Repurposing feminist geopolitics: On estrangement, exhaustion and the end of the solar system

No abstract available

La geopolítica de la ferida: compartint el patiment amb Charles Bell

La geopolítica feminista insisteix en la importància de la corporalitat i la materialitat en l'exercici de les relacions internacionals, en els imaginaris, territoris, fronteres i conflictes globals. Centrant-nos en el treball de l'artista i cirurgià Sir Charles Bell i en el seu tractament dels ferits a la batalla de Waterloo (1815), aquest article subratlla la significació del contacte i el contagi en la pràctica geopolítica. Així, tot i ser partícip de la violència formal, el fet de treballar directament amb els ferits de guerra, d'alguna manera va suposar un replantejament de les seves pròpies experiències del conflicte, el dolor i el patiment, que li acabà provocant una articulació variable sobre la complicitat excessiva en la qüestió geopolítica, motiu per el qual fins i tot li va permetre qüestionar-se el propi destí de la nació britànica, en aquell moment novament victoriosa.Feminist geopolitics insists on the importance of embodiment and materiality in the making of international relations, global imaginaries, territories, borders and conflict. Focusing on the work of Sir Charles Bell, artist and surgeon, in treating the wounded of the battle of Waterloo (1815), this article outlines the importance of touch and contagion in geopolitics. While Bell facilitated a formal violence, working with wounds was to overwhelm his own experiences of war, pain and suffering, provoking a felt, barely articulated sympathetic and excessive geopolitics that led Charles Bell to question what the fate of the now victorious British nation would indeed be.La geopolítica feminista insiste en la importancia de la corporalidad y materialidad en el ejercicio de las relaciones internacionales, en los imaginarios, territorios, fronteras y conflictos globales. Centrándonos en el trabajo del artista y cirujano Sir Charles Bell y en el trato de los heridos en la batalla de Waterloo (1815), este artículo subraya la significación del contacto y el contagio en la práctica geopolítica. Así, a pesar de ser partícipe de la violencia formal, el hecho de trabajar directamente con los heridos de guerra, de algún modo supuso un replanteamiento de sus propias experiencias del conflicto, el dolor y el sufrimiento, que terminó provocándole una articulación variable alrededor de la complicidad excesiva en la cuestión geopolítica, motivo que lo llevó incluso a plantearse el propio destino de la nación británica, en aquel momento de nuevo victoriosa

La geopolítica de la ferida: compartint el patiment amb Charles Bell

Feminist geopolitics insists on the importance of embodiment and materiality in the making of international relations, global imaginaries, territories, borders and conflict. Focusing on the work of Sir Charles Bell, artist and surgeon, in treating the wounded of the battle of Waterloo (1815), this article outlines the importance of touch and contagion in geopolitics. While Bell facilitated a formal violence, working with wounds was to overwhelm his own experiences of war, pain and suffering, provoking a felt, barely articulated sympathetic and excessive geopolitics that led Charles Bell to question what the fate of the now victorious British nation would indeed be

The way of the flesh: life, geopolitics and the weight of the future

How can a feminist materialism problematise the knowledges and practices of geopolitics, and locate new objects for critical analysis? In the following, I acknowledge how geopolitics as a form of statecraft has been preoccupied with the unruly nature of flesh. I also note how an accounting for flesh as a socio-spatial material has helped to animate both a critical geopolitical inquiry concerned with the inscription of bodies alongside other texts and a feminist concern with embodiment. My response to these developments is twofold. First, I want to query the devolving of the flesh into an ideologically saturated matter that can be examined using corporeal bodies as entry points for analysis. Second, and via recourse to work founded on feminist material philosophies, I want to reclaim the excessive, lively character of flesh. To do so, I outline how the geo- in geopolitics can be understood as an ‘earthiness’ that is concerned, at the broadest level, with differential orderings of and access to life, and especially the matters of sex, sexuality and reproduction, and, more specifically, with a concern for differential renderings of a corporeal vulnerability and obduracy, and the articulation of these alongside the building of a practice-based ethics. Using the example of stem cells, I go on to demonstrate how an emphasis upon flesh as an object of analysis allows for a reworking of geopolitics' traditional foci – such as borders – away from questions of the ‘where’ of social relations and toward the inexhaustible becoming of materials and forces that makes and unmakes such <i>foci</i>

Return to Battleship Island

No abstract available

COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AT EXTENDED CAMPUS SITES: A MIXED METHODS STUDY

Much community college research suggests that student engagement enhances academic performance and persistence, yet there has been little research that has focused on the impact of student engagement in the growing area of extended campus sites. The purpose of this mixed method study was to compare student engagement levels between the main campus and the extended site of three community colleges. The quantitative portion of this study explored significant differences between the sites based on variables in the 2011 Community College Survey for Student Engagement (CCSSE) survey. Then, through 13 semi-structured interviews, the qualitative portion examined the perceptions of extended site faculty and staff. Findings indicated that extended campus sites and their students experienced greater student engagement than anticipated. The null hypotheses of differences among the engagement variables by campus location were partially rejected. Statistically significant differences were found for the following composite variables: active and collaborative learning, student effort, and student & faculty interaction. There were no significant differences for academic challenge or support for learners. Interview data from site administrators and instructors from the three extended campus sites offered insight about student engagement at community college extended campus sites. The core areas identified supported CCSSE Benchmark areas; plus, discussed the roles that faculty and facilities have on student engagement at extended campus sites. This study suggests that students at extended campus sites may feel more connected to each other and to their faculty than to college facilities or programs. The findings from this study lend strong support to theories of engagement offered by Tinto, Austin and others who maintain that connections are the key element. This study also suggests three institutional conditions to attain higher levels of engagement at community colleges which support extended campus sites: (1) communication, interactions and relationships, (2) integration of student support and academics, and (3) extended campus development. In summary, administrators at community colleges may want to consider that community college engagement is less about specific support services, activities, and extra-curricular events, and more about ensuring that the facilities, services and programs are provided to connect students to each other and to faculty

Feminist Geopolitics: Material States

No abstract available

Re-enchanting Volcanoes:The Rise, Fall and Rise Again or Art and Aesthetics in the Making of Volcanic Knowledges

Current day volcanology largely tends to an instrumentalist view of art as, in its mimetic form, capable of providing proxy data on the timing and unfolding of particular volcanic events and, in its impressionistic form, of conveying the sublime grandeur of volcanic events and scenes. In this chapter, we note that such a reductionist view of what science is unhelpfully glosses over a much more complex disciplinary lineage, wherein both art and aesthetics played a key role in knowledge production concerning volcanoes. Using the work of Sir William Hamilton and Mary Somerville as case studies, we emphasise that art and aesthetics were part and parcel of both an 18th and 19th century approach to the study of volcanoes, and the making of particular scientific audiences. What is more, it is this lineage that provides a creative reservoir for more recent efforts that cut across scientific and arts divides, such that the ‘communication’ of the nature of volcanoes becomes a multi-media, multi-affective endeavour that speaks to a diverse range of publics