41 research outputs found
‘This is all very academic’: critical thinking in professional military education
Full text linkAgainst a backdrop where critical thinking is lauded as a tool to navigate the unpredictability of contemporary warfare, Sophy Antrobus and Hannah West argue in this article that the military, as an institution, and the soldier, as scholar, struggle to listen to a truly critical voice. If critical thinking comprises ‘reason assessment’ (understanding, analysing, arguing) and ‘critical spirit’ (disposition, attitude of mind, culture), how does an institution that values, indeed relies on for its effectiveness, uniformity and group identity encourage diversity of opinion and develop the critical spirit of its people? Our journey, as two women veterans, from insiders to outsiders, has led us to argue that professional military education is something of a ‘black box’ where we could observe outcomes but found it almost impossible to see back inside these institutions
Voices of veteran researchers
No full textThe ‘voice of the veteran’ is simultaneously over and under-represented in our society and our scholarship alike (Bulmer and Jackson 2015). Veterans’ voices are both privileged and marginalized, their stories glorified and vilified, their subjectivity either militarized or demilitarized, and their experiences both banal and extraordinary (Kelly 2013; Tidy 2015; Bulmer and Eichler 2017; Wool 2015). The figure of the veteran suffers from an ‘over-determination’ of meaning and an impoverished language to explore it, such that negotiating a veteran identity can become overwhelmingly complicated (Macleish 2013; Caddick Forthcoming). Veterans’ voices are a site of contestation related to their authenticity, and mediated or performative nature (Tidy 2015; Woodward and Jenkings 2011). Within scholarship, military experience either bestows legitimacy upon the author (e.g. traditional war studies, see Antrobus and West 2022), or invites suspicion (e.g. some anti-militarist feminist scholars, see Duncanson 2013)...</p
Voices of veteran researchers
No full textThe ‘voice of the veteran’ is simultaneously over and under-represented in our society and our scholarship alike (Bulmer and Jackson 2015). Veterans’ voices are both privileged and marginalized, their stories glorified and vilified, their subjectivity either militarized or demilitarized, and their experiences both banal and extraordinary (Kelly 2013; Tidy 2015; Bulmer and Eichler 2017; Wool 2015). The figure of the veteran suffers from an ‘over-determination’ of meaning and an impoverished language to explore it, such that negotiating a veteran identity can become overwhelmingly complicated (Macleish 2013; Caddick Forthcoming). Veterans’ voices are a site of contestation related to their authenticity, and mediated or performative nature (Tidy 2015; Woodward and Jenkings 2011). Within scholarship, military experience either bestows legitimacy upon the author (e.g. traditional war studies, see Antrobus and West 2022), or invites suspicion (e.g. some anti-militarist feminist scholars, see Duncanson 2013)...</p
Remotely piloted aircraft systems:the introduction of the 'flying watchtower'
No full textThis commentary will contest that a lack of deep critical thinking on the nature of air power and its relationship with those it overflies, surveils, and bombs by air power practitioners can lead to a void in engagement with the public and create distrust. It will discuss how the unique characteristics of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) are critical to understanding their specific impact on those they overfly and their characterisation as ‘flying watchtowers’. The introduction of Predator and Reaper aircraft into the UK Royal Air Force (RAF) inventory will be used as a case study to explore this contention and to argue that the RAF and the Ministry of Defence should communicate more thoroughly and proactively about new technologies than they have done in the recent past. The paper will then consider what implications this might have for the introduction of future technologies. In doing so, it will highlight the importance of capturing lessons from the RAF’s recent experience of ‘wars of choice’ and counter-insurgency, however diverting the current global security challenges may be. In the context of the proposed new human right to protect the freedom to live without physical or psychological threat from above, recent research has demonstrated that the particular characteristics of RPAS may impact the mental health of those they surveil. This in turn may have implications both in terms of the behaviours it incites and considerations of proportionality in targeting decisions
‘Deeply odd’: women veterans as critical feminist scholars
Full text linkA series of conversations between two women veterans triggered a realization that our military service had been ‘deeply odd’. Jointly authored by a historian and a social scientist, both have served in different services, through different conflicts, for different lengths and left for different reasons. Nonetheless, they have been fascinated by the parallels in their experiences of transition from military service to the academic researcher. This paper considers how their gendered military identity was constructed and negotiated such that they could not see their gendered experiences as ‘deeply odd’ when serving and can only see this now because their studies have challenged them to reflect critically. Women veterans are largely invisible in academia in contrast to the prominence of male veterans, particularly in military history and mainstream defence studies. Yet, the field of Critical Military Studies places women veteran researchers in a unique position of insider-outsider; still stained by our past compliance with the military institution – still outsiders – yet endeavouring now to find a new home as an ‘insider’, as critical feminist researchers. They find their identity as critical feminist scholars distances themselves from the military they want to remain engaged with and yet they are also viewed as ‘deeply odd’ themselves in the eyes of the critical feminist scholar community. Drawing on their personal experience, this paper argues that using the concept of the ‘deeply odd’ helps explore the dynamics of women veterans as critical feminist scholars with their insider-outsider status
Supplementary materials: "Where and when the mesopelagic carbon budget balances, if at all", Oliver et al.
No full text<div>Data Supplement to "Where and when the mesopelagic carbon budget balances, if at all"</div>
<div>Sophy Oliver(1), Andrew Yool(1), Stephanie A. Henson(1), Adrian P. Martin(1)</div>
<div>1 National Oceanography Centre, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK</div>
<div>Corresponding author: Sophy Oliver, [email protected]</div>
<div> </div>
<div>This data supplement contains results using the MOPS biogeochemical model (Kriest et al. 2015).</div>
<div> </div>
<div>-> Model_ep_npp_MLD (MATLAB files required to create Figure S1 and S10)</div>
<div>-> NPP.mat: MOPS annually-averaged net primary production [mmol P / m3 / d]</div>
<div>-> EP.mat: MOPS annually-averaged export production [mmol P / m3 / d]</div>
<div>-> MLDinterp.mat: annual maximum of monthly-averaged mixed layer depth [m] in ECCO: 1992-2001 mean (Fukumori et al. 2023). The mixed layer depth is determined by the depth where waters are first 0.8°C colder than the near-surface, as per the Kara Formula (Kara, Rochford, and Hurlburt 2000).</div>
<div>-> DOPAVG.mat: MOPS monthly-averaged dissolved organic phosphate (DOP) [mmol P / m3]</div>
<div> </div>
<div>-> Model_Budget_Components (MATLAB files required to create Figures 1 and S2-9)</div>
<div>-> Flux.mat: Monthly-averaged particulate flux sinking into the top of each depth level [mmol P / m2 / d]. Note that depth level 1 corresponds to flux to the sea floor (burial).</div>
<div>-> Drem.mat: Monthly-averaged remineralisation and denitrification of particulate matter [mmol P / m3 / d]</div>
<div>-> DOPnew.mat: Monthly-averaged creation of dissolved organic phosphate by dying plankton [mmol P / m3 / d] </div>
<div>-> DOPrem.mat: Monthly-averaged remineralisation and denitrification of dissolved organic phosphate [mmol P / m3 / d]</div>
<div>-> det_vt.mat: Monthly-averaged change in particulate organic phosphate after vertical transport is applied [mmol P / m3 / d]</div>
<div>-> det_ht.mat: Monthly-averaged change in particulate organic phosphate after horizontal transport is applied [mmol P / m3 / d]</div>
<div>-> dop_vt.mat: Monthly-averaged change in dissolved organic phosphate after vertical transport is applied [mmol P / m3 / d]</div>
<div>-> dop_ht.mat: Monthly-averaged change in dissolved organic phosphate after vertical transport is applied [mmol P / m3 / d]</div>
<div> </div>
<div>-> Code_Analysis_Plotting</div>
<div>-> plot_npp.m: MATLAB script to plot Figure S1 of the supplementary figures of MOPS net primary and export production, and ECCO mixed layer depth.</div>
<div>-> meso_monthly_budget.m: MATLAB script to calculate and plot the global seasonal mesopelagic organic carbon budget and its components (Figures 1 and S2-9 and S11).</div>
<div>-> plot_doc.m: MATLAB script to plot Figure S10 of the supplementary figures of MOPS annually averaged DOC [µmol C kg-1] at 15m, 310m, and 610m depth.</div>
<div>-> bluewhitered.mat: MATLAB colorscale.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Model grid information for MITgcm_ECCO can be found here: http://kelvin.earth.ox.ac.uk/spk/Research/TMM/TransportMatrixConfigs/ (Samar Khatiwala, University of Oxford).</div>
<div> </div>
'Do it Yourself' Girl Revolution: LadyFest, Performance and Fanzine Culture
Full text linkRiot grrrl began as an independent music and political movement in the early 1990s emerging initially in the USA and few years later in the UK. From the beginning riot grrrl embraced a 'do-it-yourself' ethos operating outside the mainstream music business organising independent music festivals, workshop events and encouraging self-published fanzines (fan magazines which were distributed primarily through word of mouth, music gigs, artists and zine book fairs or by post). These zines became recognisable forms of personal expression and made visible a specific DIY approach alongside the development of a coherent style of graphic language in the producer's use of the photocopier, handwritten and graffiti texts, cut-n-paste and ransom note lettering style, collage and the co-option of mainstream media imagery. These production techniques made fanzine publishing accessible and played a central role in the development of a non-hierarchical community.
The main intent of this talk is to explore the idea of 'event as performance' using as a case study the specific activities of riot grrrl and focussing on a series of international events called 'LadyFests' and the graphic language of self-published riot grrrl fanzines. This will be achieved by examining the origins of today's riot grrrl performances (e.g. theatre, spoken word, music events) in 1970s feminist art, as well as locating the activities within the specific context of their counter-cultural predecesors including punk and punk performance
Climate change and equity
Full text linkThe Gavin Mooney Memorial Essay Competition honours the work and memory of the late Professor Gavin Mooney, a health economist who was a tireless advocate for social justice in local, national and international arenas.
Launched in 2013, the competition seeks to draw public attention to social justice and health equity concerns, and to recognise the public-interest value of writing and writers.
The inaugural competition called for essays on the theme of climate change and equity, in recognition of the work of Professor Mooney’s late partner Dr Delys Weston. Each year the competition will call for entries related to a theme around equity and social justice.
Sydney GP Dr Tim Senior took out the inaugural 2013 prize with his essay “Climate Change and Equity: Whose Language Is It Anyway?”. The judges said the winning entry challenges the language of climate change activism, and also incorporates the voices of those who are most likely to be affected by climate change.
The four runner-up entries are by Steve Campbell and Lucie Rychetnik, Oscar McLaren, Peter Boyer and Dora Marinova, and Fergus Green
[Self-portrait of the author sitting on a grassy shore line, looking out into the blue water]
No full textC. Farm."; AL to Lotty (Annette Clark), August 1918. Philadelphia, Pa., page 2. From a collection of correspondence related to the families of David B. McCreary and his daughter, Sophia McCreary Clark ("Sophy"), both of Erie, Pennsylvania. David and his wife, Annette, corresponded with family and acquaintances throughout the mid- to late 19th century, including the Civil War era and the Spanish-American War era. The letters of Sophy, her husband Henry, and their daughter Annette span the late 19th and early 20th centurie
Creative Collaboration and Online Social Media: Can Facebook be Used as a Tool to Support the Process of Collaborative Creation?
Full text linkWeb 2.0 online social media tools have made it increasingly easy to communicate, cooperate, and collaborate with others online, and as such offer new frameworks for making creative work. Facebook claims that it helps members connect and share, but what if the people you want to connect and share with are your artistic collaborators? Can Facebook be used creatively, as a collaborative artistic environment? This article draws on a practical research project ‘Feedback’, carried out by the author in early 2010, exploring new methodologies for collaborative creation supported by online social media. The project focused on the creative use of Facebook as a tool for creative collaboration, establishing a possible working model of artistic collaboration using Facebook.</p
