1,065 research outputs found
Engage in Public Scholarship! A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication
No full textPublic scholarship – sharing research with audiences outside of academic settings – has become increasingly necessary to counter the rise of misinformation, to fill gaps from cuts to traditional media, and to increase the reach of important scholarship by making it available to the public. However, engaging in these efforts also comes with the risk of harassment and threats – especially for women, people of colour, queer communities, and precariously employed workers. Engage in Public Scholarship! provides constructive guidance on how to translate research into inclusive public outreach while ensuring that such efforts are accessible for a range of abilities as well as safer for those involved.
In clear and helpful language, Alex D. Ketchum discusses practices and planning for a great range of educational activities – from in-person and online events, conferences, and lectures, to publishing and working with the media, to social media activity, blogging, and podcasting. Using an intersectional feminist lens, this book serves as a concise approach to the key challenges and benefits of feminist and accessible public scholarship by surveying debates and offering solutions. Examining the needs for long-term preservation and impact, Ketchum discusses issues relating to digital sustainability, maintenance, the concept of “openness,” and how to be mindful of exclusionary barriers that impede access.
A useful and readable guidebook for scholars, students, and content creators, Engage in Public Scholarship! offers both encouragement and toolkits for reaching audiences and sharing knowledge in practical and more equitable ways.
Dr. Alex D. Ketchum is an Assistant Professor at the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies of McGill University
Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses
No full textCoinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the trailblazing restaurant Mother Courage of New York City, Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses is the first history of the more than 230 feminist and lesbian-feminist restaurants, cafes, and coffeehouses that existed in the United States from 1972 to the present. As key sites of cultural and political significance, this volume shows the essential role these institutions served for multiple social justice movements including women’s liberation, LGBTQ equality, and food justice, as well as for training women workers and entrepreneurs.
This systematic study outlines the crucial steps it took to establish these businesses during eras when sexism was so institutionalized it was difficult for unmarried women to obtain a bank loan, while also showing the continuities and influences of past businesses on contemporary places. Through an examination of important establishments across America, Alex D. Ketchum first examines the foundational principles behind these businesses, noting key differences between cooperative, for-profit, and non-profit models. She then looks to issues of financing, labour, pay, food sourcing, and cultural programming to understand how these organizations reconciled feminist beliefs with capitalism and how they strove for more equitable and sustainable business practices.
Brimming with illuminating archival research, interviews with influential restaurateurs, and illustrated with photographs, menus, posters, and calendars, Ingredients for Revolution is a fundamental work of women’s history, food history, and cultural history.
Concordia University Press gratefully acknowledges that this open-access electronic edition has been made possible with funds received from the Partenariat des bibliothèques universitaires du Québec (PBUQ).
Dr. Alex Ketchum is an Assistant Professor at McGill University's Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies (IGSF) and the author of Engage in Public Scholarship! A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication
Infrastructure bottlenecks, private provision, and industrial productivity : a study of Indonesian and Thai cities
No full textThis research project followed an earlier similar project on Nigeria, applying the same methods. A sample of manufacturers was surveyed to document their responses to infrastructure deficiencies in electricity, water, transport, telecommunications, and waste disposal. They found the manufacturers undertook significant expenditures to offset deficiencies in publicly provided infrastructure services, and that changing public policy toward privately supplied infrastructure and changing the pricing of public infrastructure could yield significant savings in social costs. Thailand and Indonesia have made significant strides in following the policies for private sector participation in infrastructure provision. Nigeria, where public infrastructure monopolies still dominate, lags behind, yet stands to benefit most from such policy reform. Government policy toward the industrial organization and pricing of infrastructure sectors can significantly help a developing economy realize the benefits of private sector participation in the provision of infrastructure services.Banks&Banking Reform,Decentralization,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Municipal Financial Management,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Urban Services to the Poor,Urban Services to the Poor,Public Sector Economics&Finance
The Preparation and Study of Lipophilic S-Nitrosothiols for Use in Improving the Biocompatibility of Medical Grade Polymers.
No full textAdvances in biomaterials, polymer science, and biotechnology have resulted in the development and implementation of a wide array of implantable biomedical devices and drug/device combination products such as catheters, drug-eluting stents, and artificial organs. Unfortunately, inserting a foreign material into the body can cause undesirable effects, the nature of which depends upon the device’s biocompatibility with blood or tissue. Common complications resulting from the use of implantable biomedical devices include cellular proliferation, thrombosis, and the increased risk of infection. The work described in this thesis aims to develop novel lipophilic S-nitrosothiols (RSNOs) that, when incorporated into polymers, provide nitric oxide (NO) release capable of greatly improving the material’s biocompatibility.
Initial studies focused on developing methodologies to synthesize fourteen lipophilic RSNOs with LogP values ranging from 1.7 to 10.8. Of these, S-nitroso-tert-dodecylmercaptan (SNTDM) and S-nitrosotriphenylmethanethiol (SNTPMT) exhibited the most promising stability for potential practical use in polymeric materials. Silicone rubber (SR), Elasteon-E2As (E2As), and CarboSil (CS) films containing 10 wt% SNTDM released NO at physiological levels for approximately one month. SR and CS films containing 10 wt% SNTPMT released NO at physiological levels for 41 d, while SNTPMT in E2As lasted 33 d. SNTDM and SNTPMT leached minimally from SR (2.4 ± 0.4%, 2.0 ± 0.2%), CS (3.1 ± 0.5%, 1.8 ± 0.3%), and E2As (2.3 ± 0.4%, 1.5 ± 0.3%). An LDH assay was used to measure the relative amounts of platelets adhered to polymers doped with the different RSNOs. SNTDM and SNTPMT demonstrated excellent antiplatelet activity by reducing levels on SR (3.0 ± 0.3%, 8.6 ± 0.1%), CS (12.3 ± 2.0%, 22.1 ± 5.9%) and E2As (14.0 ± 3.4%, 23.8 ± 6.2%) relative to the controls. A solvent swelling method was developed to impregnate SNTDM in SR catheters which released NO at or above physiological levels for ~26 d. The catheters were incubated in a CDC bioreactor containing S. aureus for 21 d and killed or inhibited growth of 99.9% of the bacteria. Polymer films containing SNTDM demonstrated substantial photoinduced NO release, more than an order of magnitude greater than any RSNO previously tested in the literature.PhDChemistryUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135861/1/alexrk_1.pd
Multi-Objective Calibration For Agent-Based Models
No full textAgent-based modelling is already proving to be an immensely useful tool for scientific and industrial modelling applications. Whilst the building of such models will always be something between an art and a science, once a detailed model has been built, the process of parameter calibration should be performed as precisely as possible. This task is often made difficult by the proliferation of model parameters with non-linear interactions. In addition to this, these models generate a large number of outputs, and their ‘accuracy’ can be measured by many different, often conflicting, criteria. In this paper we demonstrate the use of multi-objective optimisation tools to calibrate just such an agent-based model. We use an agent-based model of a financial market as an exemplar and calibrate the model using a multi-objective genetic algorithm. The technique is automated and requires no explicit weighting of criteria prior to calibration. The final choice of parameter set can be made after calibration with the additional input of the domain expert
“All are welcome here?”: Navigating race, class, gender, sexual orientation, age, and disability in American feminist coffeehouses of the 1970s and 1980s
No full textDevelopment of the Zimbabwe family planning program
No full textFamily planning was introduced in Zimbabwe as a voluntary movement in the 1950s. Volunteers formed a Family Planning Association in the mid-1960s. The government became interested in family planning in the late 1960s after analysis of the 1961 population census. It gave the Family Planning Association an annual grant, allowed contraceptives to be available through Ministry of Health facilities, and allowed nonmedical personnel to initiate and resupply family planning clients with condoms and pills. But before Zimbabwe achieved independence in 1980, family planning was viewed with great suspicion by the black majority, so the program's effectiveness was limited to the urban few. A new era began after independence. The new government took over theFamily Planning Association and changed its outlook completely. Through government and international donor support, the family planning program was restructured and expanded. The number of family planning personnel more than doubled in some units. More service delivery points were set up - particularly in rural areas. And the information, education, and communication and evaluation and research units were established. Through a World Bank-assisted project (with grant funding from Norway and Denmark), the Ministry of Health began strengthening its family planning capabilities. These efforts helped increase the contraceptive prevalence rate from about 14 percent in 1982 to 43 percent in 1988. But the program's growth is beginning to stall. More effort and resources are needed if the program is to grow or even maintain its present status. Particularly important are the following: designing innovative strategies to reach hard-to-reach populations; giving more emphasis to information, education, and communication, especially for men and youths, using multimedia; involving other sectors in the delivery of family planning services; broadening the mix of contraceptive methods (especially promoting long-term and permanent methods); making use of alternative family planning delivery systems, such as the use of depot holders, volunteers, and government extension workers; establishing a national population policy; and considering cost recovery and other measures for self-sustainment and program growth.Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,ICT Policy and Strategies,Gender and Health,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Adolescent Health
Food‘s Gender Problem: an Ecofeminist History of Unremunerated Domestic Food Production in the United States
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Cleaner, Greener, Healthier: A Prescription for Stronger Canadian Environmental Laws and Policies by David R. Boyd
No full textReview of David R. Boyd\u27s Cleaner, Greener, Healthier: A Prescription for Stronger Canadian Environmental Laws and Policies
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