http://www.syndicatemizzou.org Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:18:15 GMT en-us 40 Center for eResearch Connecting you with the University of Missouri’s innovative research and creative activity http://www.syndicatemizzou.org/images/logo.png 384 80 http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/wells/ipod/Wells2.m4v Education http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/wells/ipod/Wells2.m4v In a recent paper, “Questioning Deference,” Wells brings principles from both psychology and law to examine how people make decisions in times of crisis. She shows, for instance, how fear and prejudice can skew the government’s decision-making, citing the prosecution of anti-war protestors during World War I, the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and the legal battles against Communists during the Cold War as painful reminders. 3 Wed, 05 Sep 2007 21:44:14 GMT http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/welch/ipod/Welch07.m4v Education http://syndicatemizzou.org/resources/welch/ipod/Welch07.m4v The real challenge for Welch is how “to help people see that they too can be the agent of evil.” Given that most of our stories involve “good guys versus bad guys,” those are the cultural scripts we are given. Taking some ideas from Theophus Smith’s _Conjuring Culture_ (1995), Welch argues that “it’s not just a simple divide of oppressor/oppressed.” While clearly there is blatant oppression, sometimes excessive shaming occurs—“the people who have been oppressive need to be shamed, need to be called to account,” yet, “there’s no way all that suffering is going to be redeemed.” When a single event or person becomes a scapegoat for all the suffering groups of people have experienced historically, “it becomes a way of driving a deeper and deeper wedge.” The goal is to find a way of balancing accountability without demonizing the oppressor. 3 Tue, 25 Sep 2007 20:52:16 GMT