University of Warwick Press: Journals
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Elegy for a Love Still Breathing
No full textWithin this poem, I wanted to explore the nuance within Achilles and Patroclus’ dynamic, taking a romantic interpretation of their relationship. After reading the Iliad by Homer, I have been fascinated by the ways in which these characters contrast each other; though both men are powerful fighters, Homer pays particular attention to Patroclus\u27 kindness and often presents him as Achilles’ narrative foil. I was interested in exploring why a character such as Patroclus, who is depicted by his gentleness, would choose to remain by the side of somebody as prideful and aggressive as Achilles. This is something which other authors have previously presented in many different ways. For example, Madeline Miller’s novel The Song of Achilles (2011) presents Patroclus as a gentle individual who dislikes fighting, though within my own poem I wanted to acknowledge Patroclus’ capacity for violence when war necessitates that he kills enemy soldiers. Therefore, I experimented with the idea that Patroclus’ resentment at Achilles’ actions might manifest itself in the form of violent desires despite his great loyalty to, and love for, Achilles. To explore this conflict and bittersweet love within their relationship, I used the stereotypically romantic form of the sonnet. Furthermore, Patroclus’ sense of infatuation begins and ends the poem, as I wanted to highlight his tragic entrapment within his feelings for Achilles
Paradoxical wage policy trends: the cases of Uruguay and Chile
No full textThe quality and trends of the policymaking processes in Latin America have been under permanent debate. A rich literature has pointed out different factors that have influenced policymaking since the return to democracy in the 1980s. Particularly important objects of debate have been the political and ideological predominant positions, like the neoliberal (1980s-1990s) and pink (2000s-2010s) waves (Castañeda, 2006; Roberts, 2007; Levistky and Roberts, 2011; Kingstone, 2011). It has also been pointed out the influence of the economic trends that the region has faced, and the internal economic imbalances that produced crisis and adjustments (Ffrench-Davis, 2000; Diez and Franschet, 2012; Haggard and Kaufman, 2012). Other issues discussed are more politically structural, like the balance of power under presidential regimes, how the structure of policymaking is set up between Government and Parliament or under Unitarian/Federal regimes, and the structure of political participation and the composition (fragmented/majoritarian) of political coalitions in Government or Parliament (Stein et al., 2008; Aninat et al. 2008; Sehnbruch and Siavelis, 2014). Finally, the debate also highlighted the importance of different stakeholders (i.e. business elites) and their influence in Latin American policymaking (Cook, 2007; Schneider, 2008; Karcher and Schneider, 2012). The overlapping of these issues are key to understand how policies evolve. However, even though general economic, political and societal waves define a trend or direction, the differences in terms of magnitude and sustainability of policies among countries show there are idiosyncratic elements for explaining changes
The Trinity of Buen Vivir in Ecuador | La trinidad del buen vivir en Ecuador
No full textBuen Vivir, as an alternative concept to development (Acosta 2012, Cubillo-Guevara & Hidalgo-Capitán 2015a), emerged in Ecuador at the beginning of the 1990s, with the contribution of some Amazonian Kichwa intellectuals, under the name of sumak kawsay (Viteri et al. 1992, Viteri 1993, Viteri 2000, Cubillo-Guevara & Hidalgo-Capitán 2015b); however, it did not gain relevance until the 2008 Ecuadorian Constitutions included it as a principle (Vanhulst and Beling 2016). This concept has been defined as a way of life in harmony with oneself (identity), with society (equity) and with nature (sustainability) (Cubillo-Guevara, Hidalgo-Capitán & García-Álvarez 2016). This definition was commonly accepted by the majority of intellectuals and politicians who used the term since the drafting of the 2008 Constitution; but here the consensus ended, since this way of living in harmony took on very different meanings according to the ideological position of each intellectual and politician who used the concept. Thus, there have been at least three ways of understanding Buen Vivir in Ecuador: one indigenist, another socialist and another ecologist / post-developmentalist (Le-Quang & Vercoutère 2013, Cubillo-Guevara, Hidalgo-Capitán & Domínguez-Gómez 2014, Vanhulst 2015)
Necropolitics revisited: how mainstream media coverage of Marielle\u27s shooting in Brazil depoliticises her struggle and reinforces neoliberal logics
Get PDFUntil her assassination on the 14th of March 2018, activist Marielle Franco was a voice of her comunidade, the favela of Maré in Rio de Janeiro, and repeatedly denounced police brutality and the genocide of Black people, a topic that is not often covered by mainstream media in Brazil. When Marielle was murdered, pressure by national and international press prompted the ex-president Michel Temer to affirm that the case would be investigated and solved in 48 hours. Many months later, the crime has not yet been solved, although Rio police have identified a group of suspects who are part of a very dangerous militia in the state of Rio de Janeiro, with at least one tie to Jair Bolsonaro’s family. The following turbulent months of 2018 made journalists follow other news: the imprisonment of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the continuation of Lava Jato’s corruption investigation, and the violence and polarization associated with Brazil’s presidential elections. The stories about Marielle quickly faded away. When the crime happened, however, there was a considerate amount of coverage by mainstream media. That is the subject of this article
Seeds of Resistance: The Pijao Group, a Youth Process of Decolonization and the Unity of the Pijao People
No full textYouth indigenous activism, territorial struggles, decoloniality, Colombia April 9th 2012 was the day that, in the Sociology Department of the National University of Colombia in Bogotá, the thoughts and feelings of five young people started to grow into something bigger. As sons and daughters of the large Natagaimas and Coyaimas territories we came together to name our nascent group as Grupo Pijao. This group is a seed that we continue to sow and harvest today in our territories through different strategies
Wounded relational worlds: Destruction and resilience of multispecies relationality in the age of climate change
Get PDFIn this article we engage with four experimental ethnographies (Blaser, 2010; Lyons, 2020; Miller, 2019; and Gordillo 2014) that build on multispecies approaches for the analysis of what we call ‘wounded relational worlds’ in Latin America. These are worlds in which human and more-than-human relations have been significantly reshaped, broken, or disrupted by colonization and capitalist extractivism(s). Despite this, wounded relational worlds have the capacity to emerge from the ashes, rebuild on rubble, create new knowledge from destruction and use the remnants of capitalist violence as compost for the cultivation of life. Thus, we establish a dialogue with these ethnographies to analyze the diverse forms of relationality through which these wounded worlds are created, the types of knowledge that they produce, and the politics and tactics of action that they generate vis-à-vis climate and socio-environmental disturbances
Learning Management System in Higher Education: Promoting Hybrid Learning of Postgraduate Taught Students through Optimised Moodle Module Design
Get PDFMoodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is broadly used in the United Kingdom Higher Education environment and the rest of the world owing to its feature of being user-friendly as a learning management system (LMS). Since the pandemic, the pivotal role of Moodle is strengthened to facilitate virtual learning during the lockdown and enhance hybrid learning with face-to-face teaching gradually coming back. During the routine tutorials, some students reported their difficulties and concerns about Moodle, such as digital literacy, information density, and feedback. In this reflection, three postgraduate researchers who work as teaching assistants in Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), reflect on the Moodle designing experience. We discuss various manoeuvres like adjusting the structure, using virtual badges to engage students, compressing content, and updating synchronous and asynchronous learning materials to enable students to learn more efficiently. The module design is optimised based on the module nature, learning objectives, expected learning outcomes, and students\u27 learning needs in the hybrid learning environment. With the students\u27 feedback and previous learning experience, suggestions are proposed to contribute to the best practices in Moodle design to improve Postgraduate Taught Students’ learning experience in Higher Education. 
The Development of Teaching, from Covid-19 to in-person Laboratory Sessions : A Reflective Piece
Get PDFTeachers who began, like myself, teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic have had to adapt to multiple ways of teaching to accommodate the switch in demand of the student to different styles and methods. What was once dominated by in-person classrooms of 30+ students became a mix of independent learning and tutoring. Those who started their teaching journey through online one-on-one tutoring sessions bolstering up in-person classrooms, have had to adapt to the old method of teaching with students who are used to hiding their faces and muting their microphones. In this article I discuss how my method of teaching has changed, my opinion on the importance of physical presence in a classroom and what we can learn from the teaching styles demanded by the student
Afterword: Colleagues and Care : Reflecting on and Re-imagining PGR teacher identity in the wake of the pandemic
Get PDFThe experience and positionality of PGR teachers is well documented in academic papers, surveys, and discussions in our institutions. In the wake of the pandemic how should we conceptualise their role? What is their place? With reference to the University of Warwick specifically, but looking more widely, this afterword considers the PGR teacher experience, role, and identity alongside a perceived shift in the conversation about what matters now in Higher Education. It argues for a re-imagining of the PGR teacher role alongside more senior colleagues, who should take action to advocate in ways that will break through the liminality. 
Poverty, Migration and Literature from below: Bangladeshi Labour Migrants’ Literary Expressions in Singapore
Get PDFIn neoliberal global economy, poverty is often theorised as an eradicable economic issue, partly depending on a poor country’s domestic and bilateral policies and partly on poor people’s initiatives (Kiely 2005). An individual’s migration to sell labour in a relatively rich country is considered a powerful personal strategy to make a leap from ‘poverty to prosperity’, affecting the migrant’s both local and national economy (The World Bank Report 2018). Labour migration is intricately linked with a person’s wider context of collective histories of aspirations, struggles and resistance. Using literary materials published in English (translated from Bangla) by Bangladeshi labour migrant poets and writers in Singapore, this paper analyses the centrality of these written texts to recreate migrants’ personal histories within their individual journey of poverty eradication. In such narratives, amigrant often appears as a precarious self being caught in a myriad of uncertainties in a foreign land. Thus, their narratives become a tool to destabilise the binary categories of a migrant’s home country as poor and the host country as rich. Instead, a labour migrant’s perception of poverty and material inequalities is expressed through what I call ‘literature from below’ where creative words become a political tool to resist any a-historical categorisation of labour migrant, poverty and its eradication. The words emerging from labour migrants’ lived experiences represent them both as agencies of eradicating poverty and workers living in an uncertain condition of economic and social precarity