astronomy

J. Lorand Matory

J. Lorand Matory is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand J. Lorand Matory rather than just read about it. In short: J. Lorand Matory is an American academic and Lawrence Richardson Professor of Cultural Anthropology and African and African American Studies at Duke University.

Key takeaways

J. Lorand Matory belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect J. Lorand Matory to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of J. Lorand Matory from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

J. Lorand Matory is an American academic and Lawrence Richardson Professor of Cultural Anthropology and African and African American Studies at Duke University.

Early life and education Matory grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended Harvard College. He received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1991.

Career Currently, he is Chair of the African and African American Studies department at Duke University. He is the author of Sex and the Empire That Is No More: Gender and the Politics of Metaphor in Oyo Yoruba Religion (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press 1994; Second, Revised Edition, New York and London: Berghahn Books, 2005); and Black Atlantic Religion: Tradition, Transnationalism and Matriarchy in the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé (Princeton; Princeton University Press, 2005). Matory supports disinvestment from Israel. At one point, he criticized Larry Summers, then President of Harvard University, who called efforts by Matory and others to divest from Israel "anti-Semitic in effect, if not intent." According to Matory, "the knee jerk accusation that targeted criticism of Israel singles out Israel is as absurd as stating that the anti-apartheid movement was singling out South Africa." In the summer of 2005, Matory was one of the leaders of a group calling for a faculty vote of no-confidence in University President Larry Summers. Although Matory had tenure at Harvard, he complained about issues regarding his compensation and diversity at the faculty, and when he received the offer to come to Duke in 2008, Harvard made a counter-offer that Matory considered inadequate before he accepted Duke's offer and left in the fall to take up his new position.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with J. Lorand Matory

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what J. Lorand Matory claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to J. Lorand Matory before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about J. Lorand Matory ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of J. Lorand Matory

In research: J. Lorand Matory appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses J. Lorand Matory in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: J. Lorand Matory is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 20th-century American anthropologists, 21st-century American anthropologists, ASA Best Book Prize winners, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for J. Lorand Matory outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study J. Lorand Matory in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what J. Lorand Matory means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain J. Lorand Matory out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is J. Lorand Matory in simple terms?

J. Lorand Matory is an American academic and Lawrence Richardson Professor of Cultural Anthropology and African and African American Studies at Duke University.

Why does J. Lorand Matory matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study J. Lorand Matory?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on J. Lorand Matory.