENA countries. Moreover, threats to authoritarian regimes, measured both as intensity of domestic protests and intensity of protests across the wider MENA region, also influence the coverage of the issue. We also find that these effects are stronger forstateowned newspapers. Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-143872 Conference or Workshop Item Originally published at: Ciocan, Dumitru; Wüest, Bruno (2016). Censorship of the Arab Spring in MENA media. In: European Political Science Association. Annual Meeting, Brussels, 23 June 2016 - 25 June 2016. CENSORSHIP OF THE ARAB SPRING IN MENA MEDIA DUMITRU CIOCAN BRUNO WUEEST University of Zurich University of Zurich [email protected] [email protected] Paper prepared for presentation at the 6th Annual General Conference of the European Political Science Association 23-25 June 2016 Brussels Abstract The press should ideally be the eyes, ears and voice of the public in any state.
    [Show full text]
  • Biographical Description for the Historymakers® Video Oral History with Ronald Glass
    Biographical Description for The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History with Ronald Glass PERSON Glass, Ron, 1945- Alternative Names: Ronald Glass; Ronald Erle Glass Life Dates: July 10, 1945-November 25, 2016 Place of Birth: Evansville, Indiana, USA Occupations: Stage Actor; Television Actor Biographical Note Actor Ron Glass was born Ronald Earle Glass to Lefia Mae Gibson Glass and Crump Allen Glass on July 10, 1945, in Evansville, Indiana. A spelling bee champion at St. John’s Elementary School, Glass attended St. Francis High School where he excelled at athletics and singing. After graduating in 1964, Glass attended the University of Evansville where he received his B.A. degree in drama and literature. In 1968, Glass made his stage debut at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Moving to Hollywood in 1972, Glass got his first television role Hollywood in 1972, Glass got his first television role in an episode of Sanford and Son. Other roles followed in All in the Family (1972); Maude (1972); Hawaii Five-O (1973); Good Times (1974); When Things Were Rotten (1975); and Streets of San Francisco (1976). In 1975, Glass became a regular on the police comedy Barney Miller; he later went on to play Felix in The New Odd Couple (1983). Glass appeared in series as varied as The Twilight Zone (1985); 227 (1985); Deep Space (1987); Family Matters (1989); Murder She Wrote (1984); Friends (1994); Star Trek Voyager (1995); Teen Angel (1997); and The Practice (1997). In 2002, Glass played the role of Shepherd Book in Firefly, which he reprised for Serenity, the 2005 movie based on the show.
    [Show full text]
  • Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy Discussion Paper Series
    Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy Discussion Paper Series #D-64, June 2011 Disengaged: Elite Media in a Vernacular Nation1 By Bob Calo Shorenstein Center Fellow, Spring 2011 Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley © 2011 President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. Journalists, by and large, regard the “crisis” as something that happened to them, and not anything they did. It was the Internet that jumbled the informational sensitivities of their readers, corporate ownership that raised suspicions about our editorial motives, the audience itself that lacked the education or perspective to appreciate the work. Yet, 40 years of polling is clear about one thing: The decline in trust and the uneasiness of the audience with the profession and its product started well before technology began to shred the conventions of the media. In 1976, 72% of Americans expressed confidence in the news. Everyone knows the dreary trend line from that year onward: an inexorable decline over the decades.2 And if we fail to examine our part in the collapse of trust, no amount of digital re-imagining or niche marketing is going to restore our desired place in the public conversation. Ordinary working people no longer see media as a partner in their lives but part of the noise that intrudes on their lives. People will continue to muddle through: voting or not voting, caring or not caring, but many of them are doing it, as they once did, without the companionship of the press. Now elites and partisans don’t have this problem, there are niches aplenty for them.
    [Show full text]
  • In the Shadow of General Marshall-Old Soldiers in The
    In The Shadow of General Marshall: Old Soldiers in the Executive Branch Ryan Edward Guiberson Anaconda, Montana Bachelor of Science, United States Air Force Academy, 1992 Master of Arts-Political Science, University of Florida, 1994 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Politics University of Virginia August, 2013 2 Abstract: The usurpation of political authority by tyrannical military figures is a theme that pervades the history of politics. The United States has avoided such an occurrence and the prospect of a military coup d’etat rarely registers as a realistic concern in American politics. Despite the unlikelihood of this classic form of military usurpation, other more insidious forms lurk and must be guarded against to protect civilian control of the military. One potential manifestation has been referred to as a military colonization of the executive branch. This form implies that retired senior military officers increasingly pursue executive branch positions and unduly promote the interests of the active duty military, its leaders, and military solutions to national security issues. This work addresses military colonization claims by examining the number of retired senior military officers that have served in executive branch positions, trends in where they participate, and their political behavior in these positions. It also uses interviews with retired senior military officers to gain their perspectives on the incentives and disincentives of executive branch service. The study concludes that in the post-Cold War period, participation rates of retired senior military officers in key executive branch positions do not diverge significantly from broader post-World War II patterns.
    [Show full text]