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Femmes d’oc et engagement (XXe – XXIe siècles). Introduction
No full textIntroduction, Femmes d’oc et engagement (XXe – XXIe siècles)Introduction, Femmes d’oc et engagement (XXe – XXIe siècles
Fostering the Human Rights of Migrant Children Through Art and Educational Practices at the United States-Mexico Border
No full textThis paper explores the impact of art and educational practices on fostering the psychosocial well-being and human rights awareness of migrant children residing in shelters at the U.S.-Mexico border. This population often faces acute vulnerabilities due to migratory status and exposure to trauma during transit, including violence, displacement, and family separation. The study emphasizes the collaborative efforts of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and early childhood educators within these shelters. Data collection entailed conducting interviews with early childhood educators, art instructors, and literacy mediators who work directly with migrant children. Observations were carried out in reading rooms and multilevel classroom settings, focusing on the structure and flow of activities to ensure they addressed the emotional and psychological needs of the children involved. This research is situated against the backdrop of migrant families and children entrapped at the U.S.-Mexico border due to the Remain in Mexico and Title 42 policies implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. These policies have resulted in prolonged stays in shelters for asylum-seeking families, creating environments characterized by immigration uncertainty, limited resources, and emotional strain. The findings illuminate the effectiveness of art and educational practices and the crucial role of early childhood educators in helping children process trauma, express their emotions, and develop a sense of identity and agency amidst challenging circumstances
Authoritarian Neoliberalism and the Repression of Protest and Dissent in Canada: The Wet’suwet’en Land Defense Movement & #ShutDownCanada
No full textThe Wet’suwet’en land defense movement and the allied #ShutDownCanada protests remain some of the most highly publicized anti-pipeline protest events of the last decade. This protest movement offers an insight into how Canada protects and reproduces its accumulation by resource extraction strategy. Situating this research within an observed global phenomenon of growing intolerance to protest and dissent in democratic contexts, I illuminate the ways through which opposition against extractive projects is repressed by the Canadian settler colonial state in the contemporary era of neoliberalism. Drawing on the political economy framework of “authoritarian neoliberalism,” I elucidate the legal, discursive, and coercive means through which extractive projects are insulated from public opposition. These means are repressing the democratic right to protest in Canada and indicate that Canada is no exception to a broader global deterioration of democracy under a political-economic system that is antagonistic to social solidarity and collective action. Moreover, these repressive strategies exacerbate the violent and dispossessive nature of Canada’s settler colonial extractive capitalism
Academic Freedom as an Institutional Right
No full textAcademic freedom seems to be under assault from all political angles. Opposed sides invoke academic freedom when it serves their purposes but ignore it when doing so serves the purposes of attacking their political enemies. Most at risk in the midst of these on-going battles is the future of the university as a space for free inquiry, debate, criticism, and the extension of human knowledge in all fields of intellectual inquiry. As a step towards safeguarding the future of the university as a space for open inquiry, the meaning and value of academic freedom needs to be clarified. While it is often (and understandably) identified with the constitutional right to free speech, it is in fact different in significant respects. Academic freedom is both a broad principle of free inquiry and argument upon which the university as an intellectual institution rests and a narrow collective agreement right. In both dimensions it is subject to limitations to which the right to free speech is not subject (curricular decisions, for example, must pass the test of relevance to the subject matter, while there are no constraints on introducing extraneous material into public political debates). Since all academics’ professional lives depend upon the institutional commitment to academic freedom, those who would undermine it in favour of their political priorities contradict themselves and raise questions about their fitness for the vocation of teacher-researcher
Twenty Years of Hell: An Analysis of the United States’ Failed Counterinsurgency Measures in Afghanistan
No full textThe United States has an impressive historical record of winning conventional wars. In contrast, their success fighting counterinsurgencies, a type of nonconventional warfare, is rather complicated. Many scholars argue that counterinsurgencies are destined to fail. Unlike conventional wars, which are often more organized and structured, counterinsurgencies aim to legitimize the host-nation government through nation-building campaigns. Counterinsurgencies are difficult to fight because of the tensions between the conventional power and the host-nation government, combined with the insurgents’ strong mental resolve of re-occupying their own country. The United States’ twenty-year war in Afghanistan against the Taliban, a Pashtun Islamic fundamentalist state terrorist group, is a prime example of the complications associated with fighting counterinsurgencies.
This paper critically analyzes the United States’ initial strategic aims in Afghanistan and examines two failed counterinsurgency measures employed against the Taliban. The first is the United States’ failure to develop a functional democratic government under Hamid Karzai, and the second, a competent Afghan National Army (ANA). Ultimately, the paper argues that the United States overestimated the difficulty of fighting the Taliban insurgency while simultaneously supporting nation-building in Afghanistan. More generally, this paper reveals the difficulty for conventional military powers like the United States to fight successful counterinsurgencies against state terrorist groups in foreign regions
Painting a Nation: The Creation and Legacy of Alphonse Mucha’s Slav Epic
No full text In the early twentieth century, Czech artist Alphonse Mucha created the Slav Epic, a series of twenty monumental paintings depicting the history and struggles of the Slav and Czech people in their search for cultural and political identity. Despite Mucha’s intention to celebrate Slavic heritage, the Epic was met with controversy upon its unveiling in 1928, as its nationalist vision conflicted with an evolving political and national landscape. Critics dismissed the work as overly decorative, thus questioning its artistic merit and relevance. However, the Slav Epic continues to evoke discussions on Pan-Slavism, nationalism, and Czech cultural identity. Through its mythologization of Slavic history, the series remains a significant, if polarizing, work that reflects the complexities of national identity. Ultimately, the Slav Epic is a testament to art’s power to provoke thoughts and emotions in its ability to engage and be relevant to a multi-generational audience. 
The Counterhuman Imaginary: Earthquakes, Lapdogs, and Traveling Coinage in Eighteenth-Century Literature By Laura Brown
No full textBook review: The Counterhuman Imaginary: Earthquakes, Lapdogs, and Traveling Coinage in Eighteenth-Century Literature by Laura Brow
Death Activism: Queer Death and the Posthuman by Patricia MacCormack
No full textPatricia MacCormack’s Death Activism follows on from her most recent book with fervour and astounding criticality. Unpicking problematic and capito-anthropic dimensions lurking in common theoretical infrastructures including posthumanism itself, she suggests an activism that asks how the study of posthuman death can illuminate possibilities for ethical and compassionate posthuman life
The Evolution of Invitational Education: From POP to TOP
No full textEdited and reprinted with permission from Education Toda