An Introduction to Marshall Soules’ Two Contributions: “Play Attention” and “McLuhan and Carpenter: Tricksters at the Margins, A Postscript to Play Attention”

An Introduction to Marshall Soules’ Two Contribution

Women Talking: An Alchemy for Feminist Alternative Dispute Resolution

Over the past decade, a growing number of women who have experienced sexual violence have turned to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and have filed sexual harassment claims in human rights tribunals instead of pursuing sexual assault charges. Using ADR processes, such as mediation, was once considered inappropriate for remedying domestic or sexual violence because of the assumed power imbalance between the parties and the risk to the survivor/victim’s personal security. These presumptions are now changing, and, in certain circumstances, survivors/victims of domestic and sexual violence are voicing their preference for ADR solutions over criminal or civil court procedures. However, this shift has also exposed challenges in the ADR system when dealing with issues pertaining to women’s rights and violence against women, such as the perpetuation of gender-based stereotypes. Addressing these challenges calls for a feminist restructuring of ADR. Relying upon Miriam Toews’s 2019 novel Women Talking and Sarah Polley’s 2022 film adaptation of this novel as a central framework, this article proposes principles for a feminist-oriented ADR practice. The authors explain how Women Talking embodies a feminist ADR practice and what the common law and traditional ADR models can learn from the dispute resolution techniques in Women Talking. A feminist ADR practice prioritizes the voices of women, meaningfully considers the interests of the women who are parties to the dispute, enacts substantive procedural justice, and positions women as active agents in structuring the dispute resolution and decision-making process. The article concludes by suggesting seven preliminary propositions for a feminist approach to ADR in practice

Frontiers of a Gender Equality Paradox: IHRL and Canada’s National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence against Women

This article explores the experience and lessons from developing Canada’s first national action plan for gender-based violence (NAPGBV) as an example of the vicissitudes of feminist policy-making. The author specifies the processes, methodologies, and collaborations the Expert Engagement Group that she coordinated in a project to guide Canada’s Women and Gender Equality Ministry in developing the NAPGBV. She explores her experiences at the intersection of activism and policy-making, detailing Canada’s international human rights obligations to prevent and protect against gender-based violence (GBV) as the frame of reference. The article traces the separate paths to accountability for GBV in Canada regarding Indigenous women’s experiences and those of more mainstream or settler efforts. The author posits that GBVAW is a multifaceted issue that requires cross-sector collaboration and immediate, sustained, monitored, and accountable action by all governments according to their respective responsibilities and in keeping with international best practices

Multi-Modal Deep Learning for Retinal Analysis

We present an AI-driven diagnostic assistant for retinal disease detection that leverages advanced deep learning and explainability techniques. Our framework combines a Vision Transformer for robust classification with a U-Net for precise segmentation, while Grad-CAM provides interpretable heatmaps and Langchain automates report generation for seamless integration with Electronic Health Records. Experimental results demonstrate that our system reliably detects retinal diseases with high accuracy, reducing diagnostic time and enhancing clinical decision-making. This work offers a transparent, scalable solution for early intervention in retinal care