Christine Hansen – författare

Within the Yarra River catchment area nestles the valley of Steels Creek, a small shallow basin in the lee of Kinglake plateau and the Great Dividing Range. The escarpment walls of the range drop in a series of ridges to the valley and form the south-eastern boundary of the Kinglake National Park. The gentle undulations that flow out from the valley stretch into the productive and picturesque landscape of Victoria’s famous wine growing district, the Yarra Valley. Late on the afternoon of 7 February 2009, the day that came to be known as Black Saturday, the Kinglake plateau carried a massive conflagration down the fringing ranges into the Steels Creek community. Ten people perished and 67 dwellings were razed in the firestorm. In the wake of the fires, the devastated residents of the valley began the long task of grieving, repairing, rebuilding or moving on while redefining themselves and their community. In Living with Fire, historians Tom Griffiths and Christine Hansen trace both the history of fire in the region and the human history of the Steels Creek valley in a series of essays which examine the relationship between people and place. These essays are interspersed with four interludes compiled from material produced by the community. In the immediate aftermath of the fire many people sought to express their grief, shock, sadness and relief in artwork. Some painted or wrote poetry, while others collected the burnt remains of past treasures from which they made new objects. These expressions, supplemented by historical archives and the essays they stand beside, offer a sensory and holistic window into the community’s contemporary and historical experiences. A deeply moving book, Living with Fire brings to life the stories of one community’s experience with fire, offering a way to understand the past, and in doing so, prepare for the future.

Within the Yarra River catchment area nestles the valley of Steels Creek, a small shallow basin in the lee of Kinglake plateau and the Great Dividing Range. The escarpment walls of the range drop in a series of ridges to the valley and form the south-eastern boundary of the Kinglake National Park. The gentle undulations that flow out from the valley stretch into the productive and picturesque landscape of Victoria’s famous wine growing district, the Yarra Valley.

Late on the afternoon of 7 February 2009, the day that came to be known as Black Saturday, the Kinglake plateau carried a massive conflagration down the fringing ranges into the Steels Creek community. Ten people perished and 67 dwellings were razed in the firestorm. In the wake of the fires, the devastated residents of the valley began the long task of grieving, repairing, rebuilding or moving on while redefining themselves and their community.

In Living with Fire, historians Tom Griffiths and Christine Hansen trace both the history of fire in the region and the human history of the Steels Creek valley in a series of essays which examine the relationship between people and place. These essays are interspersed with four interludes compiled from material produced by the community. In the immediate aftermath of the fire many people sought to express their grief, shock, sadness and relief in artwork. Some painted or wrote poetry, while others collected the burnt remains of past treasures from which they made new objects. These expressions, supplemented by historical archives and the essays they stand beside, offer a sensory and holistic window into the community’s contemporary and historical experiences.

A deeply moving book, Living with Fire brings to life the stories of one community’s experience with fire, offering a way to understand the past, and in doing so, prepare for the future.

In this compilation, the authors open with an analysis of the formation of philosophical terminology in the history of Early-Modern Ukrainian culture; specifically, two philosophical concepts-dobro and blaho (N and deg)-are the focus here. Both are related to notions of good and wellbeing, but contextual nuances may affect their discrete meanings rather significantly. The authors consider the manner in which these two words functioned in the works by the prominent 18th century Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda by way of a study based on a close reading of thirteen of his colloquies. Following this, the authors aim to investigate the relationship between morphological awareness and reading in a language environment which is phonologically transparent and morphologically challenging, i.e., the Czech language environment. The study showed that morphological awareness affected reading speed and accuracy more than phonological awareness. Paradoxically, morphological awareness affected reading comprehension less than phonological awareness - authors interpreted this to be due to superficial reading style which manifested itself regardless of student age, gender or IQ. Continuing, research has indicated that vocabulary depth and breadth are strongly correlated with reading comprehension and, consequently, with academic achievement. Recent research has demonstrated that vocabulary can even predict achievement up to 10 years later. Some theoretical models, such as the simple view of reading (Hoover & Gough, 1990) or the multicomponent view of reading (Cain, 2009) have received extensive empirical support and provided a clear insight into the relationship between reading comprehension and other linguistic variables, including vocabulary. Thus, the implications of findings for the design of interventions and for the planning of reading instruction are discussed. The concluding chapter aims to discuss relevant underlying theories and review previous empirical studies on language learning in both F2F and synchronous computer-mediated communication, as the nature of technology- or computer-mediated communication makes enhanced incidental learning feasible.