Occupation of racial grief, loss as a resource : learning from ‘The Combahee River Collective Black Feminist Statement'

The methodology of ‘occupation’ through rereading The Combahee River Collective Black Feminist Statement (The Combahee River Collective, in: James, Sharpley-Whiting (eds) The Black Feminist Reader. Blackwell Publishers Ltd., Oxford, pp 261–270, 1977) demonstrates the necessity of temporal linkages to historical Black feminist texts and the wisdom of Black feminist situated knowers. This paper argues that racism produces grief and loss and as long as there is racism, we all remain in racial grief and loss. However, in stark contrast to the configuration of racial grief and loss as something to get over, perhaps grief and loss can be thought about differently, for example, in terms of racial grief and loss as a resource. This paper questions Western Eurocentric paternalistic responses to Black women’s ‘talk about their feelings of craziness… [under] patriarchal rule’ (The Combahee River Collective 1977: 262) and suggests alternative ways of thinking about the psychological impact of grief and loss in the context of racism. In this paper, a Black feminist occupation of racial grief and loss includes the act of residing within, and the act of working with the constituent elements of racial grief and loss. The proposal is that an occupation of racial grief and loss is a paradoxical catalyst for building a twenty-first century global intersectional Black feminist movement

A candidate gene study of the type I interferon pathway implicates IKBKE and IL8 as risk loci for SLE

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is a systemic autoimmune disease in which the type I interferon pathway has a crucial role. We have previously shown that three genes in this pathway, IRF5, TYK2 and STAT4, are strongly associated with risk for SLE. Here, we investigated 78 genes involved in the type I interferon pathway to identify additional SLE susceptibility loci. First, we genotyped 896 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in these 78 genes and 14 other candidate genes in 482 Swedish SLE patients and 536 controls. Genes with P<0.01 in the initial screen were then followed up in 344 additional Swedish patients and 1299 controls. SNPs in the IKBKE, TANK, STAT1, IL8 and TRAF6 genes gave nominal signals of association with SLE in this extended Swedish cohort. To replicate these findings we extracted data from a genomewide association study on SLE performed in a US cohort. Combined analysis of the Swedish and US data, comprising a total of 2136 cases and 9694 controls, implicates IKBKE and IL8 as SLE susceptibility loci (Pmeta=0.00010 and Pmeta=0.00040, respectively). STAT1 was also associated with SLE in this cohort (Pmeta=3.3 × 10−5), but this association signal appears to be dependent of that previously reported for the neighbouring STAT4 gene. Our study suggests additional genes from the type I interferon system in SLE, and highlights genes in this pathway for further functional analysis

It’s not about security, it’s about racism : counter-terror strategies, civilizing processes and the post-race fiction

Using a range of international examples, this article examines the ways in which members of the black and minority ethnic population continue to be viewed as problematic and deviant, challenging the claim that we are now living in a post-race state. The article considers how race and racism are still in reality, used to socially order society—and specifically criminalize those black and minority ethnic groups of (real or perceived) Muslim background—what I call “brown bodies”. Turning its focus to the United Kingdom, although offering an analysis applicable to other countries with similar racialized conditions, the article discusses how sub-measures under current counter-terror discourse not only serve to control and regulate Muslim populations, but more so, the civilizing undertone of its Western (or, British) values and national security narrative continue to normalize and perpetuate antiMuslim sentiment and construct Muslims as “suspect” communities at every possible opportunity. This process draws on a “post-colonial fantasy” and re-uses established practices of “race-consumption” to control brown bodies. This ensures that anti-Muslim racism remains a key feature of contemporary British society. The article ends noting its support for that body of literature that critiques the claim that we are now living in a post-race state. This article is published as part of a collection on racism in counter-terrorism and surveillance discourse

‘Messy Democracy’: Democratic pedagogy and its discontents

This paper reflects on a recent participatory installation by the artists’ collective @.ac, entitled Messy Democracy, as a case study to raise questions concerning the ‘distribution of the sensible’ within the neoliberal art school. The project set up a quasi-autonomous artists’ space within Hanover Project gallery 9 April–3 May, 2018 at University of Central Lancashire, Preston. This exhibition functioned as a space of collective pedagogy, co-labour and ‘dissensus’ situated in relation to the wider operation of the department of Fine Art. It also sought to operate as a critical alternative to contemporary models of the art school, rooted in notions of usefulness and romantic self-realisation, but re-structured in the service of ‘commodification’ and ‘financialisation’ in wake of the Browne Report (2010). Most importantly, Messy Democracy represented a ‘theatocractic’ ‘undercommons’ for alternate and counter-hegemonic subjectivities to emerge. However, hierarchical logics, resulting from the hegemonic ‘distribution of the sensible’ stubbornly persisted even within this nascent pedagogic democracy

Effort-related functions of nucleus accumbens dopamine and associated forebrain circuits

Background Over the last several years, it has become apparent that there are critical problems with the hypothesis that brain dopamine (DA) systems, particularly in the nucleus accumbens, directly mediate the rewarding or primary motivational characteristics of natural stimuli such as food. Hypotheses related to DA function are undergoing a substantial restructuring, such that the classic emphasis on hedonia and primary reward is giving way to diverse lines of research that focus on aspects of instrumental learning, reward prediction, incentive motivation, and behavioral activation. Objective The present review discusses dopaminergic involvement in behavioral activation and, in particular, emphasizes the effort-related functions of nucleus accumbens DA and associated forebrain circuitry. Results The effects of accumbens DA depletions on food-seeking behavior are critically dependent upon the work requirements of the task. Lever pressing schedules that have minimal work requirements are largely unaffected by accumbens DA depletions, whereas reinforcement schedules that have high work (e.g., ratio) requirements are substantially impaired by accumbens DA depletions. Moreover, interference with accumbens DA transmission exerts a powerful influence over effort-related decision making. Rats with accumbens DA depletions reallocate their instrumental behavior away from food-reinforced tasks that have high response requirements, and instead, these rats select a less-effortful type of food-seeking behavior. Conclusions Along with prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, nucleus accumbens is a component of the brain circuitry regulating effort-related functions. Studies of the brain systems regulating effort-based processes may have implications for understanding drug abuse, as well as energy-related disorders such as psychomotor slowing, fatigue, or anergia in depression