Bridgewater Review, Vol. 36, No. 1, May 2017

Bridgewater Review

Volume 36 | Issue 1 Article 1

May-2017 Bridgewater Review, Vol. 36, No. 1, May 2017

Recommended Citation Bridgewater State University. (2017). Bridgewater Review. 36(1). Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/br_rev/vol36/iss1/1

This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Bridgewater Review

In this issue: Also in this issue: A LOOK AT TOTAL BORIANA MARINTCHEVA Voices on Campus: SOLAR ECLIPSES on What’s New with the Flu CLAIRE CULLETON on Irish Art at the Olympic Games by MARTINA ARNDT J. MICHAEL BODI on International Standardized and Testing and American Education Book Reviews by Seeking the Northern Lights JENNY SHANAHAN, Photo Essay by JASON EDWARDS, TIMOTHY WENSON HEATHER MARELLA, and STEVEN YOUNG Discovering Jerusalem’s First Mosque on the Haram al-Sharif by BEATRICE ST LAURENT

MayVolume 2017 36, Number 1 May 2017 BRIDGEWATER STATE UNIVERSITY1 Waiting for the King Artist: Betsy Scarbrough, Mixed Media Collage, including painted wallpaper, original artwork and photographs (Photographed by Ezechiaste Pompilus)

Credits for Author Photographs Martina Arndt (by Naty Alzate); Claire Culleton (by Debra-Lynn Hook); Betsy Scarbrough is Administrative Jason Edwards (by Amber Edwards); Heather Marella (by Andrew Holman); Assistant in the Department of Andrew Holman (by Frank Gorga); Jenny Shanahan (by John Winters); Accounting and Finance Beatrice St Laurent (by Alex Brey); Tim Wenson (by Kate Ricciarelli-Wenson); and Steven Young (Briarwood Studio).

2 Bridgewater Review Bridgewater Review Volume 36, Number 1 May 2017

2 Editor’s Notebook EDITOR Andrew C. Holman Andrew C. Holman History & Canadian Studies 4 Total Solar Eclipses: Why I Observe Them and How You Can Too ASSOCIATE EDITOR Martina Arndt Ellen Scheible English 10 What’s New with the Flu? EDITORS EMERITUS Boriana Marintcheva Michael Kryzanek 13 International Standardized Testing: Political Science & Global Studies The Measurement Problem William C. Levin J. Michael Bodi Sociology 17 PHOTO ESSAY Barbara Apstein Seeking the Northern Lights English Timothy Wenson Brian Payne 23 Discovering Jerusalem’s First Mosque on History the Haram al-Sharif and Capitalizing Jerusalem DESIGN in the Seventh Century Philip McCormick’s Design Beatrice St Laurent Works, Inc., North Easton, Mass. 29 VOICES ON CAMPUS Irish Art at the Olympic Games Claire Culleton

33 BOOK REVIEWS Wrestling with God with Foer and Melton, Jenny Shanahan Can We Bridge America’s Political Divide? Jason Edwards A New Light on Trees, Heather Marella From Mozart to Messiaen: Reflections on a Lifetime of Music, Steven Young

On the Front Cover: Total Solar Eclipse 2015 (Svalbard, Norway). Photograph by Miroslav Druckmüller, Shadia Habbal, Peter Aniol, and Pavel Štarha. Printed with permission.

Bridgewater Review is published twice a year by the faculty and librarians of Bridgewater State University. Opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the policies ofBridgewater Review or Bridgewater State University. Letters to the Editor are encouraged and should be sent to: Editor, Bridgewater Review, [email protected]

May 2017 1 gene; it merely compares snippets of Editor’s Notebook one’s DNA makeup to snippets of the DNA makeups of others known to be Andrew C. Holman of certain ethnicities and seeks similari- or the past three years I have been an admirer ties). In this way, curious consumers are told that they are “54% British” or of a one-hour weekly television show on PBS “23% Oceanic” or whatever. According called “Finding Your Roots.” The host is to data from Kalorama Information, F family-tree-related at-home DNA- distinguished Harvard history professor and public testing services will generate $350 mil- intellectual Henry Louis Gates Jr, who, with the lion by 2020. help of a crack team of researchers and the science The upshot of this is what Maud of a DNA-chromosomal-testing service called Newton called in a June 2014 Harper’s magazine piece “America’s Ancestry “23andMe,” traces the ancestry of invited celebrities. Craze.” The term “craze” suggests In a dramatic sequence of steps, the host reveals to each a passing fad or fetish – a social episode’s subjects, through prepared “Books of Life,” phenomenon that has emerged quickly. So why now? Some of our interest in the often unexpected and always emotional facts of this endeavor comes from its novelty. their family histories. Actor Dustin Hoffman learns We want to know our ethnic makeup because now we – almost all of us – can. that his grandfather was murdered in the USSR by the The “science” is now widely available. Bolshevik secret police; comedian Bill Hader is told But there are longer-term, pent-up that he descends from English royalty; legendary Civil causes, too, that stem from some of the darker chapters in American Rights activist John Lewis learns of his great-great history. Slavery and the conquest grandfather’s record as an early Black-voting registrant of First Nations peoples obliterated the knowledge of Black and Native in Reconstruction-era Alabama. It’s emotional. Gates ancestors, some of which (it is hoped) told one NPR interviewer in 2012, “People cry.” can be reconstructed using what we might call the “New Genealogy.” And The program has been a great success allow interested inquirers—for $99 and others, like war-era British “Home because its appeal is something much the safe return of a cotton-swab test Children,” adoptees, and families of deeper than celebrity voyeurism and kit—to reach back beyond traceable Holocaust victims, now have new tools the cliff-hanging uncertainties of well- and nameable ancestors and learn what to help describe what had previously staged drama. Interest in family history, chromosomal analysis can tell them been unknowable. “A new world has long the province of the superannu- about their ethnic origins. (Note: the opened up,” Newton writes, “for… ated and supported by well-heeled and “science” of this sort of DNA testing anyone else cut off from her origins” religiously motivated institutions such is fuzzy. This chromosomal test isn’t (31). It’s exciting. as the Church of Latter-day Saints, searching for a specific tell-tale ethnic has exploded in the past half-decade. Genealogy is in vogue, and it’s no longer just your grandmother’s hobby. It is, in fact, big business. For a subscrip- Most of us have expectations tion fee, online genealogy-research services like Ancestry.com and about our ethnicity, have already MyHeritage sell access to searchable imagined our own “race.” And digitized databases such as census, birth and death records, and make finding so revising or contradicting answers to elementary genealogy que- ries fast and easy. What’s more, DNA- those preconceived truths can research services like AncestryDNA be unsettling.

2 Bridgewater Review means little if we haven’t experienced the lived condition, or paid the social price of those who, for all of their lives, have been identified as members of disadvantaged groups of people. In the end, as University of Alberta Native Studies professor Kim Tallbear told a PRI interviewer last fall, it matters less who we claim to be than “who claims us.” Still, for Gates, the discomfort of these blood revelations is at the center of the political mission of the New Genealogy. By demonstrating scientifi- cally that there is no such thing as racial purity, that we are all mixed beings, digital and genetics research will, as he said, “revolutionize our concept of race in America” and break down barri- ers (Newton, 33). There’s something comforting in that assertion. If Gates is right, ethnic heterogeneity is the common trait that connects Americans. This idea, now backed by science, has potential for redefining what it means to belong in America – for both claim- ing heritage and being claimed by it. Today, when a new brand of xenopho- bia has emerged in this country, fueled by fear-mongering over immigration and border control, reactions to social- justice movements such as Black Lives Matter, the export of American jobs, Still, there are potentially unantici- sensationalized family-history research and the continued specter of radicaliza- pated consequences for at least some of and activated new political meanings tion and terror, “othering” is on the this new enthusiasm for genealogical for it. rise and anomie threatens to trump inquiry. In the old days, family-history community. In a modest way, the New Who am I? Who can I claim to be? research was most often a solitary Genealogy (and the political message it These questions are at the core of and incremental pursuit, a plod- can bring) counters that awful wind. family research and they have never ding, time-consuming pastime that been wholly innocuous or benign. involved a great deal of correspond- Most of us have expectations about ence, travel to libraries and archives and our ethnicity, have already imagined family-history centers, and hours upon our own “race.” And so revising or hours of winding through microfilm contradicting those preconceived truths perched awkwardly, head inside a can be unsettling. “We’re talking about boxy metal reader. Old-school gene- blood,” writes Newton, and “we’re alogists constructed their family trees supposed to pledge allegiance to blood” painstakingly; unexpected discoveries (32). What does it mean, really, to be were digested slowly and smoothly. As 35% Irish, or 25% Native American? always, technology changes things; the Intriguing and inviting, for some; a New Genealogy’s ease and speed has new window on “self.” For others, it

May 2017 3 2015

NORWAY ARCTIC OCEAN GREENLAND ARCTIC OCEAN

SWEDEN U. S. A. ICELAND FINLAND RUSSIA

UNITED POLAND CANADA KINGDOM 1997 GERMANY UKRAINE KAZAKHSTAN 2008 FRANCE ROMANIA MONGOLIA ITALY

ATLANTIC SPAIN GREECE TURKEY CHINA PACIFIC SOUTH JAPAN OCEAN AFGHANISTAN IRAQ KOREA OCEAN 2006 IRAN ALGERIA PAKISTAN LIBYA EGYPT 1998 SAUDI ARABIA INDIA MAURITANIA NIGER MALI THAILAND 2009 ANTIGUA CHAD SUDAN NIGERIA VENEZUELA ETHIOPIA MARSHALL ISLANDS CONGO KENYA INDONESIA PAPUA 2001 TANZANIA NEW GUINEA BRAZIL ANGOLA INDIAN 2010 ZAMBIA BOLIVIA OCEAN NAMIBIA FRENCH 2002 MADAGASCAR AUSTRALIA POLYNESIA

SOUTH 2012 AFRICA ARGENTINA

NEW ZEALAND

Figure 1. Map of the Author’s Ten Research Expeditions to Observe Total Solar Eclipses: Svalbard, Norway (March 20, 2015); Australia (November 13, 2012); Tatakoto, French Polynesia (July 11, 2010); Enewetak, Marshall Islands (July 22, 2009); China (August 1, 2008); Libya (March 29, 2006); South Africa (December 4, 2002); Zambia (June 21, 2001); Antigua/Guadalupe (February 26, 1998); and Mongolia (March 9, 1997).

countries in Africa (Libya, Zambia, Total Solar Eclipses: Why I Observe and South Africa); to remote atolls in French Polynesia and the Marshall Them and How You Can Too Islands; and to Australia, Mongolia, and Antigua (Figure 1). I have yet to Martina B. Arndt see one in North America, but that don’t remember the first time I learned about solar will change on August 21, 2017 when a total solar eclipse will be visible across a eclipses; it may have been in elementary school, large portion of the United States. This or more likely it was in the astronomy class I took will be a great opportunity for anyone I interested in seeing one. to meet a general education requirement in college. I do, however, remember the first time I traveled to Solar Eclipses: How observe a total solar eclipse. It was in Mongolia in They Happen and Why March, 1997. It snowed, so we didn’t see any of the They Matter The Sun is a sphere of rotating plasma, eclipse but it kick-started my interest in becoming an large enough that 109 Earths could eclipse researcher. Since that first trip, I have been part be lined up along its diameter. It is of ten research expeditions around the globe to collect 93 million miles away, which means sunlight takes nearly 8.5 minutes to data during total solar eclipses. They have brought me reach us. The round sphere we see above the Arctic Circle to Svalbard, Norway; to three during sunrise and sunset marks a layer

4 Bridgewater Review of the Sun called the photosphere, thousands of miles long, but only Eclipse Research and which has an average temperature of 100 miles wide. From any point in Contributions to Science 5,500 Kelvin (more than 9,000 degrees the path of totality, the total eclipse Fahrenheit). Above the photosphere is can last as fleetingly as a few seconds The narrow path of totality dictates the chromosphere, and above that is the but never more than seven and a where researchers can go to collect corona, which is more than one million half minutes, limiting the amount data, which explains why eclipse Kelvin (hotter than one million degrees of data we can collect. Outside of the expeditions have taken me around Fahrenheit). The curious fact that the path of totality, in the penumbra, the the world. Dr Shadia Habbal, my plasma in the corona gets hotter further Sun only appears partially covered, friend, colleague, and mentor at the away from the photosphere is known resulting in a partial solar eclipse Institute for Astronomy in Hawai’i, is as the coronal heating problem. (Figure 2). the lead researcher for the expeditions in which I have participated. For each eclipse, Dr Habbal assembles a diverse team of research scientists, graduate During totality, the sky goes dark, students and technicians skilled at imaging, electronics and programming. and sometimes stars can be seen Undergraduates have also participated in the sky – a surreal experience and, for the 2008 eclipse in China, I was able to bring along a high school during daylight hours. teacher. These expeditions are truly collaborative efforts; while each

The corona is also the region through which charged particles flow away Orbit of the Moon from the Sun via the solar wind. Solar plasma is constantly moving, and in he Earth addition to a steady stream of plasma Orbit of t moving away from the Sun, there are times when large numbers of charged particles are released into the solar Penumbra wind via solar flares or coronal mass Umbra ejections. When they reach Earth, these particles interact with its magnetic fields and atmosphere, often producing the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis (northern and southern lights). When particularly high densities of charged particles reach Earth, we experience strong geomagnetic storms during which satellites and even power grids can be at risk. Once every year or two, the Moon is perfectly positioned to totally block the main body of the Sun. At this time, we can study the dynamics (and beauty) of the chromosphere and corona. During an eclipse, the only way to see the Sun completely covered by Sun the Moon is to be in the umbra along the path of totality, which can be Figure 2. Diagram showing the geometry of a total solar eclipse with the umbra and penumbra marked (Image by Sagredo, available at Wikimedia Commons).

May 2017 5 Eclipses are beautiful to behold. As Jules César Janssen used a spectroscope the moon covers the Sun, the ambient to observe solar prominences and light dims and the air gets cooler. discovered a new chemical element that During totality, the sky goes dark, and was eventually named Helium, a nod sometimes stars can be seen in the sky to the Greek God of the Sun, Helios. – a surreal experience during daylight During the eclipse on May 29, 1919, hours. Faint details of the corona Englishman Sir Arthur Eddington stretch far away from the solar surface confirmed Albert Einstein’s theory of and, after totality, the sky brightens general relativity by observing light and the air gradually warms up again. from stars behind the eclipsed Sun that I am always amazed at scientists’ was being redirected due to the Sun’s Figure 3. Eclipse team in Zambia for the June 21, 2001 eclipse. The author is in the front row ability to calculate when and where gravitational field. to see eclipses. I can only imagine wearing a Bridgewater State College Physics We gather important data from the what people thought when the Sun Department T-shirt. Dr Habbal is in the front, chromosphere and the corona during second from the right (Author’s photo). disappeared before they were able to eclipses to help us better understand predict when the Earth, Moon and Sun how the solar wind and corona work. team member has a specific role, would align so perfectly. everyone works together to make Eclipses provide ideal conditions to sure the experiments are successful. Aside from their beauty, eclipses help us observe these regions because the bright Funding for my participation has come advance science. During the August 18, photosphere is blocked by the Moon. from a variety of sources, including 1868 eclipse, French astronomer Pierre Dr Habbal’s research focus is on very the National Science Foundation, Bridgewater State University through CART (now CARS) and Academic Affairs, Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, as well as personal monies. During every eclipse expedition, I reunite with old colleagues, establish relationships with new ones, and marvel at how people from all over the world are able to come together as a team, often starting as strangers united by a common goal and leaving with new friendships and professional collaborations. I am very fortunate to be able to do this enriching and important work (Figure 3). Figure 4 is an image of the total solar eclipse taken by several team members in Svalbard, Norway, in 2015. In this image, the moon is faintly lit by Earth glow. A solar prominence is visible, several Earths in size, above the upper left limb of the Moon. Emanating from behind the Moon, the solar corona radiates far beyond the photosphere. The coronal structures are regions of higher density plasma guided by the Sun’s own magnetic fields. Every eclipse is different because the corona is affected by solar activity, which Figure 4. Total solar eclipse on March 20, 2015 seen in Svalbard, Norway. This image is a changes over time. composite of several exposures and has been processed to highlight the coronal features (Photograph by Miroslav Druckmüller, Shadia Habbal, Peter Aniol, and Pavel Štarha. Used here with permission).

6 Bridgewater Review Figure 5. Some of the experiments in a tent during the November 13, 2012 eclipse in Australia (Author’s photo). specific wavelengths of light in the filters tuned to specific wavelengths Because the Earth is constantly rotating, corona, some which are visible to the atop high-caliber lenses that focus the experiments are attached to mounts human eye (green and red) and some eclipse images onto digital imaging that counteract this movement. The that are not (infrared). In order to select systems. More than a dozen of these mounts, in turn, are attached to tripods, these particular kinds of light, we use set-ups are operating at the same time. and these systems are housed in tents with panels that can be removed during the eclipse itself. The imaging systems are run by computers programmed to Total solar eclipses are seldom optimize data collection (Figure 5). All of this equipment requires power, available to us in the United and we sometimes have to provide our own generators. The climate in the States: the last two visible from tents must be optimized for equipment to function correctly. Depending on New England took place on local conditions, we have sometimes had to bring air conditioners to prevent October 2, 1959 (which was overheating, and other times warmers, visible in Boston) and July 20, so cold batteries don’t fail. This equipment is delicate, vital, and often 1963 (which was visible in Maine). expensive. As a result, we carry all of it

May 2017 7 Figure 6. Map of the August 21, 2017 eclipse showing the path of totality and where to see the partially eclipsed Sun. (Map by Michael Zeiler. Used here with permission). on airplanes rather than shipping it— in collecting data that helps us better The Great American which explains why we call ourselves understand the conditions and processes Eclipse of 2017 the Solar Wind Sherpas. The work is taking place on the corona. Several peer- challenging, demanding, and exciting. reviewed publications and presentations For those who have never seen a Sometimes data collection is thwarted have resulted from these expeditions, solar eclipse, there will be a good by weather, but other times we succeed and the experiments keep evolving. opportunity to do so this year. On August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will be visible across a great swath of the United States (Figure 6). The Solar From any point in the path of Wind Sherpas will be dispersed into four observing teams along the path of totality, the total eclipse can last totality; I will be heading the team in as fleetingly as a few seconds Alliance, Nebraska. Observers in New England will be in the penumbra, so but never more than seven and they will see a partial eclipse for nearly 2.5 hours. The Moon will start to block a half minutes, limiting the the Sun around 1:30 p.m. EDT, and amount of data we can collect. will stop eclipsing it near 4:00 p.m.

8 Bridgewater Review Point this end Pinhole of box toward Tape the eclipse

Aluminum Foil

Bottom of box is open Image shows here

Figure 7a. Figure 7b. Figure 7c How to Safely View an Eclipse: Figure 7a. Eclipse Glasses (Wikimedia Commons); Figure 7b. Pinhole Projection Box (courtesy John I. Carney and the Shelbyville [Tenn.] Times-Gazette), and Figure 7c. the Author’s Finger Overlap Technique, demonstrated during an eclipse in Libya, 29 March 2009 (Author’s photo). EDT. Over this time, the height of the Sun above the horizon will range between 40 and 60 degrees, so viewers These expeditions are truly should position themselves away from collaborative efforts; while tall buildings and trees that might block the view. At the midpoint of the eclipse, each team member has a specific the Sun will be about 65% covered. Because a significant portion of the role, everyone works together Sun will still be visible during the partial eclipse, observers could damage to make sure the experiments their eyes if they look directly at the are successful. eclipsing Sun. Here are my preferred ways to observe the Sun when it is partially eclipsed: overlap your fingers to make a pinhole eclipse glasses, the history of eclipses, Eclipse glasses: You can buy a pair projector (Figure 7c). Leafy trees turn and activities to do with children, of eclipse glasses for $1-2, though the out to be natural pinhole projectors here are two of many excellent price goes down if you purchase them because overlapping leaves let shafts of sources dedicated to the 2017 eclipse: in bulk (Figure 7a). Leave them off light through to the ground, littering it www.greatamericaneclipse.com and when you are not looking at the Sun, with images of partial solar eclipses. eclipse2017.nasa.gov. but once you have them on, you can Total solar eclipses are seldom available look at the Sun directly. Treat these to us in the United States: the last two glasses with care because they are only visible from New England took place effective if the Mylar you look through on October 2, 1959 (which was visible is not scratched. in Boston) and July 20, 1963 (which Pinhole projector: It is easy to project was visible in Maine). The next total an image of a bright object (such as solar eclipse in the region will be on a partially eclipsed Sun) onto a safe April 8, 2024, when observers can viewing surface by making a pinhole travel to Vermont to be in the path of projector. There are many ways to totality. Until then, head outside and make pinhole projectors. Pinhole hope for clear skies on August 21, 2017 projection can be done through tin foil to see this beautiful and special celestial at one end of a box (Figure 7b), via a phenomenon. Even if you cannot Martina Arndt is Professor in the pattern of pinholes in a piece of paper, travel to the path of totality, it is worth Physics Department. or through a surface that already has observing the partial eclipse. For more holes in it, like a colander. You can even about eclipses, including where to buy

May 2017 9 membrane-like structure, called an What’s New with the Flu? envelope (Figure 1, in purple). The outside surface of the virus is spiky Boriana Marintcheva (Figures 1 and 2), which allows it to attach to the surface of cells in our t is hardly necessary to introduce the Flu: everyone respiratory tract. The spike responsible fears getting it or knows someone who has had for the attachment is a protein molecule the misfortune of experiencing it. Every year, called Hemagglutinin (H, in orange, I Figure 1), which works like velcro. It many of us debate with our relatives, our physicians is “sticky” because it can interact with and ourselves whether to get the anti-Flu vaccine. molecules on the cell surface (sialic acid or SA) that serve as viral recep- The impact of the Flu on our lives can be illustrated tors. Once the H and SA “velcro” with numbers involving many zeros: yearly, thousands together, the cellular membrane bulges of people lose their lives to the Flu or complications inward and the Influenza virus finds itself wrapped in a “bubble” inside the from the Flu; millions of doctor’s office visits take host cell. RNA genetic code directs place; billions of dollars are spent dealing with the the host cell to produce multiple copies of all viral components, which are Flu; and countless hours of work and school are then packaged as new viruses. The lost recovering from it. Almost a century after the new viruses are released when they pandemic Spanish flu ravaged the world, we are are “pinched out” from the cell. The enzyme Neuronimidase (Figure 1, in still fascinated by its magnitude, which to Influenza A, but it does not cause blue), is essential for the process, helping included Southeastern Massachusetts pandemics since it infects only humans the new viruses escape the velcro of the between 1918 and 1920 (see Bridgewater and seals, and thus is more containable. cellular surface. The infected cell con- Review, May 2016), and started a scien- Influenza C causes mild non-seasonal tinues to produce viruses until it runs tific quest to identify and combat the disease and is not considered a serious out of membrane material and then infectious agent causing this devastating health issue. Anti-Flu vaccines are man- dies, while the new viruses go on to disease. In 2009, we experienced ufactured to confer immunity against infect neighboring cells or are released yet another big Flu scare with the selected strains of Influenza A and B, into the environment by coughing and so-called swine flu, whose impact but not Influenza C. Although Flu sneezing. was fortunately much less disastrous viruses are among the best-understood than expected. infectious agents, medicine does not The Influenza A and B viruses offer great tools to control them. The propagate very quickly and trigger The Flu is caused by Influenza viruses, viruses simply change too often, thus a robust immune response, which which originate in birds and have requiring our immune systems to start we experience as high fever and evolved to infect many wild and working from scratch inflammation of the respiratory tract. domesticated bird species, as well as as soon as a new virus arises and forcing Normally, the first exposure to a pigs, horses, humans and even seals and us to take a yearly vaccine in an attempt virus or taking a vaccine will build whales. Until recently, scientists knew to protect ourselves. immunity and protect our bodies from of only three major types of Influenza, future infections. Unfortunately, that named (unremarkably) Influenza A, Just like any other virus, the structure is not exactly true for the Flu. The B and C. In September 2016, a new of Influenza virus can be summarized trouble is that the molecular machinery Influenza virus isolated from pigs as “a piece of bad news wrapped in copying Influenza genetic code is and cattle was officially classified as a protein” (Peter Medawar, National “sloppy” and makes a lot of errors. As Influenza D. The various Influenza Geographic, 1994). In fact, Influenza A a result, Influenza viruses constantly viruses impact human health somewhat viruses have eight pieces of bad news, change and reinvent themselves into a differently. The biggest troublemaker each made of ribonucleic acid (RNA). multiplicity of different versions, such is Influenza A, which infects multiple RNA is similar to deoxyribonucleic as H1N1, H1N5 and many others. The species and has the potential to become acid (DNA) and contains the viral letters H and N refer to the viral spikes, pandemic. Influenza B infection genetic code. Each piece of RNA is hemagglutinin and neuronimidase, results in disease symptoms similar wrapped in a proteinaceous coat, and which comprise the viral portrait from all eight pieces are held together by a

10 Bridgewater Review drugs block the release of the army of newly produced viruses from infected cells, thus stopping the infection at its roots. If taken past the onset of the symptoms, the drug still does its job, but does not deliver spectacular results simply because the body is already flooded with too many viruses to tackle. Major technological advances are in the works which, we hope, will improve our success rate of combating the Flu. No, there is no app for that; but the time has come for us to reach higher ground for managing the Flu. Those of us who have been getting the anti-Flu vaccine as recommended will have noticed over the last few years that things have changed for the better. The vaccine becomes available much earlier in the year (usually late August as opposed to October or November), and those who are allergic to eggs Figure 1. Creative Illustration of Influenza Virus. The surface glycoprotein spikes: emagglutinin can now get vaccinated, which was and neuraminidase are displayed in orange and blue, respectively. The eight pieces of genetic not possible a few years ago. These code (not shown) are wrapped in the membrane of the viral envelope depicted in purple (Image by improvements are a direct result of Kateryna Kon). extensive efforts to advance technology the viewpoint of the immune system. Flu globally. We take advantage of for vaccine production and move the Every time our body encounters the seasonal nature of the Flu, which process away from eggs. For more than Influenza virus, there is a good chance correlates with virus stability in the 50 years, the vaccine was manufactured that it will be a new version, and thus environment. The World Health in eggs, simply because Influenza is previous illness or vaccine will not Organization collects information a bird virus and readily propagates in be relevant (or as relevant as it could regarding Influenza virus versions that environment. Unfortunately, the be if the virus was not changing). An in different parts of the planet and Influenza virus also infects chickens additional level of complexity comes recommends updates of the anti-Flu from the fact that the Influenza virus vaccine. For example, the high Flu has multiple pieces of “bad news” in season in the northern hemisphere its genetic makeup. If two different spans the winter months; thus versions of Influenza virus happen to information about the current Flu infect the same cell, RNA pieces can strains collected in our winter (the be mixed, thus increasing the diversity southern hemisphere’s summer) is used of newly made viruses even further. to produce an updated vaccine for the Generally, Influenza A viruses change southern hemisphere winter, and vice faster than Influenza B, presumably versa. As with many other disastrous due to their different abilities to infect phenomena, prevention of the Flu is various hosts. Influenza B infects our best bet. But unlike many other mainly humans, and so it has a lower diseases, we do not have a vast array probability for producing new versions. of tools to help patients with recovery. Figure 2. Digitally-colorized Transmission Only a single class of drugs, inhibitors Our biological understanding of Electron Microscope Image of H1N1 Influenza of the N protein, is available on the Influenza virus directly informs the Virus Particles. Courtesy of National Institute of market and they work well only if taken Allergy and Infectious Diseases. methods that medical and public at the onset of Flu symptoms. The health officials use to deal with the

May 2017 11 and can wipe out huge numbers of strains cannot really be appreciated universal protection against the forever- them in a short time. When that or changed before the Flu season is evolving Flu. So far, experiments in happens, our capacity for producing over. Naturally, the question “Does it mice look promising. anti-Flu vaccine is diminished, resulting make sense to get vaccinated?” arises. Another avenue to diminish the impact in vaccine shortage, something that The records say “yes.” There is a great of the Flu on our society is to increase actually happened at the time of the difference between the outcomes of the vaccination rates, thus minimizing swine Flu outbreak in 2009. Obviously, Flu seasons before and after vaccine was chances for virus transmission. Painless individuals allergic to eggs could made available. Even a 60%-effective microneedle patches for syringe-free not be vaccinated due to the risk of vaccine helps combat the virus. When vaccine delivery are in human clinical severe allergic reaction. The problem scientists compare the impact of the trials both in the US and Europe was solved with the development of last pandemic Influenza strain—the and are expected to revolutionize methods to produce classical anti-Flu swine flu of 2009—with previous vaccination not only for individuals vaccine in tissue culture of mammalian ones, they see a huge contrast. In the with needle-phobia, but globally. It is hoped that, one day, patches will be paired with vaccines that do not require refrigeration and will be delivered by The effectiveness rate of the anti- mail to our homes for self-application, thus saving us trips to the doctor’s flu vaccine is about 60%, which office, time and travel resources is understandable given the fact (especially in rural areas). New ideas are being explored involving social media that Influenza viruses constantly and big-data approaches for the purpose of Flu tracking and forecasting, such change. In some years, the forecast as Google Flu Trends, Flu Outlook (Northeastern University, Boston) of the most prevalent Influenza and FluNearYou (Boston Children’s Hospital). While all advancements strains is off target and the vaccine toward combating the Flu are exciting and have great potential to improve our effectiveness is lower. lives, it is important to emphasize that they are not justification for skipping the simple and low-cost tools we always have at our disposal. Believe it or not, cells and new types of vaccine based 2009 pandemic, the human death frequent hand-washing, covering our on recombinant proteins produced in toll was much smaller, at least in part mouths and noses when sneezing or a lab, neither of which involves eggs. due to “leftover” protection from coughing, not touching our faces, and An added bonus is the option to freeze past vaccines. The development of a staying home until our fever is gone can mammalian cells and purified proteins universal anti-Flu vaccine protecting make a huge difference. to ensure adequate back-up resources against all Flu viruses seems like a for vaccine production, which was not perfect solution and hopes are on possible with the old technology. the rise due to recent technological advancements. Biologists’ analyses While anti-Flu vaccine supply is no of mutations in Flu spikes reveal that longer an issue, its effectiveness is a certain parts of them do not tolerate different story. The effectiveness rate change. These parts are not “protected” of the anti-flu vaccine is about 60%, from mutations; rather, even slight which is understandable given the changes in them destabilize the virus— fact that Influenza viruses constantly just like even small alterations in the change. In some years, the forecast of key beams of a house will result in the most prevalent Influenza strains is its collapse. Currently, scientists are off target and the vaccine effectiveness working to generate a vaccine targeting is lower. At present, not much can be these unchanging, or constant regions Boriana Marintcheva is Associate Professor done to improve that, since the virus of Flu spikes, thus hoping to find in the Department of Biological Sciences.

12 Bridgewater Review write, “It is now widely agreed that the International Standardized Testing: Federal government has a responsibility to provide funding for education, The Measurement Problem and increasingly, in practice if not in principle, a right to exercise control J. Michael Bodi over education” (https://liberalarts. utexas.edu/_files/ms37643/Holden- A specious argument or statement is one that Biddle_for_Hamerama.pdf). is superficially plausible, but actually wrong. Federal interests since the 1960s have It’s misleading in appearance, and misleadingly called for national education standards, attractive… measurable through standardized tests. In the 1960s, standardized testing (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) began in earnest, but it was nothing rom day one, public education in America has like it is today. When the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) been under siege. Among the first to establish was signed by President Johnson in common schools, many Americans, since the 1965, the use of norm-referenced F th standardized testing in the public middle decades of the 19 century, have championed schools became mainstream. Until the widespread learning for our people. But others have 1990s, the types of standardized tests argued just as forcefully against it. Today’s headlines that school districts could purchase and administer were provided by test- about American public schools show that education making companies. Some states did not is just as fraught as it was 150 years ago. Among the mandate testing, some did; and those most troubling issues has been the standardized testing that did didn’t always determine which test should be used by their school of students. districts. It was pretty hodgepodge. In the early 1990s, the “educational reform involved in our public school system What Generated this movement” took root, which led many so that future generations would be Enthusiasm for Testing? states to employ a “high-stakes test” competitive with the Soviets. Though based on standards created within their Standardized testing in the U.S. is as old it was originally intended to be a states. “High stakes” simply means that as it is controversial. How did we get jurisdiction governed solely by the students who don’t pass the test can’t into this current standardized testing states, 1960s-era politics pushed and graduate from high school. It kicked off mania? It has an interesting history. pulled the federal government into a mania for “accountability.” Prior to the 1950s, use of standardized school policy as education became a tests in public schools was haphazard, national matter, too important to be In 2001, the federal government with the exception of the Army using left to the states alone. Since then, instituted No Child Left Behind them to test recruits during World War scholars Laura Holden and Jeff Biddle (NCLB), a continuation of the ESEA II. In the wake of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, President Lyndon Johnson enthusiastically took up some of the legislative agenda and The most glaring oversight made plans for economic expansion initiated by the researchers who manage by Kennedy that led to an increase in federal funding for Johnson’s War on the test data collection is that the Poverty, which included public schools. The Cold War had an important students who are taking the test effect, too. Fearing that the Soviet Union, which launched Sputnik in are not the same kinds of students 1957, was poised to pull ahead of the U.S. and create a missile gap, and later, among countries; the test results triumph in the “space race,” the federal government decided to become more compare apples to oranges.

May 2017 13 from the 1960s but expanded to include International Standardized most often trumpeted immediately state-mandated standardized testing Testing after the test results come out. How nationwide. There was no nation- did we get to a position of comparative ally required test per se (though an Standardized testing has succeeded in weakness? The answer to that ques- elective test, the National Assessment providing benchmarks that American tion is rooted in both the disparate of Educational Progress [NAEP], has educators and legislators have used methods we use to measure proficiency been administered to many fourth- and to identify strengths and weakness in and, more basically, how we define the eighth-grade public-school students student learning. But they have also purpose of education. With regard to every year since 1964; www//nces. created the possibility for American the issue of international standardized ed.gov). With the NCLB, each state students’ scores to be held up against testing, those who disparage American was directed to create its own exam, their counterparts in other countries. In public schools don’t understand the which led to widespread competition recent international comparisons using fundamentals of subject sampling. by testing companies to secure state standardized tests, U.S. students have I believe that there is such a thing as contracts. In Massachusetts, the test done remarkably poorly. The argument a good standardized test. My quali is called the Massachusetts Compre that the U.S. lags behind other coun fications are that I teach assessment hensive Assessment System, or MCAS. tries in education is a routine headline,

Math Reading Science 625 625 Mean score in PISA 2012 Shanghai

Percentage of all 55% students tested 25% that scored at 8% the highest levels of proficiency Shanghai 575 575 Singapore Shanghai

Hong Kong Korea Hong Kong Singapore Hong Kong Japan Singapore Finland Japan Korea Japan Korea Switzerland Canada, Poland 525 Finland 525 Netherlands Netherlands Finland Canada Poland Canada, Poland Switzerland Netherlands Switzerland Average U.S. U.S. Average Average

U.S. 475 475 0 0 Figure 1. Results of the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) Test 2012 (Sources: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [2013] and PISA 2012 Results, Washington Post, December 3, 2013).

14 Bridgewater Review (including standardized tests and testing protocols) to educators at both the No Child Left Behind, with all its undergraduate and graduate levels, and educational research methods at the problems, put a safety net under graduate level. Some of the best-known the lowest-achieving learners. international standardized tests (IST) include the Trends in International At the same time, it put a cap on Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), which is a series of interna- our highest-achieving students as tional assessments of the mathematics and science knowledge of students the bulk of resources go to those around the world. Another is the Programme for International Student most in need. Assessment (PISA), which is a worldwide study done by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and not the same kinds of students among geographic regions, school types Development (OECD). PISA is a test countries; the test results compare (public and private—the U.S. does administered to 15-year-old school apples to oranges. not include private schools), languages pupils to discover their scholastic of instruction, levels of urbanization, The students being tested are 15 years performance on mathematics, science, socio-economic indicators, and schools’ of age (using the PISA data). But who and reading. These two are good, valid performance on national exams. But are these 15-year-olds? They are not and reliable tests. Each of them assesses there are some problems here with everywhere the same. Fifteen-year- accurately what it was designed to test these sampling procedures. PISA’s olds in Shanghai, Singapore, Japan, and the results have been reliable over national scores are averaged without Netherlands—literally every place time. disaggregating those scores by social in the world except the U.S.— are class. Also, as Economic Policy Institute But they do have problems. The first of from groups of already-selected data (2013) show, student performance these is that their results are discussed students who, prior to age 15, have is strongly correlated to institutional by public officials and scholars as if passed their national tests and gone performance, which can’t be seen they somehow prove that American on to high school, while those who in PISA’s presentation of test results students, their teachers, and our public didn’t pass went into some sort of (Economic Policy Institute, 2013). schools are lagging behind at least half training or other non-academic path. Most importantly, because the U.S. of the rest of the world’s schools. IST In Germany, 10-year-old students does not have a centralized education is fraught with complicated variabil- have taken a national test; 12-year- system, any sampling that is done comes ity due to language, cultural and class olds do so in Japan. In the U.S., there from institutionally uneven terrain. differences, sampling procedures, and is no national test, and virtually all more. According to Ludger Wößmann go on to high school. By the time The United States, with the most (Oxford Bulletin of Economics and the sample populations sit the IST, diverse population among participating Statistics, 2003), “international differ- only the highest-performing stu nations, includes far more disadvan- ences in student performance cannot dents (academically speaking) of every taged students in the ISTs. There is a be attributed to resource differences country except the U.S. take the test. glaring difference as to how education but are considerably related to institu- is organized in the U.S. as against all A look at the way sample populations tional differences.” On the 2012 PISA other countries. Almost every country are assembled for PISA testing is assessing students from 65 countries, in the world has a centralized educa- instructive. In each country tested, the Washington Post’s Lyndsey Layton tion system. In Japan for example, every there is a random sampling of schools wrote, “students from the United child in the third grade is learning the with usually 150 chosen. Within States posted mostly average scores” same content at the same time during those schools, there is a random (WP, 3 December 2013). Figure 1 the school year; so, if a family moves, sample of students selected, usually speaks for itself. the child resumes the third grade and numbering 4000. Excluded from won’t miss a lesson. In the U.S., each However, the most glaring oversight testing are students with cognitive state has its own approach to conduct- made by the researchers who manage impairments, those from small schools, ing education in the public schools; if the test data collection is that the and non-native-language speakers. a family moves from Massachusetts to students who are taking the test are Samples are stratified according to Idaho, its third grader could very well

May 2017 15 be behind or bored silly in his new our great achievement in being first students as the bulk of resources goes to school placement. No smooth transi- among the states. But it’s important those most in need. If we truly believe tion is guaranteed, or likely. The right to consider that these scores mean in and support the notion that all of our to an education is not included in the only that our students are number children should be as fully educated U.S. Constitution, making it the states’ one in scoring high on standardized as possible, then we can’t ignore those right. Therefore, we might expect a tests. I’d be much more impressed who, as the National Association for great deal of variation among states in if a survey of our students’ attitudes Gifted Children (www.nagc.org) how much public education is val- about learning in school was also reminds us, should be accelerated. ued, in how curriculum is delivered, extremely high. A positive correlation Increased federal funding is critically and in how well students across the between high achievement and high important to supporting the nation learn. And that expectation is interest in learning would really be a educational bedrock of our society, but borne out by the IST results. When we significant accomplishment. it can’t level the playing field divided by state jurisdictions. And economic States vs. Countries in Math disparities—among states, among regions—persist. And as education Singapore 73% scholars Stephen Gorard and Emma South Korea 65 Smith (Comparative Education, 2004), Japan 57 write: “Nationally comprehensive Massachusetts 51 systems of schools tend to produce North Dakota 41 narrower social differences in intake New Jersey 40 and outcomes... Systems with more Netherlands 38 differentiation lead to greater gaps in Connecticut 35 attainment between social groups.” New York 30 The experience of U.S. students Slovakia 28 with International Standardized Russia 27 Tests underlines the fundamental California 24 challenge of American schooling. So, Israel 24 The study compared the percentage of then, we face two options. Do we Sweden 21 students above proficiency on eighth-grade educate all our children, from low to Alabama 18 math and science tests in each of the 50 high achievers, thereby causing us to Romania 18 states with peers in 45 countries. It equates remain somewhere in the middle in Italy 17 scores on tests administered worldwide in international standardized testing? Mississippi 14 2003 with scores on tests administered Or do we segregate the students in Egypt 5 in the United States in 2005 and 2007. Here schools, tracking them by academic Chile 2 is a sampling for math. achievement so that our highest Iran 2 achievers can be in the sample of students who take the IST? Figure 2. States versus Countries in Math (Source: American Institutes for Research and the New York Times, 14 November 2007). I’ll take the first, and damn the naïve interpretations of the IST data. disaggregate the PISA data (Figure 2), Conclusion when each of the 50 states in the US is The United States has the most diverse represented as a country, the test results society on the planet. Its educational give us a very different picture. system must provide, by state law, access Once separated, the various 50 states to a free public education. We have score from the highest to the lowest made great strides in raising the aca among the list of U.S. states and demic standards for all children. No countries on the PISA. So when one Child Left Behind, with all its prob aggregates and averages those scores, lems, put a safety net under the lowest- J. Michael Bodi is Professor and Chair the U.S. students regress to the mean, achieving learners. At the same time, in the Department of Secondary Education which is literally in the middle. Here, it put a cap on our highest-achieving and Professional Programs. in Massachusetts, we can be proud of

16 Bridgewater Review Night 1. Thingvellir National Park

North Pole. During the Winter Solstice PHOTO ESSAY in Iceland, there is a little more than four hours of daylight; in contrast, the Seeking the Northern Lights Summer Solstice has only three hours of dusk/twilight while the sun ducks Timothy Wenson under the horizon and then rises again. hen planning a vacation for February, most The Aurora Borealis (northern lights) of us would dream of someplace warm and Aurora Australis (southern lights) occur as a result of electrons colliding Wand tropical, a getaway from the dreary with atoms and molecules in the Earth’s cold that is common during the New England winter. upper atmosphere (80 to 500 km above Earth’s surface). Accelerated electrons But when you have a passion for photography, you collide with oxygen and nitrogen atoms might do something crazy and fly to the Arctic to take and molecules, transferring energy and pictures of the northern lights. That’s exactly what my exciting the atoms and molecules to a higher energy state. When the atoms wife Kate and I did on our trip to Iceland last winter. and molecules return to lower energy Iceland is a beautiful island roughly 4˚C). For reference, when we flew states, they release their energy in the the size of Ohio and located just to the back into Logan Airport at the end form of light. The best area for aurora southeast of Greenland. Situated in of our trip, the temperature was -4˚F. activity is a polar latitude between 60 line with the Gulf Stream, it actually Our main reason for visiting Iceland and 75 degrees, where the lights may be gets much less snow than we receive in the winter is that the northern lights observed more than half of the nights in in southeastern Massachusetts, and the need dark conditions in order to be a given year. Iceland is located roughly temperature is quite a bit warmer in visible, and the length of the night 65 degrees North, just outside the the winter. In February, temperatures varies greatly at different times of the Arctic Circle (http://www.swpc.noaa. range from about 20˚ to 40˚F (-7˚ to year when one gets that close to the gov/phenomena/aurora).

May 2017 17 Night 2. Away from the city I

Alongside the local weather forecast, Iceland is famous for its geothermal be described as “authentic Icelandic there is a nightly forecast for expected pools and spas. While our hotel did cuisine” and “not at all labelled in Aurora activity. The Aurora forecast is have a relaxing geothermally heated any way.” With a bellyful of mystery based on the Kp-index, which describes indoor pool and spa on the bottom meatballs and various seafood dishes, the strength of variations in the mag- floor, we chose to visit an outdoor pool we donned our cold-weather gear and netic field of Earth ranging from zero to get the true Icelandic experience. got back onto the bus for the short trip (minimum activity) to nine (maximum The air temperature at Laugarvatn to Thingvellir National Park. activity). By averaging the maximum Fontana (http://www.fontana.is/) Our tour guide, Raven, told us stories variation in the magnetic field strength hovered around 0˚C, and its geother- along the way, recounting tales of the over three hours, forecasters can make mally heated pools ranged from 30 to local culture, even singing us a tradi a fairly accurate prediction for the 39˚C. After a long, relaxing soak inter- tional Icelandic song. Before reaching strength of northern lights activity. rupted by brief freezing-cold sprints Thingvellir National Park, the bus Most days the Kp-index is between 0-3 between the hot tub and various pools, driver pulled over into a parking area. (no activity to moderate activity); the we headed in to try the buffet. The He and Raven had seen some Aurora highest numbers are quite rare (http:// highlight of the feast was a sweet, dark activity and decided to stop before en.vedur.is/weather/articles/nr/2549). rye bread cooked for 24 hours buried getting to the park. With the Aurora in hot sand. The rest of the food might Our first night in Reykjavik, Kate and forecast so low, this may have been I embarked on a “warm baths, cool nights” tour that consisted of a visit to one of Iceland’s famous geothermal Everywhere around us we hot springs, a dinner buffet of tradi- tional Icelandic foods, and a stop in could see [the northern lights] Thingvellir National Park to take in the northern lights. Unfortunately, the dancing and undulating in aurora forecast for that night was low, rating only a one on the Kp-index. the dark night sky.

18 Bridgewater Review Night 2. Away from the city II

May 2017 19 Night 2. Outside Reykjavik with light pollution from the highway

20 Bridgewater Review our only chance to see the lights. The tour reminded me of going on whale watches; if you didn’t see the lights, you would get a free ticket to try again the next night. With that in mind, the tour guides seemed ready and willing to stay out as long as it took for us to see the northern lights. Photographing the northern lights was a major item on our bucket list so we were prepared with the necessary equipment. Our kit consisted of the fol lowing essential items: DSLR cameras (a Canon 6D for Kate and a Canon 60D for me), wide-angle lenses with large apertures (28mm f/1.8 and 14mm f/2.8), sturdy tripods, and off-camera shutter-release cables. Without any one of these items, we would not likely have come back with any usable photos. We had also done research into the recommended settings to use on our cameras; with potentially limited time to see the lights, we needed to be ready and not fumbling with camera settings. With the naked eye, the northern lights we saw that night were not very impressive. Without knowing where to look, you might mistake them for clouds. The main reason for this lies in how the rods and cones in our eyes take in colors. During the day, our vision takes advantage of the relatively few cones (6-7 million cones vs 120 million rods) in the retina to view colors. Daylight vision can adapt rapidly to changing light levels, keeping the light pointed toward the fovea centralis where most of the cones reside. Rods are more sensitive to light and movement than cones, but also take longer to adapt. Rods also cannot see vivid colors, particularly reds; in fact, a common recommendation for night photography is to use a red flashlight, as it does not affect your night vision the same way a bright, white light does (http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/ hbase/vision/rodcone.html). We could still pinpoint where the Aurora was in the sky that night, and

May 2017 21 Night 2. Outside Reykjavik after taking a few long exposures and Iceland in daylight, we booked another to take 20-plus-second exposures and then viewing them on our cameras’ tour, hoping for a clear night with a keep your camera absolutely still the displays, we could see what it is that greater level of activity. Luck was on entire time, there is nothing to do but makes people come so far to get a our side as this night turned out to be look around, plan your next shot, and glimpse of the northern lights. The our best opportunity to photograph the take it all in. I was able to get photos lack of light pollution in the area made northern lights. Before our bus left the in several directions, including some it an excellent place to take pictures city of Reykjavik, we could already see straight up into the sky and others of stars as well, although that was not Aurora activity in the sky. We stopped using mountains in the foreground. our primary goal. The first tour had a briefly just outside the city on the side We stayed out that night until 2:00 mixed group of people, most of whom of the highway and were able to get a.m. and were still able to see the lights were primarily interested in the spa and photos to the north and south (the when we returned to our hotel. Most of were not serious photographers. From southern side even had mountains to the images included here are from that their disappointed chatter I could tell use in the foreground). After getting night. I can only dream about what a that many of them expected bright, a few shots there, we packed up and night with a higher Kp-index would be colorful lights that they could snap moved down the road away from the like. Maybe on our next trip. pictures of with their iPhones. Several busy highway and city lights. When people tried and failed to get images, we made it to our destination, we were and we helped as much as we could (the finally able to appreciate the full beauty bus driver even offered to help people of the northern lights. Everywhere with their camera settings). Eventually, around us we could see them dancing after we had taken a satisfactory and undulating in the dark night sky. In number of pictures, we got back onto a few of my photos you can get a sense the bus with everyone else to escape the of the movement, but it was really quite cold and wind. breathtaking to view in person. The next night had a better Aurora This kind of photography is exciting Timothy Wenson is Academic forecast (3 out of 9: moderate). After a because you can really appreciate the Technology Specialist in BSU’s Information full day exploring the other wonders of scene you are capturing. Since you have Technology Division.

22 Bridgewater Review who have suggested that the first Discovering Jerusalem’s First mosque does not survive. It has also prompted us to revisit commonly held Mosque on the Haram al-Sharif views on the patronage and dating of other Early Islamic structures on and Capitalizing Jerusalem in the the Haram, including the Dome of the Rock and the multiple entry Seventh Century gates of the sanctuary’s northern and western perimeters, as well as the Early Beatrice St Laurent Umayyad “palatial” and administrative n 2013, along with my colleague Isam Awwad structures south of the Haram. (Chief Architect and Conservator of the Haram The building known in English as Solomon’s Stables was, until recently, Ial-Sharif 1972-2004 for the government of a much understudied monumental Jordan), I proposed that the first mosque of Jerusalem structure that earlier scholars considered an underground building. built between 638 and 660 is the structure known It obtained the name of Solomon’s as Solomon’s Stables (today the Marwani Musalla) Stables from European scholars because located in the southeast corner of the lower platform it did indeed serve the function of a stable during the 11th-century Crusader of the Haram al-Sharif, known by many as the period. The metal rings inserted into Temple Mount (Figures 1, 2). This discovery has the structure’s massive interior piers far-reaching implications beyond the mosque itself, have long been held to be the rings for tying the horses of Crusaders, who affecting previously held views among scholars then inhabited the nearby Aqsa Mosque

Figure 1. Haram al-Sharif from the north in the 1930s. Matson Collection, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. The Dome of the Rock is on the upper platform and Solomon’s Stables is to the southeast in the corner with al-Aqsa Mosque directly south of the Dome.

May 2017 23 Mosque of Mu’awiya Sahn

(Courtyard) Paving (?)

Golden Gate Riwaq (Arcade) Possible continuation of Riwaq

Double Gate Triple Gate Single Gate

Dome of the Rock Platform 7th Century

Mu’awiya’s Palace and Administrative Buildings

Roads and paths

Possible Extension of Platform 7th Century

Eastern Qanatir 7th Century Figure 2. Aerial View of the site with super-imposed plan (Prepared by Alessandra Angeloni 2016).

(to the west on the same south wall), within its boundaries) lies over the Bill Clinton, then President of the which served as their palace and chapel 1948 Green Line in what is considered United States, suggested that Israel in the 11th century. Furthermore, in his in international law the Occupied assume control of the areas under the “Temple Mount Sifting Project,” Dr Territories and has been a UNESCO platform and the King of Jordan retain Gabi Barkay found horseshoes and nails World Heritage site protected under control over the Islamic monuments belonging to the Crusaders’ horses in its guidelines since 1982. In 1996, on the platform. This suggestion the material from outside the stable. in conjunction with discussions for prompted the officials charged with the resolution of the control of Jerusalem’s responsibility for the site, the Awqaf However, actions taken in the 1990s Old City as part of the Oslo Accords, (or the Ministry of Islamic Affairs in generated major questions as to the questions arose concerning the official Amman, Jordan), acting in the name function of this building. The Old City jurisdiction of the Haram al-Sharif. of King Abdullah, to authorize the (and the Haram al-Sharif contained

24 Bridgewater Review creation of a library under the current that the Stables was not an underground Rashidun caliph ‘Umar or the Aqsa Mosque—the congregational structure but a buried building with Umayyad Mu’awiya, did not survive Mosque of Jerusalem located midway nine original arched entrances, eight of or was replaced by the Aqsa Mosque on the south wall of the sanctuary— which are visible today (Figure 3). in the 8th century. and to turn the structure known as The revelation of a main northern Here, Mu’awiya was invested in 660 Solomon’s Stables into a mosque. That entrance to this building prompted a as amir al-muminin (Commander of the indeed did happen, and the Stables new evaluation of its function. While Faithful) as he chose to be called in today are called the Marwani Musalla the European name of the building dedicatory inscriptions, or as the first and used as a prayer space for women. related to the Christian Crusaders use Umayyad caliph. That he did not build That said, the Marwani is a very large of the building as a stable, the name his mosque in Damascus, previously structure that can hold 3000 people or in Arabic was consistent through the considered his only capital, and that he more and access to the structure was 19th century in referring to it as the became caliph in Jerusalem suggests limited to one small entrance from the “old mosque”—masjid qadim or aqsa that his intention was to establish east and indirectly, through a passage qadim. It was in this context that my Jerusalem as both his religious and on the west wall. This proved to be a colleague Isam Awwad and I initiated political capital. security problem, prompting the Awqaf our study of the building’s function as The masjid qadim or “old mosque” is in 1999 to open an additional entrance the Early Islamic mosque of Jerusalem a nine-aisled vaulted structure built in the northern wall of the subterranean constructed by Mu’awiya as Umayyad of large Herodian stones in re-use structure. Digging to expose what was governor of Bilad al-Sham (or Greater laid on top of earlier ruins (Figure thought to be a retaining wall revealed Syria) between 638 and 660. Previous 4). The widest central aisle leads multiple walled-in arches bearing scholarship on the subject of the to a rudimentary mihrab, or niche, evidence of early door emplacements. first mosque of Jerusalem claims that indicating the direction of prayer to The ultimate result was the discovery the mosque, built by either the

Figure 3. Marwani Musalla (Solomon’s Stables) entrance (Photograph by Isam Awwad, 2012).

May 2017 25 Mecca in the south wall; it may be sanctuary platform on which it sits from the east of the sanctuary—both the oldest surviving Early Islamic (Figures 1 and 2). The building most the Golden Gate and this additional arch-shaped mihrab. The next-widest assuredly remained incomplete at his entrance approach from the east. Also sixth aisle leads to the Single Gate in death and the Dome was completed by the pre-existent Double Gate (today the south wall and its subterranean ‘Abd al-Malik in 692 as confirmed by beneath the Aqsa Mosque) was rebuilt “escape” passage—no doubt to the dated mosaic Kufic inscription. and refurbished and served as the Mu’awiya’s palace, which was located ceremonial and symbolic entrance to Additionally, at this time, the largely outside the sanctuary and within the the precinct leading to the Dome of undecorated eastern mawazin, or city walls at the time. Four shorter the Rock. There was a Triple Gate arcade, was erected on the upper aisles fill the space leading to the small in the north (today Bab al-‘Atm) and platform’s eastern perimeter utilizing western entrance to the mosque from another gate just beside it of multiple re-used Herodian stone—only used the Triple Gate west of the Single Gate arched entrances (today Bab Hitta) both by the Umayyads. Thus, there was in the sanctuary south wall. This gate leading to the upper platform. There a decided focus placed on entrance affords entrance to the mosque and is additional archaeological evidence sanctuary from the neighborhoods to the south. The Triple Gate, rebuilt from an earlier gate, opens to a triple-vaulted structure leading north to the interior of the sanctuary. The nine-arched northern entrance (Figure 3) to the closed prayer space is the main entrance to the mosque from the interior of the sanctuary. The ceremonial entrance was the refurbished, earlier Golden Gate (Bab al-Dahhab), which opened from the south to an arcade running the length of the east wall to the courtyard of the mosque and its arcade (riwaq) to the south and, to the east, to the greater sanctuary (Figure 5). The Golden Gate is linked to the north entrance on the same level of the lower platform—distinctly lower than the rest of the precinct. In the 7th century, the southeastern area of the platform was substantially lower than previously believed and, once the old mosque went out of usage, the area was filled in with trash up to the level of the top of the old mosque, factually substantiated by Barkay’s “Sifting Project” (Figure 2). It is known from a contemporary Christian text that by 639, the central area of the sanctuary was in the process of being cleared. This suggests that, early in his governorship of Syria, Mu’awiya had plans beyond the mosque for the central part of the Haram. For this reason, we propose that Mu’awiya planned and began construction of the Dome of the Rock and the upper Figure 4. Marwani Musalla interior, looking south (Author’s photograph, 2007).

26 Bridgewater Review for multiple entrances on the precinct’s western perimeter, defining the size of the Muslim sanctuary. The undecorated rebuilt Triple Gate afforded entrance for all to enter the compound from the south. The three- vaulted chamber led directly to the interior of the compound exiting west of the mosque. From there the path was direct to the eastern staircase and its mawazin leading up to the Dome of the Rock. Who was allowed to enter the sanctuary in this period? It is clear that Muslims could enter the mosque through the Golden Gate to the east and from the south through the Triple Figure 5a. Golden Gate from the top of the Dome of the Rock (Author’s photograph, 1993). Gate, making an immediate right turn Mu’awiya’s control of the city, where city walls was the first to be constructed into the mosque’s prayer space. But who Muslims entered a Triple Gate and and completed. That so many grand was allowed to continue through the Muslims turned to the right to pray structures were begun suggests that the vaulted passageway to the interior of facing the new mihrab, and where city certainly would have been pre- the sanctuary and on up to the Dome Christians went to the left to pray in the pared to serve as an imperial capital. of the Rock? There was a Christian Church of St John the Baptist. This was There is a scholarly debate concern- neighborhood south of the sanctu- a much more benevolent period in the ing the age of these buildings. A recent ary and Mu’awiya had allowed the city’s Early Islamic history. archaeological excavation has revealed material evidence of an earlier foundation below the 8th-century strata. The The ultimate result was the lower foundation utilizes construction methods and materials very different discovery that the Stables was not from the 8th-century layer. In January 2017, I visited this Israel Antiquities an underground structure but a Authority excavation and my current research explores the origins and impli- buried building with nine original cations of the type of stone construction arched entrances, eight of which found in this area of the site. There are many reasons to state that are visible today. Mu’awiya intended Jerusalem as his capital. Though Damascus has been considered by scholars in the past to resettlement of Jews from Tiberias in Just outside the confines of Jerusalem’s have been his sole capital, it is unusual an area just southwest of the precinct. sacred precinct are large, multiple that he did not build a mosque there We propose that Jews and Christians administrative and palatial structures but in Jerusalem and, more tellingly, were allowed on the site in the seventh excavated in the 1960s and 70s by Meir that he was invested with caliphal century. From recent scholarship, there Ben Dov and Benjamin Mazar. They power in his mosque in Jerusalem. is emerging clarity that Mu’awiya as have previously been attributed to a Recent scholarship is moving away amir al-muminin (Commander of the later Umayyad time, but we propose from a single-capital model for a Faithful) saw “the faithful” as the ahl that Mu’awiya initiated construction of mobile population and exploring al-kitab or The People of the Book, these monuments prior to his death in the existence of multiple capitals. which included Christians and Jews. 680. His smaller palace just outside his We know that Mu’awiya had already There is a parallel in Damascus, during mosque in the eastern corner near the established multiple capitals to the north of Jerusalem in Greater Syria

May 2017 27 Figure 5b. Golden Gate, from the west inside the precinct (Photo Credit: Harvard University, Fine Arts Library Collection).

base of operation to further the interests of the newly established Early Islamic There is a parallel in Damascus… Umayyad dynasty and empire. where Muslims entered a Triple This brief article presents the core of our current thesis concerning Early Gate and Muslims turned to Islamic Jerusalem. Our initial findings appear in “The Marwani Musalla the right to pray facing the new in Jerusalem: New Findings,” in mihrab, and where Christians went Jerusalem Quarterly (Summer 2013) and “Archaeology and Preservation of Early to the left to pray in the Church Islamic Jerusalem: The 7th Century Mosque on the Haram al-Sharif.” of St John the Baptist. This was a Proceedings, 9th ICAANE, Basel 2014 (2016). Our full argument will appear much more benevolent period in in a forthcoming book we are writing called Capitalizing Jerusalem: Mu’awiya’s the city’s Early Islamic history. Urban Vision 638-680.

Bilad al-Sham. These include Damascus, and political strategist, wielding the the winter capital at the Palace of authority of the Early Islamic Empire Sinnabra on the lower western side of as it established itself in Greater Syria. the Sea of Galilee, and possibly al-Jabiya His family already had landholdings in the Syrian Golan—all the while in northern Jordan prior to Islam, so maintaining his agricultural properties Mu’awiya was coming to a region in the area south of Mecca in Arabia. already known by the family and probably with established trade and political What we witness with Mu’awiya Beatrice St Laurent is Professor in the connections. Family and tribal ties to (formerly a scribe of the Prophet Department of Art and Art History. the region provided him with a strong Muhammad) is a ruler, a deft military

28 Bridgewater Review VOICES ON CAMPUS Claire Culleton In January, BSU’s Irish Studies Program celebrated Irish Cultural Heritage Day on campus, which included a book launch, student research and study-abroad presentations, and Irish musical and step-dancing performances. A keynote address was delivered by Professor Claire Culleton from Kent State University’s Department of English, who spoke from a text entitled “Representing Irish Art at the Claire Culleton O l y m p i c G a m e s ,” parts of which were published previously published and -performed works, as well as perennial infighting in Estudios Irlandeses (2014) and appear here with the among judges about objectivity] … editor’s permission. Her lively talk is excerpted below. Though they were short-lived, the Olympic art competitions offer a fas … During the early years of the Wharton, Paul Valéry, and Maurice cinating narrative about international modern Olympic Games, art Maeterlinck for literature, Igor artistic culture in the first half of the competitions formed part of the official Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, and Maurice 20th century, and they invite inter Olympic program. Olympic scholars Ravel for music, and John Singer disciplinary scholarly inquiry into the refer to these as the “forgotten” art Sargent and John Lavery for painting interrelationships of art, politics, and competitions because so few people (Richard Stanton, The Forgotten personal as well as national ego… The know they even existed; yet from Olympic Art Competitions [2000] 83). Olympic contests allow us to see and 1912 to 1948, some 1800 artists from It was a veritable Who’s Who? of subsequently test the contradictions 51 countries competed for Olympic creative talent ... and strategies of national artistic gold, silver, and bronze medals in Artists competed against, and were representation, and to analyze how well five creative categories: painting, judged by, their contemporaries and art, or sport for that matter, can assist in architecture, literature, music, often their rivals. Not surprisingly, nation-building… and sculpture … Increasingly, the then, it was destined to end in disas- world’s most imaginative minds vied ter… From 1906, when art contests to represent their countries at the were first discussed in Paris, to 1952, Olympics. As impressive as the panoply when the art competitions were of artists showing their work was formally disbanded, members of the during those years, the international International Olympic Committee juries for each category surpassed argued about the art contests. At them in celebrity. At the 1924 Paris issue for many was the questionable games, for example, art competition “amateur” status of professional juries included luminaries Gabriele artists, [the submission of already- D’Annunzio, Paul Claudel, Edith

One rule governing the artwork entered into the Olympic contests by each country was that the works had to be directly inspired by athletic sports. Poster. VIIIe Olympiade

May 2017 29 The Paris Games of 1924 was the first time Ireland attended the Olympics competing under its own flag as a Free State. In fact, Ireland was given formal recognition as an independent nation at the games that year. Four years later, in order to describe the intensity of his win and what it meant for Ireland to win Olympic gold, hammer thrower Pat O’Callaghan said that he was proud to show the world that “Ireland has a flag, that Ireland has a national anthem, in fact, that we have a nationality” (Diarmid Ferriter, The Transformation of Ireland, 1900-2000 [2004] 354). Such was the occasion in 1924 when Irish competitors marched among the 45 nations present into Paris’s 45,000-seat Stade Olympique de Colombes for the opening ceremony… Fifty Irish competed in sport that year, and eight competed in creativity… One newspaper headline announcing the art competitions read, “Games Foster Competition in Genius” (Bernard Kramer in Journal of Olympic History [2004] 33), a headline likely inspired by IOC President Pierre de Coubertin’s speech at the closing of the Paris games... But what did Irish genius look like? How would the Free State advertise, project, and display a particularly Irish aesthetic to an international community whose eyes were fastened on the fledging state? What distinguished Irish art? Even better, what might distinguish Free State art from the art of colonized Ireland? … Ireland competed in four of the seven summer games where art contests were held. In those four Olympic Summer Games — Paris 1924, Amsterdam 1928, Los Angeles 1932 and London 1948 — a total of 31 Irish artists (21 men, 10 women, most of them members of the Royal Hibernian Academy or the Dublin Metropolitan School Oliver St. John Gogarty, opening lines from “Ode.” Reprint in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse LVIII, V (August 1941): 233-34. of Art) participated in nine separate art contests and submitted 43 works Painting category four times (three Literature once (four in 1924), Mixed for competition. Among these were submissions in 1924, nine in 1928, Music/Vocals once (one in 1948), and novels, poems, sculptures, paintings, nine in 1932, and five in 1948), Mixed in Drawings and Watercolours once (six drawings, and musical compositions. Sculpturing three times (one in 1924, submissions in 1928). By 1948, the last Irish artists competed in the Mixed one in 1928, and three in 1948), Mixed Olympiad to have art contests, Ireland

30 Bridgewater Review had won three Olympic medals: Oliver St. John Gogarty won a Bronze in 1924 in the Mixed Literature category for his “Ode to the Tailteann Games”; Jack B. Yeats won a Silver medal that same year in the Mixed Painting category for his oil painting Natation (now called The Liffey Swim); and Letitia Hamilton earned a Bronze more than two decades later in the Mixed Painting category at the 1948 games for her Meath Hunt Point-to-Point Races… With all of the talent available in Ireland during these decades — its finest writers, its amazing painters, the world-class musicians — one has to wonder why over the years Ireland competed in the contests for literature, drawings and watercolours, and music/vocals only once... Jack B. Yeats (1871-1957), The Liffey Swim, 1923. National Gallery of Ireland Collection. Photo © National Gallery of Ireland. Competitors representing Irish art Hilda Roberts, Stella Steyn, and Leo S. Gogán, at one time an assistant at the Olympics included Ulster- Whelan; sculptors Desmond Broe, keeper of antiquities at the National born John Lavery, who entered one Edmondo Gigante, May Power, and Museum of Ireland, then Art Direc of his paintings into competition for Oliver Sheppard; and writers Brinsley tor, and later keeper of the Art and Ireland at the Paris Games, but two MacNamara, T.C. Murray, and J. Ryan Industrial Division there (1914-1956). for Great Britain in Amsterdam, and in literature… Gogán chaired the Art Section of two others again for Great Britain in the Irish Olympic Council, and Los Angeles. Lavery was a juror for We certainly need more information his papers (44 boxes archived at the painting competition in 1924, yet on the background of these art compe- University College Dublin) have the he also had his own work entered in titions, how they were advertised and only records… that are pertinent to that category… Others competing for targeted to attract a specific type of the processes, rules, and regulations Ireland have included painters Kathleen Irish artist, how the internal domestic submitters had to follow. There are Bridle, Christopher Campbell, George panel of judges was selected and assem- copies of letters to other committee Collie, J. Humbert Craig, Lilian bled, …and how artists were selected members outlining the costs of setting Lucy Davidson, Jack Hanlon, Mainie and why. But unfortunately, most of up jury venues, and the costs of trans- Jellett (Ireland’s youngest com- these written records no longer sur- porting works of art to London. There petitor at 31 years old), Seán Keating, vive... We can reconstruct some of the is even a short note dated April 7, 1948, Frances Josephine Kelly, Harry records concerning the 1948 Games, from Miss Máirín Allen, Honorable Kernoff, Charles Lamb, Edward Louis however, and the art entries selected Secretary, Arts Section, Irish Olympic Lawrenson, [Florence] Vere O’Brien, and sent by Ireland to London that Council, imploring Gogán to make Dermod O’Brien, Seán O’Sullivan, summer, thanks to the papers of Liam plain the following information: “The more important artists all preface their enquiries by the same question: Who From the first Olympiad to host judges what is to be sent from Ireland?” Allen also noted that several artists the art contests to the last, a total objected to submitting their paintings to a “non-painter acting as judge of 151 medals were awarded of painters,” and they did not care to submit “paintings for adjudication to to artists in various categories. an art-critic who does not paint.” Allen suggested that Gogán invite painter These medals have officially been “Maurice MacGonigal or another. stricken from the Olympic record. Artists apparently feel very strongly

May 2017 31 about such things and no doubt we Not surprisingly, there are some Murray entitled Birthright, where one must conciliate their just viewpoints curiosities among the art selections brother kills another by beating him to if we are to have their help to make submitted by Ireland. Ina Boyle’s death with a hurley stick. Birthright is the Irish contribution to the Olympic Lament for Bion (from the Greek) has hardly a play about sports... [Nor was it Festival a worthy one. Mr Burke might nothing to do with sport: Bion was a new]… Birthright was published in 1910 himself be asked,” she continued, or Greek bucolic poet. In 1924, Gogarty but submitted nonetheless to the 1924 “some painter to act as adjudicator… for won for his lyric poem “Ode to the literature competition... the Painting.” It is a rich and fascinat- Tailteann Games,” written at the It is important to point out that the Irish ing archive, and it may be all that is request of the Irish Government on Olympic Council had been formed left on paper about Irish artists and the the revival of the Tailteann Games, hastily just one year before the Paris Olympic competitions. printed in the official programme of Games. The Irish Olympic Council the Aonach Tailteann Games, and One rule governing the artwork had only months to do what other sung by a choir during the opening entered into the Olympic contests by nations were given to accomplish in festivities that August in Dublin. At the each country was that the works had to four years. Ireland’s first president of the be directly inspired by athletic sports. Olympic Council, J.J. Keane, noted in Most of the entries for architecture, a letter to IOC President de Coubertin for example, were stadium designs or that history had taken its toll on the swimming pool/natatorium designs. new state. “We have already remarked In the sculpture category, competing to you about the disarray caused to our artists tended to cast real or mythical teams and athletic organisations by sporting heroes in clay, bronze, or the political events of recent years,” he plaster, while others competing in wrote (in Kevin McCarthy, Gold, Silver sculpture submitted sport-themed and Green [2010] 309). It is something reliefs and plaques, or designs and of a miracle, then, that the Irish council prototypes for new Olympic medals. pulled it off in time. Oliver Sheppard, for example, did both: …From the first Olympiad to host he submitted designs for a new series the art contests to the last, a total of of Olympic medals and also submitted 151 medals were awarded to artists a statue called “The Bather,” which, in various categories. These medals of course, begs the question whether have officially been stricken from the bathing should be considered an Olympic record, though, according to athletic sport. In the painting contests, a 2012 article by Joseph Stromberg in artists submitted work that celebrated Liam S. Gogán, Chair, Art Section of the Smithsonian Magazine titled, “When the particular sports, such as boxing, or Irish Olympic Council, 1948. Reproduced by Olympics Gave Out Medals for Art.” fishing, or horse racing and jumping, kind permission of the University College Dublin Archives. Papers of Liam S. Gogán (1891-1979), No wonder, then, that the Olympic or their paintings captured popular IE UCDA LA 27/52. art competitions are codified as the sporting events such as Yeats’s The Liffey “forgotten” art competitions. For 1924 Swim, a popular Dublin event that takes Tailteann, Gogarty would pick up a Ireland, there are no official photo- place annually in Dublin as swimmers second medal for literature for his slim graphs of the team, no art submis- race from Guinness’s Brewery to Butt book, An Offering of Swans and Other sion forms, no insurance or freight or Bridge. In the literature category, Poems. So what about the amateur customs receipts, no photographs of the poetry, plays, short-story collections, status of the artist and the work? The artwork, no works entered into muse- and novels dealing with sports ode was commissioned; it was paid ums or in private collections under the qualified as entries, while in the music work for Gogarty. Not only that, but titles on record… Because of this, it is competitions, so long as composers by 1924, Gogarty had published eight easy to fear that the half-life of the art alluded to sport in the titles of their books already—nothing amateur contests threatens to decay what little works, the composition qualified as a about that record. Equally suspicious, we know about them to date, which is suitable entry: Inno Olimpionico (Olympic and it would be hilarious if it weren’t a shame… Anthem), is an obvious example... so troubling, is the play submitted by Abbey Theatre playwright T.C.

32 Bridgewater Review BOOK REVIEWS

Foer’s Jacob—whose eponym uttered Wrestling with God with Foer “Here I am” (“Hineni” in Hebrew) not as a ready response to Yahweh’s call, but and Melton as deception of his father Isaac when he called Esau for the birthright bless- Jenny Olin Shanahan ing—is himself a deceiver, admitting Jonathan Safran Foer, Here I Am to his wife Julia, “I’ve never said what I feel” (113). He intermittently parents (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2016). and abdicates responsibility for his three sons, argues dispassionately with his Glennon Doyle Melton, Love Warrior father and grandfather about Zionism, (New York: Flatiron Books, 2016). and envies his Israeli cousins’ moral certitude while lamenting his own lack y a stroke of serendipity created by end-of-the- of a sense of cultural and religious duty. year “best books” lists, I spent winter break I began to wish that Glennon Doyle contemplating two deeply nuanced and vastly Melton could run an intervention on B Jacob Bloch. different meditations on the biblical assent, “Here I am,” by novelist Jonathan Safran Foer and memoirist/ Melton’s new memoir Love Warrior derives from more than a decade’s blogger Glennon Doyle Melton. worth of blog posts, which she has been Foer’s long-anticipated novel—pub- contemporary, upper-middle-class sharing with an online community of lished 11 years after Extremely Loud suburb of Washington, DC. The novel, millions on Momastery.com, a liberal, and Incredibly Close—is titled by that it turns out, is a text within a text—a mostly Christian, politically active site statement of presence and willing- chaotic and sweeping screenplay by the with the slogan “Truth Tellers + Hope ness to serve God made by Abraham, novel’s narrator Jacob Bloch, who is an Spreaders.” Love Warrior details Melton’s Moses, Samuel, and Isaiah. Here I occasionally successful but disengaged, adolescent and young-adult years of Am is a story of fathers, sons, broth- “meek,” and “desperately needy” bulimia and alcoholism, unplanned ers, and (male) cousins ponder- writer in a collapsing marriage and a pregnancy and marriage, then 15 years ing their Jewish identities in a sexting affair. of recovery from addiction. Her recov ery and the dissolution and restoration of her marriage following her husband Craig’s pornography habit and series of random affairs, form the backdrop of Melton’s feminist, spiritual, and sexual awakening: “Here I am. Here you are. All of me. All of you. Here. In love” (250). (News that emerged as Love Warrior hit the shelves that Melton was divorcing her husband and planned to marry a woman, soccer star Abby Wambach, likely would not surprise many of her devoted readers who may now anticipate a follow-up memoir.) In the Book of Genesis, God asked Adam and Eve, “where are you?” when they hid themselves in shame. Their inability to announce their presence

May 2017 33 signified their fall from grace—their pull from the easy Judaism of suburban He answered with a statement: ‘Here expulsion from Eden and symbolic America, where he can be Jewish by I am.’ Whatever God needs or wants, separation from God. It was their giving his children scriptural names Abraham is wholly present for Him, descendant Abraham’s willingness to (e.g., his youngest and most beloved without conditions or reservations or sacrifice his son Isaac and his answer, son is Benjy, or Benjamin) and sending need for explanation” (102). “Here I am,” when his name was them to weekend Hebrew school at That vulnerability and willingness to called, that began the restoration of the the local synagogue; he can even go be known and loved is what Melton people of God with Yahweh. Moses’ through the motions of hosting his ponders throughout her narrative as response of “Here I am” to the burning son Samuel’s bar mitzvah even after well. Her response of “Here I am” bush signified both linguistic and discovering evidence of Samuel’s builds on Christian scriptures, too. deeply personal unity with “I am,” or attempts to thwart it by writing hateful Having hit rock bottom with her drinking and despairing over a positive pregnancy test, Melton was comforted In the Book of Genesis, God by an image of Mary, the mother of Jesus. When the angel Gabriel appeared asked Adam and Eve, “where to Mary and announced that she are you?” when they hid was to be the Mother of God, Mary replied, “Here am I, the servant of the themselves in shame… It was their Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). For Melton, that descendant Abraham’s willingness consent signifies both surrender to the unknown and a promise to do the work to sacrifice his son Isaac and his of recovery—not just “a day at a time,” answer, “Here I am,” when his but minute by minute. It is the “am-ness” with God that name was called, that began the both Glennon Doyle Melton and the fictional Jacob Bloch seek. In the restoration of the people of God end, Foer at least partially resolves his character’s conflict far too easily, with Yahweh. allowing Jacob to go to Israel—“Here I am!”—and when he is not needed, to return home to DC where he actually is. What Melton has learned in the hard Yahweh. And Isaiah’s reply near the end graffiti on his Hebrew school desk. work of recovery is that that sense of of the Hebrew scriptures added a clear But after a catastrophic earthquake in a unified self is not accomplished in a and powerful acceptance of mission: the Holy Land throws the region into single theophany, but in deciding in “Here I am. Send me.” greater chaos, Jacob is called by his each moment of each day to do the next cousins in the Israeli military, as well as right thing. In Foer’s novel, the words “Here I am” Israeli leaders in their plea to the Jewish form a literal and figurative complaint diaspora, to “come home” to Jerusalem. by Jacob Bloch about his obstructed/ blocked aspirations, as well as an Jacob is vexed by a question he wishes ironic sung response in the children’s he could understand as clearly as his game “Where is Thumbkin?”—made 13-year-old son apparently does (and emotionally painful following an who, like Foer’s other adolescent char- accident involving a sliced thumb. acters, is precocious beyond credibility). Most importantly, “Here I am” is for Samuel reflects at his bar mitzvah that Jacob a profoundly conflicted signal of God’s demanding test of the biblical Jewish identity, which he, the grandson Abraham was not only the directive to Jenny Olin Shanahan is Director of of Holocaust survivors and victims, is kill Isaac, but the call to Abraham in the Undergraduate Research. seeking to reconcile. There is a lazy first place: “Abraham didn’t say, ‘What do you want?’ He didn’t say, ‘Yes?’

34 Bridgewater Review Here, Hochschild attempts to unpack Can We Bridge America’s an apparent incongruity. Large parts of the Louisiana bayou have become Political Divide? an environmental calamity because of chemicals dumped into the water Jason Edwards and soil by large corporations. This environment degradation threatens Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own dozens of wildlife species, the liveli- Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right hoods of thousands, and the very lives (New York: The New Press, 2016). of tens of thousands more. People’s homes have literally been swallowed up ince the election of Donald Trump, pundits, by the earth caving underneath them. policymakers, and politicians have been Logic would suggest these Louisianans would want greater environmental attempting to ascertain what his election regulation to solve these issues, but the S reality is the exact opposite. Deeply means for America. In particular, Democratic Party conservative, they are vehemently politicians have been wringing their hands about how opposed to government regulation. they can reconnect with a constituency—white, male, People in this part of the United States, blue-collar voters—that was once part of their base. where some of the lowest standards of living in the country prevail, refuse Why did they vote for him? What, if anything, can most assistance from the government. be done to bring those kind of voters back into the For Hochschild, this denial of self- interest is the “great paradox” that lies Democratic fold? at the heart of the divide between left In the book, Strangers in Their and right in this country. Own Land: Anger and Mourning on Underpinning the great paradox is what the American Right, Arlie Russell Hochschild calls “The Deep Story” Hochschild provides part of that of the Louisiana bayou country, one answer. Hers is not a study of Donald of many communities in the United Trump voters per se. Her fieldwork States that are predominantly poor was not even conducted in the and white and whose people feel left primary states—Wisconsin, Michigan, behind. Hochschild wants readers to and Pennsylvania—where the new picture themselves at the foot of a hill, president gathered enough support in a line of people waiting to get over to drive him to victory in the 2016 it. Over the hill is the American dream, election. Rather, Hochschild traveled which all should be able to access if they to the heart of arch-conservative work hard, pull themselves up by their Louisiana bayou country to listen, and boot straps and take the opportunities to understand what people actually provided by this country. However, believe. Her work is fascinating the line they are in is not moving. because the region was in the midst of In fact, it is going backwards. Even an environmental disaster primarily though they have worked hard and caused by big corporations. It was, paid their dues, they cannot get ahead. one would think, fertile ground for Additionally, they see other people liberals and environmentalists to find Hochschild spent five years (2011-16) ahead of them cutting in line. These support. To her surprise, the result was doing fieldwork, talking to people people seem not to have worked as exactly opposite. Hochschild’s analysis of different political stripes at church hard, but because of their ethnicity, of this slice of America has important services, gumbo cook-offs, Trump ral- gender, race, sexual orientation, and implications for the rest of the country. lies, political party groups, and kitchen tables. Her book’s first part presents its educational background, they are get- central problem, “The Great Paradox.” ting ahead. They must be getting help:

May 2017 35 welfare programs, affirmative action, communities in the Louisiana bayou have elements of betrayal and suspicion. special accommodations for education, and upstate Michigan and western This is not the first time we have seen it and other places. Hard work is not Pennsylvania coal country, but the gen- and it probably will not be the last. paying off; the American dream has eral outlines of the great paradox and Can this political divide—the great been derailed. the deep story feel familiar everywhere. paradox—be bridged? That’s a difficult They explain, in part, the motivations When Hochschild communicates this question to answer. Today, there is a and feelings of a lot of Donald Trump deep story to her conservative friends massive gulf between left and right, voters. The great question that emerges in Louisiana, all of them agree with the north and south, rural and urban, one from Hochschild’s work is: what do basic outline. Lee Sherman, one of the that seems too wide to cross. But it is we do with it? What does it mean for central characters in the book, states not necessarily new; it just manifests politics in America going forward? “you’ve read my mind” (145). Janice itself in different ways. Understanding Areno argues “you have it right, but While Hochschild’s work feels new, more about this political divide is you’ve left out the fact that the people the divide that she speaks of is not. For the first step to addressing it, and being cut in on are paying taxes that go example, historian Richard Hofstadter’s Hochschild’s Strangers in Their Own to the people cutting in line!” (145). work “The Paranoid Style in American Land is a great trigger to begin Others point out that it is not just about Politics” (Harper’s Magazine, 1964) the conversation. monetary success, but about “feeling proud to be an American, and to say ‘under God’ when you salute the flag, and feel good about that” (145). In other People in this part of the United words, the deep story for many in the States, where some of the lowest United States is one of betrayal by the federal government—a government standards of living in the country that favors some groups over others. It is a story about a country that has lost its prevail, refuse most assistance way, financially and morally. Hochschild spends much of her book from the government. For mining the depths of that deep story, Hochschild, this denial of relating the stories of people she has met through her fieldwork, and explaining self-interest is the “great paradox” how these trends have become national. For example, in Chapter 14 entitled that lies at the heart of the “The Fires of History: The 1860s and the 1960s,” the author identifies these divide between left and right two time periods as pivotal moments in history, when “movements rose up in this country. against secularism, modernity, racial integration, and a culture of experts” (207). She unpacks how the 1860s argued that this sort of discourse is and 1960s laid the larger groundwork an old and recurrent phenomenon. for the deep story that now pervades The paranoid spokesman believes the culture in many communities that people are out to get him and the across America. country at large. He communicates this anxiety through tales of conspiracy. In Hochschild’s book is a timely one that these tales of conspiracy, there can be offers many lessons about the political no compromise with the enemy; it must divisions in the United States today. be destroyed, lest it destroy the country. Her conclusions about Louisiana have Though Hochschild’s deep story found Jason Edwards is Associate Professor in the relevance for the rest of the nation. in the Louisiana bayou cannot be Department of Communication Studies. Certainly, there are differences among labelled as wholly “paranoid,” it does

36 Bridgewater Review literally groundbreaking study of the A New Light on Trees function of ectomycorrhizal connec tions between Douglas firs and paper Heather Marella birches in Pacific forests that biologists started to appreciate how this hidden Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees: network contributes to the overall What They Feel, How They Communicate health of the forest ecosystem. Simard (Vancouver, BC: Greystone Books, 2016). writes a compelling note at the end of Wohlleben’s book, putting her scientific ach morning as I wash dishes, my eyes seek out stamp of approval on his observations. the giant fallen tree in the conservation land just Ebeyond the stone wall in my backyard. I often wonder what brought it down and just how long it has been resting, rotting, and returning to the earth. Chances are it will still be there long after I leave this house. Part of the mystery (and majesty) of trees is the slow pace at which they live and die. In The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate, Peter Wohlleben reveals the inner workings of trees, shedding light on how a slow pace is a strategy for a long life. Wohlleben is a “reformed” forester, who previously worked for the German government and now manages a natural, sustainable forest for Hümmel, a village tucked away in the Eifel Mountains. His book is a compilation of the knowledge he gained during The second chapter, “The Language his time working in the forest and is written as if he is of Trees,” details how trees communi- chatting informally during a hike through his beloved cate with each other through the use of airborne compounds akin to the woods. Each of the short chapters reveals one of the pheromones of animals, and also below hidden secrets of trees. The book is a leisurely read, ground through their fungal connec- meant to be consumed near a gently crackling fire or tions. Tree-to-tree communication is vital to mounting a defense against slowly swinging in a hammock, enjoying the comforts herbivory; a tree being chewed on that trees provide. signals to its neighbors to start producing their chemical defenses. Plants are The first chapter, “Friendships,” reveals the moss to reveal bark, and underneath remarkable chemists and each species perhaps the most stunning of the the bark, chlorophyll, the hallmark of has a chemical arsenal designed to deter secrets: trees (and plants in general) are living plant tissue. His “stones” were or kill a variety of pests. It is from this connected to each other underground the remnants of an ancient beech that arsenal that humans have developed a by symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi and was on “life support” from the trees multitude of medicines. Trees send sig- through this fungi they share nutrients with which it shared underground nals to other trees, and to the members and communicate with each other. connections. The roots and fungi form of the animal kingdom as well. Certain Wohlleben describes in vivid detail an underground social network, termed animals have developed the ability to one hike he took through his forest and the “wood wide web.” It wasn’t until detect plants’ chemical distress calls, his discovery of strange, moss-covered 1997 when Suzanne Simard and her which allows the animals to locate “stones.” Curious, he removed some of colleagues published in Nature their

May 2017 37 their next meal or an incubator for of tree physiology, ecology, evolution I take particular issue with his refer- their eggs. It goes like this: a caterpil- and environmental biology. He takes ences to trees feeling pain. Yes, plants lar munches away on a leaf; the plant, information typically “hidden” from “feel”; all organisms have the ability sensing both the saliva of the caterpillar the general public in textbooks and to perceive their environments. The and the damaging wounds, releases a scientific articles and brings it to life ability to sense pressure is found in all specific gaseous compound into the air. with a casual, folksy style. In the final life forms, including bacteria (Haswell Parasitoid wasps, seeking a caterpillar chapters, he makes a compelling argu- et al., “Mechanosensitive channels,” host to lay their eggs in, perceive the ment for sustainable forestry and forest Structure [2011]). So when a storm compound and follow its concentra- conservation. knocks its branch down or a wood- tion gradient to locate the caterpillar. pecker drills through its bark, a tree The book was originally written in The caterpillar is doomed: when the can sense the change in pressure. But German and at times it suffers from wasp eggs develop into larvae, they eat pressure is not the same as pain. As any- translation issues. Some of these are their way out of their caterpillar host. one who has undergone dental work biologically significant. The “blos- It is a gruesome end for the caterpillar, knows, anesthetic blocks the perception soms” he refers to as being “dusted with but the plant and wasp each survive to of pain but she can still feel the pressure the foreign pollen of the other spruce” pass on their coevolved communication of the dentist’s tools. Pain is reserved for (22) are actually cones (spruce trees capabilities to the next generation. organisms with neurons. are conifers and not flowering plants). This book is definitely worth reading. As Wohlleben notes, “Large plants do not have brains, they move very slowly, Plants are remarkable chemists their interests are completely different and each species has a chemical from ours, and they live their daily lives at an incredibly slow pace. It’s no arsenal designed to deter or wonder that even though every school- child knows trees are living beings, kill a variety of pests. It is they also know they are classified as objects” (242). Each story told in these from this arsenal that humans pages reinforces the knowledge that trees are living beings and reduces the have developed a multitude tendency to objectify them. Which is why I plan to lend my copy to a of medicines. chainsaw-happy colleague.

The next chapter, “Social Security,” Also, “flowering liverworts” (163) are weaves the discoveries of the first actually members of the genus Hepatica two chapters together, arguing that (even though liverwort is most com- since trees are connected and commonly associated with the phylum municate, their individual fates are Hepatophyta, a group of amazing but bound together in the forest. Through non-flowering plants). an exceptionally poignant story of Trees operate very differently from a failed girdling attempt he under- humans and Wohlleben’s attempts to took as a young forester, Wohlleben Heather Marella is Assistant Professor in the make them more relatable sometimes characterizes a forest tree community Department of Biological Sciences. go awry. His overzealous use of anthro- as a force and sets the stage for the pomorphism is at times annoying (as remainder of the book. The succeed- when he titles his chapter on repro- ing chapters discuss interesting aspects duction “Love”); at others it actually detracts from the power of his message.

38 Bridgewater Review Since the conversations are transcribed From Mozart to Messiaen: verbatim, apparently with only the slightest editorial touch, the material Reflections on a Lifetime of Music is scattered, often shifting focus abruptly and returning to previous Steven Young topics. Ozawa is very careful not to say anything untoward about his Haruki Murakami, Absolutely on Music: colleagues; he treats every musician Conversations with Seiji Ozawa in the book with great respect. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2016). Murakami’s knowledge of the classical music world is considerable, facilitating apanese author Haruki Murakami may be best detailed and wide-ranging discussions known as a writer of fiction, but his latest book on repertoire, technique, and history. However, Murakami cannot avoid departs from that focus to offer a series of real- using his literary skills as he describes J what he hears. When he writes about life conversations about the world of classical a Rudolph Serkin performance of the music. Murakami sat with maestro Seiji Ozawa, “Emperor” Concerto by Beethoven, former music director of the Boston Symphony Ozawa is made to say: “I am particu Orchestra (1973-2002), on six occasions over a larly fond of Serkin’s approach to this cadenza. It is like he’s climbing a hill two-year period to talk with him about his career with a load on his back. There’s nothing and about music. The initial connection was made fluent here; it’s almost as though he’s stuttering.” Such colorful descriptions through Ozawa’s daughter, Seira, a writer, who knew are likely to succeed in engaging the Murakami’s wife. After Murakami observed the Seiji less-knowledgeable reader, but they Ozawa Music Academy in Kyoto, a project dear to do not capture the tone of real Ozawa, the two began this series of conversations, professional musicians. The discussion about Gustav Mahler’s giving Ozawa the opportunity to reminisce about music is especially intriguing because music with a true music devotee. (In addition to the German conductors with whom possessing a large record collection and frequenting Ozawa studied avoided this music. The Nazi regime suppressed the music of concert performances, Murakami has an extensive understanding of classical music and jazz, especially for a self-professed non-musician.) Ozawa, one of the world’s busiest conductors, underwent surgery in 2010 for esophageal cancer at the age of 75, and the recuperation period required him to severely cut back his professional engagements, giving him ample time to talk with Murakami. The conversations explore the multi- Francisco, and Boston, as well as with faceted career of one of the first Asian the Vienna State Opera. Ozawa credits musicians to break into the Western much of his success then and now to classical music arena. His tutelage his first Japanese mentor, Hideo Saito under such great conductors as Herbert (1902-74), in whose memory Ozawa von Karajan (1908-89) and Leonard founded a new orchestra in Japan, the Bernstein (1918-90) prepared Ozawa Saito Kinen [Memorial] Orchestra, for his conductorships in Toronto, San which he continues to lead.

May 2017 39 Mahler (1860-1911), a Bohemia-born and recordings had not allowed him to teaching stint to be burdensome due to Jew, so von Karajan and Karl Böhm set aside time for deliberate listening to the demands of his conducting sched- avoided public performances of those his own recordings, and only during ule. But the death of his mentor Saito symphonies. Mahler’s reputation suf- these conversations did the maestro inspired him to take on the responsi- fered from the limited performances of realize how he had changed as a con- bility of training future generations of his music; neither conversant men- ductor over his many years. He muses: musicians, by creating the Seiji Ozawa tioned that Mahler later converted to “Even at my age, you change. And International Academy Switzerland, Christianity in order to get some of practical experience keeps you chang- an intensive ten-day summer program the recognition he deserved. It was not ing. This may be the one distinguishing for string players. Here, Ozawa and until Bernstein began to perform these feature of the conductor’s profession. the top-notch faculty train the best of works that Ozawa got to know them. The work itself changes you” (226). Europe’s young string players in the art Ozawa insists that Mahler’s music is of playing chamber music, a skill that is What intrigues me most are Ozawa’s not as inscrutable as it sounds, pointing rarely taught in conservatories, where reflections on the art of teaching. He out that its apparent complexity derives the focus is on training solo performers. never considered teaching as a career, from the simultaneous layering of rela- in part because his English was not very Murakami makes it clear that his tively simple materials. good. (He laments on many occasions intention was to share with musical amateurs the joy of his “afternoons with Ozawa.” Despite minor flaws The conversations explore the in Ozawa’s memory and the flowery quality of some of Harukami’s multi-faceted career of one of the descriptions, one learns a great deal not only about Ozawa and his career, but first Asian musicians to break into also about the art of listening and the professional challenges and rewards for the Western classical music arena. the conductor—the musician whose instrument is the entire orchestra.

Many of the conversations involve that he wished he had learned English recordings that Ozawa made. He better, as it would have helped him reveals that he was often disappointed while he was Bernstein’s assistant.) But in his own performances, frequently he does discuss how he trained orches- wishing that he had taken more risks tras to create the sound he desired, with the music. Concerning the BSO’s usually by asking the string players to recording of Mahler’s First Symphony, change their approach to bowing, ask- “Titan,” Ozawa notes that the orches- ing for them to “dig into the strings” tra’s sound is “mild” and that “it could more. After some years in Boston, use a little more flavor” (214). His usual Ozawa was convinced to do some Steven Young is Professor in the schedule of rehearsals, performances, teaching as part of the Tanglewood Department of Music. Summer Institute. He found this

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