Sexual Desire(s) and the Desire for Intimacy: An Autoethnographic Exploration

Sexual desire has traditionally been approached and investigated through reductionist lenses that have usually overlooked its complexity. In the past 150 years, it has mainly appeared articulated within medical and sexological discourses that have actively attempted to demarcate, categorize, and medicalize it. As a result, “healthy” and “pathological” forms of sexual desire have been constructed, whereas the social, cultural, political, and ideological forces that structure and shape it have been largely ignored. Furthermore, the conceptualization of distinct forms of sexual desire has given rise to the construction of equally distinct, ostensibly fixed, “healthy” as well as “pathological,” sexual identities. This dissertation represents an attempt to resist the aforementioned hegemonic discourses of sexual desire. Far from articulating a coherent theory, it aspires to challenge fixed notions of sexual desire; historicize it and highlight its contingent, time- and context-dependent nature; pose ethical questions as to how we sexually desire and what this means for our relationships to others; encourage others to engage into similar, ethical explorations; and ascertain whether such explorations can promise less violence to one another on the grounds of how we sexually desire and use our bodies. To these ends, its guiding research questions explore the cultural/social/political forces that shape our psychological and corporeal experience of sexual desire as well as our ability to feel sexually intimate with our lovers. In an effort to better serve the purposes of this dissertation, the author draws on a wide variety of ideas and theoretical perspectives (Darwin’s theory of sexual selection, Queer theory as loosely represented by Michel Foucault, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Judith Butler, Irigaray’s feminist theory of sexual difference, and Lacanian psychoanalysis) and uses an autoethnographic method. Autoethnography allows the author to delve deeply into his personal history and provide detailed, critically examined, vulnerable narratives of social exclusion, psychological violence, stigmatization, and isolation. The author’s autoethnographic stories explore the constitution of his sexual desire within the context of the Greek culture and describe his efforts to overcome his sense of dehumanization and pursue sexual intimacy. They also emphasize the importance of experiencing our emotions, exploring the materiality of our bodies, openly acknowledging and grappling with our internalized violence, and critically engaging with the idea that the personal is almost always social, cultural, and political. Finally, and most importantly, the author’s stories invite the readers to temporarily forget about generalizability and, instead, focus on the elements that render their sexual desires unique, fluid, and porous

Stinging the Predators: A collection of papers that should never have been published

This ebook collects academic papers and conference abstracts that were meant to be so terrible that nobody in their right mind would publish them. All were submitted to journals and conferences to expose weak or non-existent peer review and other exploitative practices. Each paper has a brief introduction. Short essays round out the collection

A complex systems approach to education in Switzerland

The insights gained from the study of complex systems in biological, social, and engineered systems enables us not only to observe and understand, but also to actively design systems which will be capable of successfully coping with complex and dynamically changing situations. The methods and mindset required for this approach have been applied to educational systems with their diverse levels of scale and complexity. Based on the general case made by Yaneer Bar-Yam, this paper applies the complex systems approach to the educational system in Switzerland. It confirms that the complex systems approach is valid. Indeed, many recommendations made for the general case have already been implemented in the Swiss education system. To address existing problems and difficulties, further steps are recommended. This paper contributes to the further establishment complex systems approach by shedding light on an area which concerns us all, which is a frequent topic of discussion and dispute among politicians and the public, where billions of dollars have been spent without achieving the desired results, and where it is difficult to directly derive consequences from actions taken. The analysis of the education system's different levels, their complexity and scale will clarify how such a dynamic system should be approached, and how it can be guided towards the desired performance

A Biosymtic (Biosymbiotic Robotic) Approach to Human Development and Evolution. The Echo of the Universe.

In the present work we demonstrate that the current Child-Computer Interaction paradigm is not potentiating human development to its fullest – it is associated with several physical and mental health problems and appears not to be maximizing children’s cognitive performance and cognitive development. In order to potentiate children’s physical and mental health (including cognitive performance and cognitive development) we have developed a new approach to human development and evolution. This approach proposes a particular synergy between the developing human body, computing machines and natural environments. It emphasizes that children should be encouraged to interact with challenging physical environments offering multiple possibilities for sensory stimulation and increasing physical and mental stress to the organism. We created and tested a new set of computing devices in order to operationalize our approach – Biosymtic (Biosymbiotic Robotic) devices: “Albert” and “Cratus”. In two initial studies we were able to observe that the main goal of our approach is being achieved. We observed that, interaction with the Biosymtic device “Albert”, in a natural environment, managed to trigger a different neurophysiological response (increases in sustained attention levels) and tended to optimize episodic memory performance in children, compared to interaction with a sedentary screen-based computing device, in an artificially controlled environment (indoors) - thus a promising solution to promote cognitive performance/development; and that interaction with the Biosymtic device “Cratus”, in a natural environment, instilled vigorous physical activity levels in children - thus a promising solution to promote physical and mental health

Greater Than the Sum: Systems Thinking in Tobacco control

Tobacco control and public health have evolved into a complex set of interconnected and largely self-organizing systems. Their components include international, national, and local governmental agencies; individual advocacy groups; policy makers; health care professionals; nonprofit foundations; and the general population itself. The issues require the exploration of approaches and methodologies that speak to the evolving, dynamic nature of this systems environment. This monograph focuses on the first two years of the Initiative on the Study and Implementation of Systems (ISIS), which was funded by the National Cancer Institute to examine the potential for systems thinking in tobacco control and public health. ISIS explored the general idea of a systems thinking rubric encompassing a great variety of systems-oriented methodologies and approaches. Four approaches have particular promise for their applicability to tobacco control and public health and thus were chosen as areas for initial investigation: (1) organizing and managing as a system, (2) system dynamics and how to model those dynamics, (3) system networks and their analysis, and (4) systems knowledge and its management and translation. As a transdisciplinary effort that linked both tobacco control stakeholders and systems experts, ISIS combined a number of exploratory projects and case studies within these four approaches with a detailed examination of the potential for systems thinking in tobacco control. Its end product was a set of expert consensus guidelines for the future implementation of systems thinking and systems perspectives for tobacco control and public health.https://cancercontrol.cancer.gov/tcrb/monographs/18/index.htm

Plotting the sixties : the culture of conspiracy in the USA.

This dissertation explores how the discourse of conspiracy shaped and was itself shaped by the cultural and political landscape of the USA during the 1960s. It focuses on the popular engagement with notions of conspiracy in four key areas, namely postmodernism, feminism, the counterculture, and gay rights. Broadly speaking, it traces the way those groups who had previously been the object of demonological scrutiny began in the sixties to tell conspiracy theories about those in power-and about each other. It is concerned with "plotting" both as a form of conspiratorial organisation, and as a narrative device. Through close readings of the poetics of conspiracy in both factual and fictional texts, this thesis aims to bring together "realist" and "symbolist" approaches to the "paranoid style" in American culture. It consists of four interrelated case studies, each of which examines key texts from around 1963, in conjunction with works from the 1990s which rethink the earlier representations. The first chapter explores how conspiracy theories have mounted a challenge not just to the official "lone gunman" version of the assassination of President Kennedy, but to the "authorised version" of the 1960s themselves. Through a reading of Don DeLillo's Libra (1988) and Oliver Stone's JFK (1992), I argue that narratives about the conspiratorial activities of the authorities have contributed to a crisis in the authority of narrative, making the Kennedy assassination both a symptom and a cause of a postmodern culture of paranoia. The second chapter considers the figuration of conspiracy in popular American feminist writing, from Betty Friedan' s The Feminine Mystique (1963) to Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth (1990). I argue that conspiracy tropes have functioned not only to link the personal and the political, but also to establish a series of implicit divisions within American feminism. The next chapter traces the emergence of a self-conscious engagement with the culture of conspiracy in the sixties through the career of Thomas Pynchon. I then examine what has happened to the conspiracy culture of the sixties, through an analysis of Vineland (1990). I argue that the earlier paranoid "depth" of secrecy has been flattened out by the proliferation of the signs of mass culture. The final chapter concentrates on the highly idiosyncratic paranoid fictions of William S. Burroughs. My aim is not so much to diagnose him as to locate his writings within postwar discourses of homosexuality, drug addiction and disease. I examine how his novels of the sixties rework the notion of paranoia as an externalisation of private fears by highlighting the internalisation and even the literal incorporation-of public surveillance. I then consider the possibilities and pitfalls of reading Burroughs in the light of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and conversely, of reading his novels as a map of the contemporary culture of body panic

Greater Than the Sum: Systems Thinking in Tobacco control

Tobacco control and public health have evolved into a complex set of interconnected and largely self-organizing systems. Their components include international, national, and local governmental agencies; individual advocacy groups; policy makers; health care professionals; nonprofit foundations; and the general population itself. The issues require the exploration of approaches and methodologies that speak to the evolving, dynamic nature of this systems environment. This monograph focuses on the first two years of the Initiative on the Study and Implementation of Systems (ISIS), which was funded by the National Cancer Institute to examine the potential for systems thinking in tobacco control and public health. ISIS explored the general idea of a systems thinking rubric encompassing a great variety of systems-oriented methodologies and approaches. Four approaches have particular promise for their applicability to tobacco control and public health and thus were chosen as areas for initial investigation: (1) organizing and managing as a system, (2) system dynamics and how to model those dynamics, (3) system networks and their analysis, and (4) systems knowledge and its management and translation. As a transdisciplinary effort that linked both tobacco control stakeholders and systems experts, ISIS combined a number of exploratory projects and case studies within these four approaches with a detailed examination of the potential for systems thinking in tobacco control. Its end product was a set of expert consensus guidelines for the future implementation of systems thinking and systems perspectives for tobacco control and public health

University of Windsor Undergraduate Calendar 2001-2002

https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/universitywindsorundergraduatecalendars/1009/thumbnail.jp