Disabilities, Masculinities and Schooling: A Narrative Inquiry into the Stories Lived by Boys and Men with Physical Disabilities

Through narrative inquiry (NI), this dissertation investigates how boys and men with physical disabilities (BMPDs) come to embody particular subject positions as disabled and masculine subjects. Such a study is important given that disability is often perceived as being at odds with Western notions of masculinity (Connell, 2005) and that schools are a major site of masculinity formation (Connell, 2000). Furthermore, within the context of what has been identified as the “boy turn” in educational policy and research (Weaver-Hightower, 2003), a focus on boys with disabilities has not been included. Using Butlerian theories on performativity, materiality of the body and precarity as well as Foucauldian analytics of power, the NI examines how institutions such as schools inscribe ableist and masculine norms surrounding independence, bodily integrity, productivity and heteronormative relationships. A detailed analysis of personal narratives drawn from in-depth interviews of two participants illustrates how each negotiates his masculinity and humanness from locations of precarity within ableist systems that seek to render him invisible and abject. The participants respond in iterative and improvisational ways to sustain lives that are viable. Their stories contribute to a nuancing of the social processes of embodiment. As an alternative to ableist norms of independence and autonomy, their stories explore interdependence as an ethos. The dissertation also raises ethical questions pertaining to researcher/researched dynamics and argues for a need to engage in critical conversations with subjugated classes in order to open up fields of possibility for generating knowledge about disablility and ableism that refuses neocolonial appropriation of voice. Keywords: narrative inquiry, performativity, materiality, precarity, masculinities, physical disabilities, intersectionality, ableism, embodiment, analytics of power, Foucault, Butler, Connell, situated knowledge

DISABILITY, MASCULINITIES AND TEACHING: AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY

This autoethnography focuses on issues of masculinity, disability and education. Drawing on the work of Connell (2005) who offers an important theorization of masculinities and on the work of Shakespeare (1999) who elaborates a critical sociological perspective on disability studies the study challenges some o f the common-sense assumptions about male teachers. Namely, men are needed to solve the problem of failing and disaffected boys. The author draws upon his own narratives as a teacher and as a disabled man living with a spinal cord injury to interrogate such assumptions, and to illustrate a more complex and nuanced lived experience. He interweaves personal narratives with theoretical perspectives to elaborate on themes of voice, invisibility, embodiment, masculinities and hegemony. An analysis o f the themes produces several implications for the author and reader

Forgotten Scholars: Rediscovering Women in Medieval and Early-Modern Academia for Gender-Inclusive Place Naming in Universities

In our universities, many places have names after great scholars of all times. For example, in our region,we find: Place Montesquieu, Auditorium Erasmus, Justus Lipsius Straat, etc. A small minority of places are named after women. This is true in any country. Now, more and more universities adopt the following political statement: increasing the visibility of women in the public domain is one of the possible levers to promote equality between women and men. To help administrators of European Universities in this task, we provide here a list ofwomen who were either professors at a university or member of an science academy before the year 1800. These women from the past started to blaze the trail, and it is to them that we must look for inspiration. This list is an updated version of the appendix to our paper David de la Croix, Mara Vitale, Women in European academia before 1800 — religion, marriage, and human capital, European Review of Economic History, 2023;, heac023, https://doi.org/10.1093/ereh/heac02

Scholars and Literati at the University of Bologna (1088–1800)

This note is a summary description of the set of scholars and literati who participated in teaching at the University of Bologna from its inception in the 11th century to the eve of the Industrial Revolution (1800)

Scholars and Literati at the University of Padua (1222–1800)

This note is a summary description of the set of scholars and literati who taught at the University of Padua from its inception in the 13th century to the eve of the Industrial Revolution (1800)

A Timeline of Medieval Universities

Figure 1 presents our timeline of medieval universities, i.e. universities created before the fall ofConstantinople in 1453. To construct this timeline of universities, we used information providedby Frijhoff in his book "A History of the University in Europe" (1996) and by Rashdall in his book”The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages” (1895). We also consulted Hermans and Nelissen(2005) and Verger and Charle (2012). These works attempt to define the dates of the foundation ofthe different universities

Scholars and Literati at the Academy of the Ricovrati (1599–1800)

This note is a summary description of the set of scholars and literati who were members or associates of the Academy of the Ricovrati from its inception in 1599 to the eve of the Industrial Revolution (1800). &nbsp

Scholars and Literati at the University of Coimbra (1290–1800)

This note is a summary description of the set of scholars and literati who taught at the University of Coimbra from its inception in 1290 to the eve of the Industrial Revolution (1800)

Realization of Coherent Optically Dense Media via Buffer-Gas Cooling

We demonstrate that buffer-gas cooling combined with laser ablation can be used to create coherent optical media with high optical depth and low Doppler broadening that offers metastable states with low collisional and motional decoherence. Demonstration of this generic technique opens pathways to coherent optics with a large variety of atoms and molecules. We use helium buffer gas to cool 87Rb atoms to below 7 K and slow atom diffusion to the walls. Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in this medium allows for 50% transmission in a medium with initial OD >70 and for slow pulse propagation with large delay-bandwidth products. In the high-OD regime, we observe high-contrast spectrum oscillations due to efficient four-wave mixing.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. V2: modified title, abstract, introduction, conclusion; added references; improved theoretical fit in figure 3(b); shortened slow light theory description; clarified simplicity of apparatus. Final version as published in Phys. Rev.

GANEing traction: the broad applicability of NE hotspots to diverse cognitive and arousal phenomena

GANE proposes that local glutamate-norepinephrine interactions enable “winner-take-more” effects in perception and memory under arousal. A diverse range of commentaries addressed both the nature of this ‘hotspot’ feedback mechanism and its implications in a variety of psychological domains, inspiring exciting avenues for future research