Mary Shannon Johnstone

Shannon’s  sabbatical project "Breeding Ignorance" was selected as one of the Top 50 in Photolucida's highly competitive 2009 Critical Mass photographyreview/competition. 

(http://photolucidapdx.blogspot.com/2009/11/and-drumroll-please.html), "The aim of Critical Mass, and all Photolucida programming, is to provide participants with career-building opportunities and to promote the best emerging and mid-career artists working today."
Photolucida's 2009 Critical Mass received almost 600 applicants from around the world.  Initially a panel of 20 curators and photo professionals narrowed down the field to the top 175. The top 175 then went on to be reviewed by 200 gallery and museum directors, curators, photo editors, publishers, etc. They voted on the work and narrowed down to the Top 50 candidates, which Shannon is a part of. Great job, Shannon!

Carla Ross presented her paper entitled “Forgiveness: Probing the Boundaries” at the Inter-disciplinary.net  global conference held in March 2009 in Saltzburg, Austria.  This paper focused on miscommunication being listed as one of the top three reasons for separation and divorce and “irreconcilable differences” in marriage.  Most therapists and consultants focus on teaching couples the skills of listening, creating empathy, and conflict resolution to promote and maintain relational satisfaction and longevity.  But, even with good listening or conflict management skills, some couples refuse to engage in them which indicates an internal barrier.  One such barrier may be the ability and/or willingness to forgive.  The data from this exploratory study of 3 couples who have married, divorced, and remarried the same partner indicates that forgiveness is a primary factor that indicates high marital satisfaction and differentiates couples who choose to reconcile following separation or divorce and those who do not reconcile.  The papers were peer reviewed and then the top 12 papers were selected to be published in a hard copy book.  This paper was one of the 12 chosen.  Currently, the publication is being edited and will be released in January 2010.