Impact of Forensic Medical Evaluations on Immigration Relief Grant Rates and Correlates of Outcomes in the United States.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of forensic medical evaluations on grant rates for applicants seeking immigration relief in the United States (U.S.) and to identify significant correlates of grant success. We conducted a retrospective analysis of 2584 cases initiated by Physicians for Human Rights between 2008-2018 that included forensic medical evaluations, and found that 81.6% of applicants for various forms of immigration relief were granted relief, as compared to the national asylum grant rate of 42.4%. Among the study’s cohort, the majority (73.7%) of positive outcomes were grants of asylum. A multivariable regression analysis revealed that age, continent of origin, history of sexual or gender-based violence, gang violence, LGB sexual orientation, and being detained by the U.S. government at the time of evaluation request were statistically associated with case outcomes. Forensic physical evaluation was more strongly associated with a positive outcome than forensic psychological evaluation. Our findings strengthen and expand prior evidence that forensic medical evaluations can have a substantial positive impact on an applicant’s immigration relief claim. Given the growing applicant pool in the U.S., there is an urgent need for more trained clinicians to conduct forensic medical evaluations as well as to educate adjudicators, immigration lawyers, and policy makers about the nature of the life-altering events that applicants for immigration relief experience

Please Scream Inside Your Heart:: How a Global Pandemic Affected Burnout in an Academic Library

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the authors’ experiences of the academic library workplace. Despite additional challenges introduced by working primarily remotely, the authors also witnessed their organization take steps toward making academic library work more human-centered. Using narrative inquiry, the authors interrogate their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and elements of workplace organization and treatment of library workers that offered brief glimpses of a workplace that is kinder and more concerned with employee well-being. However, over time, a renewed emphasis on pre-pandemic organization workplace values has been witnessed by the authors. The authors discuss what pre-COVID workplace practices are harmful and oppressive elements of white supremacy culture and capitalistic culture and should be abandoned, and what a human-centered workplace post-COVID might look like. Keywords: burnout, COVID-19, overwork, library workers, capitalism, white supremacy culture, vocational awe, role conflic

“Nice White Meetings”: Unpacking Absurd Library Bureaucracy through a Critical Race Theory Lens

Although the issues of diversity and representation are often discussed within academic librarianship in Canada and the United States, the field has made little headway in being inclusive of the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) who work within it. If academic libraries are to become truly authentic and inclusive spaces  where BIPOC are central not only to shaping the values of a library but also to determining how those values are accomplished, we must examine the traditional ways in which libraries function. One of these traditions is a reliance on bureaucracy and its associated practices such as structured group work and meetings, which are presumed to be inherently neutral and rational ways of working. Critical examinations of bureaucracy within higher education reveal how its overadoption is absurdly at odds with the social justice–oriented missions of most libraries. Furthermore, not all who are involved in libraries are equally harmed through this overreliance on bureaucracy; this article employs Critical Race Theory to uncover the insidious and specific deleterious impacts bureaucracies can have on BIPOC library workers. The antithesis of a neutral system, bureaucracy instead functions to force assimilation into a system entrenched in whiteness. Bien que les questions de diversité et de représentation soient souvent discutées au sein des bibliothèques universitaires au Canada et aux États-Unis, le domaine a peu progressé pour inclure les personnes autochtones, noires et de couleur (PANDC) qui y travaillent. Si les bibliothèques universitaires doivent devenir des espaces véritablement authentiques et inclusifs où les PANDC sont essentielles non seulement pour façonner les valeurs d’une bibliothèque, mais aussi pour déterminer comment ces valeurs prennent forme, nous devons examiner les modes de fonctionnement traditionnels des bibliothèques. L’une de ces traditions est le recours à la bureaucratie et aux pratiques qui lui sont associées, comme les réunions et les travaux de groupe structurés, qui, prétendument, sont des méthodes de travail intrinsèquement neutres et rationnelles. L’examen critique de la bureaucratie dans l’enseignement supérieur révèle que son adoption excessive est en contradiction absurde avec les missions de justice sociale de la plupart des bibliothèques. En outre, toutes les parties prenantes des bibliothèques ne sont pas également lésées par cette dépendance excessive à la bureaucratie. Cet article utilise la théorie critique de la race pour découvrir les effets délétères insidieux et précis que la bureaucratie peut avoir sur les PANDC qui travaillent dans les bibliothèques. Antithèse d’un système neutre, la bureaucratie a pour effet de forcer l’assimilation à un système enraciné dans la blanchité