4,200 research outputs found
UMSL Bulletin 2023-2024
The 2023-2024 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1088/thumbnail.jp
Multilingualism and the Public Sector in South Africa
This book contributes to the discourse on language in South Africa with a specific focus on multilingualism and the public sector
Undoing borders, building the commons: the solidarity politics of the No Evictions Network in Glasgow
This thesis is about the spatial politics of migrant solidarities. Drawing on a scholaractivist approach, it engages with the struggles of the No Evictions Network in Glasgow. The Network emerged through the convergence of heterogeneous trajectories of activism and migrant advocacy in the city to challenge the eviction of over 300 asylum seekers by Serco, a multinational company that held a billionaire contract from the Home Office to accommodate asylum seekers in Glasgow and other areas across the UK. Bringing literature on Black Geographies to the analysis of the border regimes, the thesis positions migrant struggles in relation to black counter cartographies of struggle. Centring questions of race, it reframes current work on migration and solidarity through a nuanced engagement with black and feminist theories, making important interventions. On the one hand, engaging with the role that neoliberal companies like Serco develop within the political economies of the border and the production of migrants’ ‘premature death’ (Gilmore, 2007), the thesis addresses the Network’s politics as struggles against racial capitalism (Robinson, 1983). A focus on racial capitalism unpacks the articulations of racism, capitalism, or patriarchy underlying the struggles against borders, throwing light on the importance of building transversal alliances. The coming together of migrant collectives, housing struggles, and neighbours in the Network was an example of such alliances. Nevertheless, the political experiences of the Network illustrate how the crafting of solidarities and the negotiation of heterogeneous political cultures unfolds as a contentious process, crisscrossed by racialized, classed, and gendered borders (Featherstone, 2012). In this regard, special attention is drawn to the negotiation of power asymmetries and the tensions between strategies of ‘direct support’ and ‘political campaigning’ throughout the Network’s campaigns. The argument explores how migrant agencies performed powerful strategies of mutual support, collective empowerment, and healing, challenging racialized and gendered notions of the political and activist cultures. Building upon these experiences, the concept of ‘political reproduction’ underscores how social reproductive politics not only enable migrants’ survival across the deadly geographies of racial capitalism, but they are the means to build capacity of political struggle, linking to broader black and brown politics. Overall, the thesis explores how ‘undoing borders’ is an ongoing learning process that demands centring questions of antiracism and migrant agency when tackling the intertwining oppressions coming to the fore through place-based struggles (hooks, 2013; Mohanty, 2003)
Making Connections: A Handbook for Effective Formal Mentoring Programs in Academia
This book, Making Connections: A Handbook for Effective Formal Mentoring Programs in Academia, makes a unique and needed contribution to the mentoring field as it focuses solely on mentoring in academia. This handbook is a collaborative institutional effort between Utah State University’s (USU) Empowering Teaching Open Access Book Series and the Mentoring Institute at the University of New Mexico (UNM). This book is available through (a) an e-book through Pressbooks, (b) a downloadable PDF version on USU’s Open Access Book Series website), and (c) a print version available for purchase on the USU Empower Teaching Open Access page, and on Amazon
Breastfeeding, motherhood and employment: the experience of breastfeeding mothers returning to work in Qatar
Participation of women in employment in Qatar has increased significantly over the past
10 years, from 12.4% in 2011 to 37% in 2020, with 64.1% of working women also being
married (Planning and Statistics Authority, Qatar). Their professional commitments
notwithstanding, most of these women are also mothers, with many breastfeeding. The Quran
demands that mothers breastfeed their children for the first two years of their lives. This thesis
explores this tension between a rapid increase in mothers entering the labour market, and the
specific historic, cultural and religious expectations upon mothers in Qatar, which create
challenges for mothers, employers and policy makers that are different from those of working
mothers in the Global North and need further consideration.
This thesis employed a qualitative research methodology in which a total of 50
breastfeeding, professional, working mothers in the public and private sectors of Qatar were
interviewed. The thesis adopts a multifaceted theoretical framing. First, matricentric feminism
(O’Reilly, 2016) and Hay’s concept of intensive mothering are considered in terms of their
applicability, and expanded upon in seeking to make sense of the tensions and challenges the
women experienced as they returned to work following birth and a relatively short maternity
leave of only 50 and 60 days, in the private and public sectors respectively, within this particular
context in the Global South. Second, the theory of the gendered institution, as proposed by
Acker in 1990, posits that breastfeeding mothers cannot embody the ‘ideal worker’ construct
due to considerations such as the roles they can handle, interpersonal interactions, self-efficacy,
and culture. Third, under maternal bodies at work theory by Gatrell, Cooper and Kossek's
(2017), breastfeeding mothers are perceived as social pollutants. According to this theory,
women's experiences are influenced by the perspective that maternal bodies belong in the
private sphere and that their presence in the workplace is repugnant to other workers. Finally,
the experiences of breastfeeding women are analysed from the perspective of their
embeddedness in multiple layers of contexts, in line with the theorisation of Lewis and Den
Dulk (2008). There are four layers of contexts taken into account the global, national/regional
and institutional layers. Under this theoretical position, the thesis appreciates the reality that
different factors interact to produce magnified or suppressed effects. Through the lens of this
multifaceted theoretical framework, the findings from the interviews are analysed through
thematic analysis.This thesis therefore significantly contributes to the literature on working
mothers through its location in an Islamic country, and through its orientation and exploration
of the significance of the religious context at the intersection of gender and employment in
particular, which remains underexplored.
The findings show how the mothers’ return to work is complicated by the ways in which
employment policies on pregnancy, maternity and breastfeeding are not aligned with Islamic
doctrine on what is expected of women seeking to conform to ideas of being a ‘good Muslim
mother’ In line with matricentric feminism, the findings show that Qatari women have
displayed increased propensity to seek opportunities under professional employment as a way
of advancing their interests as women and mothers, while also taking care of their families. The
participation of women in the workplace has magnified the effects of intensive mothering,
whereby women are expected to pursue professional acheivements in the workplace, while also
being a good mother in accordance with the guidelines by Islam. These guidelines impose two
years breastfeeding period after the birth of a baby, in addition to other domestic
responsibilities. However, the novel work-related responsibilities have made fulfilling this
mandate challenging for these women. The limitations arise from circumstances that can be
explained through elements of the gendered organisation since most workplaces are not set up
to facilitate breastfeeding. Similarly, women are found not to fit the ‘ideal worker’ image, thus
limiting the extent to which they can exercise agency. It is also apparent from the resrach
findings that the maternal body of the Qatari breastfeeding women in the study is perceived as
a pollutant and repugnant in most workplaces and public spaces. While providing breastfeeding
facilities in the workplace and accommodating breastfeeding activities could solve some of
these challenges, most of the workplaces where the women interviewed work have not taken
such measures. Finally, there is evidence that most breastfeeding mothers' experiences can be
linked to multiple factors based on layers of contexts, starting with the global, national/regional
and finally at the institutional level. The effects of the failure by Qatar to ratify the Maternity
Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183) has played a role in subsequent actions such as the
provision of insufficient leave days. Furthermore, institutions have not been mandated to
accommodate the interests of breastfeeding mothers by providing the necessary facilities, such
as private rooms for breastfeeding or for the expression of milk. These circumstances function
to cause and magnify the challenges that breastfeeding mothers experience in practice upon
their return to work. It also highlights the different ways they sought to overcome these
challenges. It highlights how women in Qatar find themselves in a situation in which they are
compelled to adhere to religious guidelines and organisational policies that are in conflict with
each other.
The implications of these findings for theory, policy and practice are explored from a
feminist perspective in the final discussion and conclusion. The proposal for policy changes
focus on adjustments to the limited maternal leave days to provide breastfeeding mothers with
more time to take care of the infant. Changes to Human Rresources policies in the workplace
such as job-sharing can also provide stop-gap measures to accommodate the interests of
breastfeeding mothers. For practice, it is necessary for a multi-stakeholders and multi-sector
approach to developing solutions to the challenges that contribute to the negative experiences
of Qatari mothers who breastfeed at work
Frontiers of Humanity and Beyond: Towards new critical understandings of borders. Working Papers
UIDB/04666/2020
UIDP/04666/2020publishersversionpublishe
Reversing the Irreversible: Mitigating Legal Risks of Blockchain-Based Data Breach through Corporate Governance
The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) embodies a set of enforceable data subject rights, data controller and processor obligations, and compliance requirements. The GDPR outreach is extraterritorial and impacts US blockchain-based businesses that collect and process personal data of individuals from the EU. Given the ambiguities of the law itself surrounding what is considered as personal data on blockchain, and who data controllers and processors are, this research examines the corporate governance response to the GDPR as a bottom-up solution for compliance. To secure the sustainability of the business models based on blockchain solutions there is an immediate need to revisit traditional agency theory of corporate governance. Modern theory of corporate governance must inevitably integrate Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental, Social, and Governance standards into its policies and procedures to mitigate risks and hedge against breaches of data security and privacy
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