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Affective Orientations: Space, Temporality, and Virtuality in Queering the Map
No full textLaunched in 2017, the website Queering the Map has since become what Ann Cvetkovich calls “an archive of feelings”. Using a Google Maps interface, the website invites its users to record their queer moments and experiences enclosed in black pins on the pink map. Navigating through this landscape of queer memories conjures up a powerful feeling of presence enabled by the anonymous bodies which inhabited a particular corner of the world in nondescript time. As such, Queering the Map assembles a “virtual” archive both in the sense that it is hosted on a digital network, and that it is a product of and at the same time produces queer time.
Using “virtuality” as a conceptual point of connection, this paper looks at the ways in which Queering the Map brings together discussions of spatial production, networked affect, and queer temporality. Specifically, I see virtuality not as a characteristic of a technological apparatus itself, but rather as a set of emergent possibilities that lie with the affective experiences of its users. While the term “virtual” is frequently associated with digital media (as in “virtual reality”), scholars including Oliver Grau and Anne Friedberg have pointed towards longer lineages of artistic practices that can be thought of as virtual. In a similar effort to expand the concept of the virtual, Thomas Elsaesser has suggested that virtuality be understood as the conditional and the contingent, a modality not exclusive to digital media. Along these lines of thinking, I am interested in how the “virtuality” of Queering the Map connects seemingly disparate discourses on mapping, cyberspace, and queer affect. By examining conceptualizations of the virtual as a set of emergent potentials in these theoretical contexts, I show that new media do not so much produce virtuality as they reveal it.
Following Sara Ahmed who poses the orientation in “sexual orientation” as a phenomenological question about how bodies are situated in space and grapple towards certain objects, I suggest that users’ navigation of a digital network like Queering the Map is intimately connected with their subjective orientation in the queer archive. This way, the virtual serves as a conceptual bridge between (new) media studies and queer theory, bringing together on the one hand, how presence is mediated across space and time, and on the other, the affective potentials opened up by this newfound closeness to queer places, times, and bodies
Les bibliothèques sont-elles pour tout le monde? Examen de la grossophobie dans les espaces de bibliothèque à travers les catalogues en ligne de mobilier de bibliothèque
No full textDespite Library and Information Science’s engagement with other matters of social justice, nearly no scholarly attention has been paid to fat issues within the library. Through the critical lens of the author’s own experiences as a fat Library and Information Science scholar, a critical discourse analysis of online library furniture catalogues reveals the exclusionary ways in which they perpetuate fatphobic body size standards. Given that library spaces are often considered a cornerstone of modern democratic societies, and that librarianship claims to champion ideals such as universal access to information, the exclusion of fat bodies in library spaces is problematic.Malgré l’engagement du domaine de la bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information vis-à-vis d’autres questions de justice sociale, presque qu’aucune attention académique n’a été accordée aux enjeux des personnes grosses en bibliothèque. À travers la vision critique de l’auteur, basée sur ses expériences personnelles en tant que chercheur gros en bibliothéconomie et sciences de l’information, une analyse critique du discours des catalogues en ligne de mobilier de bibliothèque met en lumière les moyens d’exclusion par lesquels ils perpétuent les normes de taille corporelle grossophobes. Étant donné que les espaces de bibliothèque sont souvent considérés comme une pierre angulaire des sociétés démocratiques modernes, et que la bibliothéconomie prétend défendre des idéaux tels que l’accès universel à l’information, l’exclusion des personnes grosses dans les espaces de bibliothèque est problématique
The Delay of Competition in the Pharmaceutical Industy: A Closer Look at the Pharmaceutical Giants
No full textThe ability to access and use affordable drugs on a regular basis is necessary for the health and well-being of much of the world’s population. Due to the emergence of innovative ways to protect patents, maintain market power, and engage in mergers/acquisitions, there has been significant concern regarding injury of competition in the pharmaceutical industry. Competition cases involving firms such as Celgene, Pfizer, and AbbVie/Allergan have received particularly pointed attention. As such, these firms will be discussed in the analysis to follow. In each of these cases, courts ruled in favour of the firms, finding no evidence of decreased competition succeeding the events in question. Although competition was not reduced, it can be argued that competition was delayed. Delayed competition can greatly affect those who only have the means to afford lower-priced generic brands. Therefore, it may be in the best interest of competition agencies worldwide to consider the introduction of more stringent regulations, specifically in regard to the pharmaceutical industry
Advancing a Five-Level Typology of Homelessness Prevention
No full textThis paper aims to demonstrate the efficacy of a five-level homelessness prevention typology, encompassing universal, targeted, crisis, emergency, and recovery categories. We argue that this typology can be deployed to illuminate key comparisons in homelessness prevention policy and practice between different jurisdictions and over time. Meanwhile, it avoids the confusions and overlaps that occur in extant categorisations. Using the UK jurisdictions as an empirical testbed for this analytical framework, four key lessons emerge which we contend have resonance across much of the global north. First, though there is growing evidence of the importance of both universal prevention measures (particularly the delivery of affordable housing and poverty reduction), and targeted preventative interventions (focused on high risk groups and transitions), practical action on both fronts has been deeply deficient to date. Second, and more encouragingly, there is a nascent shift in homelessness practice from an overwhelming focus on basic, emergency interventions, towards more upstream attempts to avert the kind of crisis situations that can lead to homelessness arising in the first place. Third, and also welcome, is a trend within recovery interventions from treatment-led to more housing-led models, albeit that this shift has been frustratingly slow to materialise in many countries. Fourth, across all of these categories of homelessness prevention, there remain substantial evidence gaps, especially outside of the US
Ethical Arguments for Providing Access to Mental Health Care through Longitudinal Relationships
No full textA focus on access to mental health care is critical for beneficent and just care of individuals experiencing homelessness. The delivery of this care is strengthened through building longitudinal relationships between clinicians and persons experiencing homelessness—relationships that are best understood, perhaps, through the lens of attachment theory. In this paper, we look at the prevalence of mental illness among individuals experiencing homelessness and the history of deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. We then evaluate how three modern-day interventions—street medicine, community health clinics, and supportive housing programs—play integral roles in providing mental health care and constructing a trusting relationship. We conclude with a call for increased funding to support the expansion of these essential mental health care interventions, especially in the aftermath of COVID-19
Global properties of a virus dynamics model with self-proliferation of CTLs
No full textA viral infection model with self-proliferation of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) is proposed and its global dynamics is obtained. When the per capita self-proliferation rate of CTLs is sufficient large, an infection-free but immunity-activated equilibrium always exists and is globally asymptotically stable if the basic reproduction number of virus is less than a threshold value, which means that the immune effect still exists though virus be eliminated. Qualitative numerical simulations further indicate that the increase of per capita self-proliferation rate may lead to more severe infection outcome, which may provide insight into the failure of immune therapy
Reflections on the Maple Conference 2020
No full textI give a retrospective of the Maple Conference 2020,which was held as an online event in the week of November 2-6, 2020
Covid-19 and Oral Health
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly changed many aspects of health and healthcare on a global scale. We have heard about the impact that this pandemic has had on mental health status and general well- being; however, a topic that has been overlooked is the relationship between COVID-19 and oral health. Given that transmission of SARS-CoV-2 occurs through contact with respiratory droplets, the oral cavity can play a significant role in the spread of the disease. Thus, analyzing this relationship further may provide insight into managing COVID-19 outcomes
Perspectives of Parents of Children with Special Educational Needs: Self-Efficacy and School Supports During COVID-19
No full textThe role of parents in supporting at-home learning increased dramatically in the spring of 2020. Schools in most Canadian provinces closed physically due to COVID-19, and remote-learning options were quickly developed to ensure continued education for students. Many students with special educational needs, who typically benefit from a range of supports from school, became reliant on parents to provide means of access to and participation in remote learning. Using an online survey, we explored the perceptions of 263 Canadian parents of children with special education needs with regard to their self‑efficacy and supports from schools. We conducted multiple linear regression analyses for each of three dependent variables (academic supports, parent self‑efficacy, and social-emotional supports); independent variables included student grade level, education placement, and total school-provided supports prior to the pandemic. Findings indicated that most parents engaged in remote learning and lacked confidence in their ability to support the learning of their child. Parent self-efficacy was related to social-emotional supports from schools and not to academic supports. Parents of children in elementary grades, and of those who had received more supports from school prior to COVID‑19, reported feeling better supported in social-emotional areas by the school. Schools should explore ways of building strong collaborative relationships between educators and parents, as well as continuing to find ways of supporting families and students in both in- and out-of-school places. The pandemic, and school-building closures, have reminded us how partnerships between parents and schools are crucial for the well-being of all involved.