Linda Shenk

Best Practices for Engaging Underserved Populations

This work developed and applied a set of “best practices” when engaging marginalized populations to collect data, attitudes, and opinions around a research topic. To support city stakeholders making decisions to create more sustainable and equitable cities, data-driven simulation models are being developed. To ensure that these models are equitable, the needs of marginalized populations must be included. The challenge, however, in understanding these needs is that researchers have often struggled to reach and engage underserved populations. The best practices were developed by reviewing the literature from areas such as psychology, communication, and community planning. These best practices (Earn Trust Through Partnership, Be Multilingual & Inclusive, Communicate for Understanding, Respect Work Schedules and Cultural Norms, and Offer Something Useful) were then applied to the design of a data collection exercise for the study of weatherization decision making and behaviors of urban residents in an economically disadvantaged community. The results of the process were positive with high levels of participation and engagement. The use of the best practices allowed the researchers to better engage with the population, to the benefit of both groups. The development of these best practices will aid researchers in better engaging underserved populations across many areas of study.

Energy Use and Weatherization Practices: Applications for Agent-Based Modeling to Support Vulnerable Populations

This work surveyed residents of an economically disadvantaged community on their attitudes toward weatherization and their energy use behaviors. To support urban leaders making decisions to mitigate the effects of large-scale climate change, data-driven simulation models are being developed. To ensure that these models are equitable, the needs of all citizens must be included, especially those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The results of this survey indicate that residents are taking steps to weatherize and conserve energy, but they are hindered by a lack of resources and knowledge of available assistance programs. These results are being applied to agent-based models (ABM) to model emergent community behavior. These models will be used to design decision support systems for city stakeholders.

Elizabeth I and the Politics of Invoking Russia in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost

In recent years, scholars of both Elizabeth I and William Shakespeare have become increasingly interested in these two figures’ communications with and representations of Russia. This essay examines the Muscovite scene in Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost within contemporary texts related to Russia that would have resonated with Elizabeth during the play’s performance at court—contexts that include the queen’s correspondence with Tsar Theodor and his chief counselor, Boris Godunov. Shakespeare invoked Russia to flatter Elizabeth as a queen able to establish lucrative trade, create diplomatic relations that evade binding commitment, and increase England’s military strength.

Queen of the Word: Elizabeth, Divine Wisdom, and Apocalyptic Discourse in the 1580s

When Sir Philip Sidney and his colleagues in Anglo-Dutch relations used poetry to praise Elizabeth as a nymph and celestial goddess in the 1570s (chapter two), they infused secular images with religious significance in order to encourage royal support for the Protestant States. These delightful texts laud Elizabeth as a radiant queen whose bright beams and keen wisdom could easily translate into international leadership and assistance, if she would so choose.

A Wise Elizabeth and Her Devoted Diplomats: Sidney’S the Lady of May and Anglo-Dutch Relations

In the late 1570s, Sir Philip Sidney wrote The Lady of May to entertain Elizabeth during her visit to Wanstead, his uncle’s estate. At the center of this whimsical device is Sidney’s representation of Elizabeth as a superlatively wise queen: she is a “proba dominus doctor” [right learned lord] whose “mind is such, as wisest minds appal.”1 Not just idle panegyric, Sidney’s praise of Elizabeth is crucial to the action of the play. At the climactic moment, the queen must demonstrate her astute perspective by choosing between two suitors eager to marry the Lady of May. At first glance, Elizabeth’s decision in a fictional courtship dispute hardly seems to merit much attention. However, when the Lady of May cryptically states, “in judging me, you judge more than me in it” (30.12), she suggests that the decision does indeed have deeper implications.

Elizabeth, Shakespeare, and the Concord of Folly

In the last three chapters of Learned Queen, St. Paul’s first epistle to the Corinthians has repeatedly echoed in contexts that portray Elizabeth as a queen who unifies through love. In the later years of her reign, the notions of St. Paul and love continue to resonate—but now Elizabeth becomes a pacific and wise Queen of Love through an aspect of Pauline rhetoric that this book has not yet explored: the idea that divine wisdom can manifest itself as folly. St. Paul writes in I Corinthians: God has “made the wisedome of this worlde foolish,” and “God hath chosen the foolish things of the worlde, to confounde the wise” (1:20, 27).1

Queen Solomon: Elizabeth I in Christian Prayers and Meditations (1569)

In 1569, Elizabeth I assumed the role of a pious, learned queen in her most sustained demonstration of erudite piety printed during her reign. She is presented as the author of seventeen foreign language prayers that conclude Christian Prayers and Meditations in English[,] French, Italian, Spanish, Greeke, and Latine—a lengthy prayer book published by the famous Protestant printer and propagandist John Day1 The prayers alone are remarkable; composed in the key European languages (French, Spanish, Italian), the biblical language of Greek, and the international lingua franca, Latin, they present Elizabeth as a multilingual, Christian queen who speaks to the international community. What is equally remarkable is how Day’s prayer book as a whole imbues Elizabeth with a powerful, yet quiet, ecclesiastical presence guiding her National Church. Highly clever and richly layered, the image of Elizabeth in Christian Prayers demonstrates how ecclesiastical, monarchical, and international politics coalesce in Elizabeth’s learned persona.

A Loving Scholar of His Queen’s Wisdom: The Earl of Essex, Anglo-French Affairs, and Of Love and Self-Love (1595)

For Elizabeth’s Accession Day in 1595, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and Francis Bacon produced the entertainment Of Love and Self-Love—a device filled with more references to Elizabeth’s demonstrations of erudition than any other poetic text I have examined from the reign. Bacon and Essex echo Elizabeth’s 1592 oration at Oxford and her 1593 translation of Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy throughout the entertainment, and in doing so, they depict the earl as a loving pupil of his queen’s wisdom. Certainly, Essex’s signature image had always been that of a lover, but understanding how Essex and Bacon shape this role specifically through references to Elizabeth’s learning exposes Essex not as a passionate playboy but rather as a geopolitically shrewd statesman whose particular expertise is international affairs. As Paul E. J. Hammer has noted, Essex devoted massive resources in 1594 and 1595 to become England’s preeminent figure in international intelligence.1 The references to Elizabeth’s learning in Of Love and Self-Love shed light on how Essex worked to integrate his military and transnational interests with his loyalty to Elizabeth—all to demonstrate that he was the best candidate to become her next principal secretary during this period of international crisis.2

Philosopher-Queen: Elizabeth’s Transcendent Wisdom In The 1590s

During the apocalyptic 1580s when writers hailed Elizabeth I as a Protestant Queen of God’s Word, Elizabeth herself projected a very different learned persona. In her self-depiction, gone were the swords, the high drama, and even her decidedly Protestant identity. Instead, she portrayed herself as a philosopher-queen whose broad range of studies gave her the perspective necessary to transcend myopic sectarian divisions. This transcendent wisdom would serve Elizabeth well in the 1580s and 1590s—a period when her own nation and indeed all of Europe were becoming increasingly polarized along religious lines.