Incorporating National Incident Management System training and exercise principles into homeland security and emergency management learning can help university students develop emergency response capabilities through practical application of knowledge in simulated incidents. In addition, they gain team-building and leadership skills, establish…

The author examines how the residents of two displaced rural Kansas towns, and their descendants, exhibit a sense of identity common to small farm communities throughout the Great Plains, and how tenacious these ties are even after the physical reminder of their communal bonds no longer exists. By examining the struggles to survive faced by these…

Social media networks have emerged as a powerful tool in allowing collaboration and sharing of information during times of crisis (Axel Bruns, The Centre for Creative Industries Blog, comment posted January 19, 2011). The 2011 Queensland floods provided a unique opportunity to explore social media use during an emergency. This paper presents the…

The authors explored individual and family adjustment processes among parents (n = 30) and children (n = 55) who were displaced to Colorado after Hurricane Katrina. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 23 families, this article offers an inductive model of displaced family adjustment. Four stages of family adjustment are presented in the model: (a)…

Since the 1960s and 1970s, theatre artists from around the globe initiated a wave of theatre practice that is commonly known today as People's Theatre or Theatre for Empowerment. Transforming its participants from being mere "spectactors" to "spect-actors" capable of articulating their concerns on-stage, the ultimate goal of…

How do parents support their children after a high-impact disaster? To answer this question, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 51 Norwegian parents. These parents and children were all severely exposed to the trauma of the tsunami disaster. The analyses show how parents interpret their children's signs of distress, as well as their own…

This study considers how religious individuals may be more likely to entertain doomsday scenarios, such as the December 21, 2012 Mayan prophecy, particularly when juxtaposed with the occurrence of several recent adverse and cataclysmic events. One hundred forty two undergraduates were asked to assess their belief as to whether they believed that…

Academic continuity planning is an emerging tool for dealing with class cancellation associated with natural disasters, acts of violence and the threat of pandemics. However, academic continuity can also be an issue with respect to less dramatic events, such as power outages, inclement weather, or the temporary unavailability of an instructor,…

During the summer of 2012, the Louisiana State University (LSU) field camp program was affected by close proximity to the large Waldo Canyon Fire in Colorado Springs, CO, as well as by a fire incident on the field camp property. A mapping exercise was created that incorporated spatial data acquired on the LSU property to investigate research…

AJK (Azad Jammu & Kashmir) government is a small administrative unit under overall sovereignty of Pakistan. It has a total area of 13297 sq kilometers with a population of about 3.8 million. This study critically examines the problems of primary education system in AJK State specifically in govt. primary schools in Pakistan administrative…

As a result of the Canterbury earthquake on 4 September 2010, and associated aftershocks on 22 February 2011 and 13 June 2011, final examinations in the two first-year Economics papers at Canterbury University were cancelled at short notice in Semester 1, 2011. The final examination weightings were spread over the remaining assessments to obtain a…

The National Survey of Disaster Experiences and Preparedness (NSDEP) examined whether households in the United States have engaged in proactive preparedness and avoidance activities since September 11, 2001, and whether the activities reported were done because of terrorism, natural disasters, other reasons, or any combination of reasons. Reported…

This study focused on characteristics of the family environment that may mediate the relationship between disaster exposure and the presence of symptoms that met DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for symptom count and duration for an internalizing disorder in children and youth. We also explored how parental history of mental health problems may moderate…

This analysis of postupheaval educational change examines the extent to which massive changes in a school system's sociocultural environment lead to changes in the structure and practice of schooling. Framed broadly within systems theory and complexity theory, this examination of two cases of postupheaval educational change--post-1989 Czech…

Previous research in US populations has found associations between disaster-related variables, psychological variables, and post-disaster increases in smoking and alcohol use. To date, no research has examined this association in an international population of disaster exposed individuals. Data used in this study were drawn from a larger study…