Abstract The painful history of slavery has profoundly affected the identities and social interactions of Afro-Caribbean migrants, whose descendants continue to contend with prejudice and socio-economic marginalization. Andrea Levy's semi-autobiographical novel, The Long Song (2010), traces the turbulent history of Jamaica in the nineteenth century through the lens of Miss Kitty, a character based on Levy's great-great-great grandmother, who was born a slave on the plantation Amity in Saint Catherine's parish. The narrative blends the historical with the fictional and depicts various environmental contexts, inscribed meanings, and human exchanges, including the prominence of social situations perceived through race and class tensions ironically reconstructed through social interactions. Levy boldly broadens the understanding of freedom and subjectivity contested beyond the abolition of slavery.The novel raises compelling issues concerning the construction and negotiation of identity within the context of colonialism, slavery, and the emergent plantation economy in the Caribbean. Levy deals with the notion of identity, an ambiguous term aggregating entangled layers of representational frameworks, contextual meanings, and social negotiations inscribed within the intricacies of cultural encounters. The analysis draws on broadening horizons on identity theory, offering different constructs of identity inscribed within the narrative strands of The Long Song, taking on the complexity of racial stigma, the misrepresentation and projection of black identity through colonial discourse, and the entangled social interactions and exchanges through which identity is constructed and negotiated within contested socio-racial environments.Levy's notion of identity implies a form of social construction performed through the negotiation of increasingly-engaged modes of representation within a complex fabric of social codes, customs, practices, dialects, and worldviews punctuated through the entanglement of one's self and multiple alterities. The precision and nuance of her observation cause the character to realize the "dangerous" assumptions of the English and an awareness of "contested terrain." The negotiation and representation of racialized identity echo an unsettling realization of race triggered by her isolation in the white institution's womb marked by the religious overtone of the day. Kitty contends with the constant projection of her and her fellow slaves' blackness beyond the negative perception construing unreliability, deceitfulness, and brutishness while evoking exoticism and primitivism. The multifaceted engagements with the surround are conveyed through Kitty's subjective first-person narration complemented by different modes of enunciation, including the shifting narration of the slave owner's white wife and the authoritative voice of Ms. Annie, the largely absent historian.
Peer support is an effective strategy to promote self-management behaviors and improve well-being in those with cardiometabolic disease, including type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). There is limited knowledge about stakeholder perceptions regarding peer support programs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The study assessed stakeholders’ awareness and understanding of peer support initiatives for T2DM, and explored their perceived barriers and readiness for implementation. A cross-sectional, self-administered online survey with branching logic was distributed to stakeholders across macro- (health policy), meso (tertiary hospital), and micro (community) levels of LMIC healthcare systems from June 1 to December 15, 2023. Quan
... Show MoreDocument source identification in printer forensics involves determining the origin of a printed document based on characteristics such as the printer model, serial number, defects, or unique printing artifacts. This process is crucial in forensic investigations, particularly in cases involving counterfeit documents or unauthorized printing. However, consistent pattern identification across various printer types remains challenging, especially when efforts are made to alter printer-generated artifacts. Machine learning models are often used in these tasks, but selecting discriminative features while minimizing noise is essential. Traditional KNN classifiers require a careful selection of distance metrics to capture relevant printing
... Show MoreThe study aims to identify the concept of empowering women from the point of view of experts in the Palestinian society, specifically in Gaza, as well as to explore the foundations of their formation of this concept. Additionally, the study seeks to clarify the most important challenges facing the empowerment of women in Palestinian society. The study used the design of a grounded theory that seeks to build the theory through deep analysis of the data, as qualitative data were collected through holding two focus groups and six in-depth interviews with the study sample, who were selected by the method of targeted sampling. The sample included (16) individuals (9 female experts, 7 male experts) holding academic and community leadership pos
... Show MoreThe distribution of the expanded exponentiated power function EEPF with four parameters, was presented by the exponentiated expanded method using the expanded distribution of the power function, This method is characterized by obtaining a new distribution belonging to the exponential family, as we obtained the survival rate and failure rate function for this distribution, Some mathematical properties were found, then we used the developed least squares method to estimate the parameters using the genetic algorithm, and a Monte Carlo simulation study was conducted to evaluate the performance of estimations of possibility using the Genetic algorithm GA.
A new results for fusion reactivity and slowing-down energy distribution functions for controlled thermonuclear fusion reactions of the hydrogen isotopes are achieved to reach promising results in calculating the factors that covered the design and construction of a given fusion system or reactor. They are strongly depending upon their operating fuels, the reaction rate, which in turn, reflects the physical behavior of all other parameters characterization of the system design
The aim of this work is to detect the best operating conditions that effect on the removal of Cu2+, Zn2+, and Ni2+ ions from aqueous solution using date pits in the batch adsorption experiments. The results have shown that the Al-zahdi Iraqi date pits demonstrated more efficient at certain values of operating conditions of adsorbent doses of 0.12 g/ml of aqueous solution, adsorption time 72 h, pH solution 5.5 ±0.2, shaking speed 300 rpm, and smallest adsorbent particle size needed for removal of metals. At the same time the particle size of date pits has a little effect on the adsorption at low initial concentration of heavy metals. The adsorption of metals increases with increas
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This study aims to find the relationships between social capital (social network, social trust, shared goals) and knowledge sharing (knowledge Donating, knowledge collecting) as independent variables and their impact on improving the quality of educational services (academic staffs quality, Quality of teaching methods and study curriculums). This research is an important, because it attempts to identify the relationship between social capital and the knowledge sharing and their effect on improving the quality of educational service for universities. The study problem was determined in several questions related to the nature of the correlation relationship - the impact between the different independent variables (
... Show MoreThe research aims to identify the effect of teaching-learning design based on the constructivism theory on the life skills of middle stage students. The sample consisted of (60) students from one of the middle schools in Baghdad's governorate. The experimental group and control group consisted of 30 students for each group, the research tool was the life skills scale composed of (78) items. The scale proved its validity and reliability, which was found to be (0.85). The results showed a statistically significant difference in life skills between the two groups of research in favor of the experimental group, which studied the educational design according to models of constructivism theory compared to the usual method of teaching.