In Diagnosing Desire, Alyson K. Spurgas examines female sexual dysfunction, specifically low desire in women, and refuses to take anything for granted. One part history of modern sexology and one part feminist critique of the biopolitics engendered by sex research, Spurgas uses anti-racist, queer, disability studies, and trauma-informed theories to argue that the apolitical and atheoretical approach used in much of the modern science of sexuality confines women's sexual desire to a purely receptive model. Spurgas problematizes essentialist, anti-intersectional, and hetero- and cisnormative frameworks through which women's sexual desire has become a problem to be solved through self-improvement and by learning to push through feelings of low desire. Instead, Spurgas offers insights into the lives of women with low desire by attending to their experiences with inequality and trauma, and proposes a new understanding of women's sexuality—and of femininity more generally—based on prudent and critical attention to power.
In this essay, we discuss our experience as graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in a first-year writing program with an explicitly anti-racist pedagogy. The growing literature on critical pedagogy focuses on the instructor-undergraduate student dynamic but does not address the necessary role of GTAs in implementing anti-racist pedagogy. We use feminist theory to contend that care is an inherent component of anti-racist pedagogy and that GTAs are integral actors in providing that care. We highlight the indispensable role of GTAs in navigating the complexities of larger classes as anti-racist pedagogy is scaled up beyond the individual classroom and instructor. We conclude by providing three possible solutions to address this challenge.
'Capacity to innovate' is an emerging concept, especially in agriculture and rural development. There is no universally agreed definition for this concept, but many authors agree that it refers generally to the ability of actors to continuously identify constraints and opportunities, and to mobilise capabilities and resources in response – i.e. to produce and sustain innovation processes in a dynamic systems environment. Increasingly, capacity to innovate (C2I) is recognised as playing a critical role in successfully responding to a changing external environment. Facilitating and building this capacity through Research and Development (R&D) interventions is therefore crucial for building farming systems' adaptiveness and for improving the resilience and livelihoods of poor farmers and other rural actors. Yet there is no generally recognised set of metrics to assess C2I, nor is it clear how local actors understand and make use of C2I on the ground. This poster presents the first results of a study that explores various components of C2I and how local actors perceive them, and aims to develop indicators to assess them. We looked at four interventions that have aimed to improve capacity to innovate in Cameroon (Table 1) to identify which capacities were developed and how the intervention approach facilitated that change (if at all). A review of the literature was used as a starting point for developing an assessment framework to measure changes in C2I. We identified four 'core' capacities as being to a) envisage, create and be open to new ideas; b) to connect with others to access and understand new information and resources; c) to iteratively experiment, take risks, analyse and assess; and d) to work with others to achieve change. We conducted 61 semi-structured interviews and ten focus groups with producers, transformers, facilitators and researchers to explore these core capacities and their component sub-capacities. This included asking producers about specific times when having a particular capacity was essential, assessing stakeholders' perceptions of capacity development over time (at the individual and group levels), and the relative importance of different capacities. We also aimed to identify "smart" potential indicators for measuring C2I which local actors could relate to. Initial results show that depending on the specific intervention, producer groups involved in them have developed different aspects of C2I (Tables 2A–D), and that this has implications for how new innovations are adapted and adopted. Priority capacities as perceived by producers may often be different from those prioritised by researchers or emphasised in the literature, with producers valuing highly the capacity to form partnerships (particularly those related to marketing) while viewing capacity to experiment as a low priority, and vice versa (Table 3). This difference may be explained by the fact that interventions tend to focus on the initial stages of the innovation process (having and adapting a new idea for example), while producers tend to emphasize the later stages of the innovation trajectory, such as marketing and scaling up. Furthermore, producers emphasize skills closely related to capacities of a group to get things done, which do not limit themselves to innovation. We are currently testing a set of 20 quantitative and qualitative C2I indicators to assess 10 capacities and sub-capacities (Table 4) and the individual and group level in the four case studies in Cameroon. This is part of an on-going project that aims to explore how intervention approach affects the degree and manner in which capacity to innovate is built and the subsequent impact for development outcomes. A better understanding of how, and under what circumstances, interventions contribute to building C2I may help practitioners to improve the ability of R&D interventions to achieve large-scale impact. (Texte intégral)
Vertebrates are recognized as sentient beings. Consequently, urgent priority is now being given to understanding the needs and maximizing the welfare of animals under human care. The general health of animals is most commonly determined by physiological indices e.g., blood sampling, but may also be assessed by documenting behavior. Physiological health assessments, although powerful, may be stressful for animals, time-consuming and costly, while assessments of behavior can also be time-consuming, subject to bias and suffer from a poorly defined link between behavior and health. However, behavior is recognized as having the potential to code for stress and well-being and could, therefore, be used as an indicator of health, particularly if the process of quantifying behavior could be objective, formalized and streamlined to be time efficient. This study used Daily Diaries (DDs) (motion-sensitive tags containing tri-axial accelerometers and magnetometers), to examine aspects of the behavior of bycaught loggerhead turtles, Caretta caretta in various states of health. Although sample size limited statistical analysis, significant behavioral differences (in terms of activity level and turn rate) were found between "healthy" turtles and those with external injuries to the flippers and carapace. Furthermore, data visualization (spherical plots) clearly showed atypical orientation behavior in individuals suffering gas emboli and intestinal gas, without complex data analysis. Consequently, we propose that the use of motion-sensitive tags could aid diagnosis and inform follow-up treatment, thus facilitating the rehabilitation process. This is particularly relevant given the numerous rehabilitation programs for bycatch sea turtles in operation. In time, tag-derived behavioral biomarkers, TDBBs for health could be established for other species with more complex behavioral repertoires such as cetaceans and pinnipeds which also require rehabilitation and release. Furthermore, motion-sensitive data from animals under human care and wild conspecifics could be compared in order to define a set of objective behavioral states (including activity levels) for numerous species housed in zoos and aquaria and/or wild species to help maximize their welfare. ; We are grateful to Phil Hopkins for help with the tag housings. We would like to thank all the professionals at the Oceanogràfic, especially at the rehabilitation center (ARCA) taking care of the animals, for their efforts and dedication to provide excellent animal care. We are very grateful to all the fishermen contributing to the project as well as to the Valencian Government, especially to the Servicio de Vida Silvestre de la Conselleria d'Agricultura, Medi Ambient, Canvi Climàtic i Desenvolupament Rural de la Generalitat Valenciana. Funding. This research contributes to the CAASE project funded by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) under the KAUST Sensor Initiative. The Fundación Oceanogràfic provided a student bursary for AA and paid the costs to run the rehabilitation facility ARCA were all the work was done.
