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University Sponsored Adult Community Education: Exploring Motivations to Expand Diversity
No full textCommunity education offered by colleges and universities is an underexplored element of higher education. Community education includes non-credit and non-credentialing experiences that are offered by an institution for the benefit of the community. These courses, workshops, seminars, etc. can range from highly formal, such as adult basic education, to the highly informal, such as game nights in a college student center (Fletcher, 1989). The purpose of community education is the development of individuals in a community, whether to an expressed end or for the purpose of building human capital through socialization (Fletcher, 1989; Sole & Wilkins, 1976; Western et al, 2005)
Of Truths and Snakes: The Percussive Effects of Asylum Seeking in Australia
No full textAustralia’s border hardened stance has created a culture of asylum prevention, providing a rationale for the use of defence and security as the core argument to prevent asylum seeker protection. Drawing on ethnographic research undertaken with Tamil asylum seekers and refugees from Sri Lanka in Australia, this Field Note showcases the percussive impacts of border policy on lived experiences. I do this by elevating the subjective lens, narrating an encounter with one of my interlocutors to provide insights into the process of meaning-making and explore how everyday life is negotiated amid ongoing upheaval and protracted insecurity. This piece illuminates some of the structural and symbolic barriers preventing safety, stability and a sense of belonging for asylum seekers in Australia along with highlighting the intimate, mundane and practical ways that daily life is performed, despite these restrictions.
Seeking Knowledge in and for Troubled Times: The Edinburgh Centre for Medical Anthropology, MAT, and a Shared Vision
No full textEditorial for the September Issue, 202
The Promises and Perils of Highland Infrastructure: A study of Pakyong Airport in the Eastern Himalayas
Get PDFIn recent years, state-led infrastructure creation in the name of progress and development has occurred across the Himalayan region. It has increased the presence of the state in places formerly regarded as relatively isolated. Despite being aspirational, infrastructure creation projects have uprooted people from their lands, deprived them of their livelihoods, and transformed their identities. This paper focuses on Pakyong Airport in the state of Sikkim, which has provoked huge protests in recent times. Through the study of this mega-infrastructure project, the paper addresses everyday processes associated with rampant change, transformation, and the formation of social memory forged through resistance and struggle in the form of counterpublics. Considering different processes, the paper assesses how Himalayan infrastructure development has a varied impact on the people and politics of the region
What if Khata Could Talk?
Get PDFTibetan pastoralists often say that many know how to graze animals (ཟོག་ལུག་འཚོ་བ), but few know how to nurture them (ཟོག་ལུག་སྐྱོང་བ). Skyong (སྐྱོང) means nurturing or attending to something or someone with tenderness. While conducting fieldwork research among Tibetan pastoralists in eastern Tibet, I learned that animals were dying from eating discarded plastic khata (ceremonial scarves) and prayer flags. Even those who nurture animals through winter, when grass was scarce and snowstorms were constant, were not sure what to do to prevent this. This ethnographic experience inspired me to make a documentary film and to experiment with flash ethnography on this topic of the sacred status of khata in relation to its poisonous contemporary materiality. This flash ethnography takes creative license, allowing khata to speak
Another Day at the Airport
Get PDFTraveling is a complicated endeavor. For some, it is as simple as picking up one’s passport and heading to the nearest airport. For others, it is a harrowing experience, one marked by uncertainty. For tourists, traveling represents a temporary detachment from the mundanes of everyday life. For many migrants, it is an incredibly significant decision that can define their very futures. Drawing from a personal encounter at the airport, this flash ethnographic piece hopes to be able to illustrate the dichotomy of traveling i.e. the ease, and pleasure for some, and the uncertainty of refusal for others
Ruins in the Making
Get PDFWhat do high Himalayan villages feel like as they shift in form and character through patterns of outmigration and the effects of climate change? How do people wrestle with enduring connections to place, through the pain and uncertainty that accompanies social and ecological change? What does it mean to steward a landscape and attend to sacred geography as well as history through these transitions? These questions are explored in this flash ethnography, set in the village of Samdzong, upper Mustang, Nepal
Building “Dyarā” away from Home: A visual essay on the Lives of Nepalese Migrants in the Western Himalayas
Get PDFThe culture of migration is so deeply ingrained in the Nepal highlands, that individuals from marginalized households in the western provinces view migration to India as “a rite of passage to adulthood”. The western Himalayan region, due to its close proximity, attracts a significant number of Nepalese migrants during the non-agricultural season, where they engage in informal work opportunities and return to Nepal in the agricultural season. This type of migration is described in existing studies as ãune-jãne, or coming and going, which signifies the temporary and circular nature of the movement. However, over time, migrants have adopted a different approach, with a greater emphasis on choosing temporary migration to Gulf countries while also spending significant time in the western Himalayas, leading to semi-permanent migration as compared to earlier, temporary migration. This semi-permanent migration serves as the central focus of this essay. This photo essay displays the Nepalese migrants who have migrated to the remote regions of Uttarakhand, a state in the western Himalayas of India, and who have been residing in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand for the past few years. It aims to provide a closer peek into the realm of the everyday practices of these migrant workers, focusing on how they build their living space on agricultural fields, which they refer to as “Dyarā”; cultivate the abandoned fallow lands; and are involved in vegetable cultivation. Further, it also tries to show how their children perceive the space and adapt to it
A Decade of Progress: Insights of Open Data Practices in Biosciences at the University of Edinburgh
No full textThe realm of scientific research has evolved beyond traditional publications, recognizing the intrinsic value of the underlying data as a fundamental component. In this context, Open Data emerges as a pivotal element of open research culture, embodying the principles of transparency, collaboration, and resource optimization. This poster critically analyses the progress and current standing of the University of Edinburgh in embracing and implementing open data practices.
The University of Edinburgh, a vanguard in academic research, has been instrumental in advocating the Culture of Open Data. This paradigm shift in research methodology, accentuated by the introduction of the new open research policy in 2021, has placed a significant emphasis on the openness and FAIRness (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) of research data. This poster will explore the strides made by the biosciences researchers over the past ten years in aligning with these principles.
Our analysis begins with a review of biosciences research between 2014 and 2022. Approximately 6% (193 papers) of the published papers during this period were subjected to a manual assessment of their data-sharing practices. Unlike Roche et al. (2013), who sampled from a publication list where each article had some data archived, this study involved selecting articles while being blinded as to whether any data was shared. This evaluation was grounded in four main criteria reflecting the Openness and FAIRness of research data: Completeness, Reusability, Accessibility, and Licencing. The findings from this analysis reveal a positive trajectory, indicating an overall enhancement in these criteria over the years. Notably, there has been a discernible increase in the completeness of data shared in publications, coupled with significant improvements in the reusability aspect. This suggests that researchers are not only sharing more data but are doing so in a more effective and user-friendly manner.
Interestingly, the study unveils a disparity in data-sharing practices within different types of research data. Genome data, for instance, was shared more frequently compared to image data. Furthermore, the presence of a data availability statement or the sharing of preprint papers correlated with higher scores across all the four criteria, particularly in terms of completeness. This correlation underscores a more thorough approach to data sharing when specific guidelines or practices are in place.
In conclusion, this poster will not only highlight the progressive journey of Biosciences at The University of Edinburgh towards embracing open data but will also address the challenges and lessons learned along the way. The concluding segment will focus on the best practices that researchers should adopt to continue this upward trend in Open Data Sharing
Inclusive research practise in junior professionals
No full textOpen research is a paradigm shift in research culture processes and behaviours which has revolutionized research accuracy, trust and transparency through standardized scientific communications and publications.
Open research is a universal common good. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how open research can be beneficial to the society. It gave equal access to scientific data with collaboration on vaccines design and biotechnology to rapidly halt the pandemic. There are still rising lack of inclusion in open research with increasing innovation gaps. These research culture has erode the core values of open science. This poster aims to achieve the objectives of open research in transparency, reliability and trusts which embody the whole research processes of research pre-registration, research design, methods, critical reviews and the dissemination of open research results by published work. The European Bioinformatics Institute maintains up-to-date and comprehensive open research resources for trainees.