'Difficult' exhibitions and intimate encounters

Over the last thirty years museums around the world have shown an increased willingness to take on what is often characterized as ‘difficult subject matter.’ Absent in Anglophone museum studies literature, however, is a sustained discussion on what it is about such exhibitions that render them ‘difficult’ and, most important, what can be achieved by making painful histories public. This paper sets out to stimulate such discussion, illustrating the relevance of our concerns within the context of a comparative analysis of two recent Swedish exhibitions: The Museum of World Culture’s No Name Fever: AIDS in the Age of Globalization; and Kulturen’s Surviving: Voices from Ravensbrück. Very divergent in their presentation strategies and in the type of information presented, these exhibitions attempt to position their viewers in relation to violence and suffering of ‘others’ distant in time, place, or experience. We conclude by discussing the ways in which public history might animate a critical historical consciousness, a way of living with and within history as a never-ending question that constantly probes the adequacy of the ethical character and social arrangements of daily life

Diaphragm Abnormalities in Patients with End-Stage Heart Failure: NADPH Oxidase Upregulation and Protein Oxidation

Patients with heart failure (HF) have diaphragm abnormalities that contribute to disease morbidity and mortality. Studies in animals suggest that reactive oxygen species (ROS) cause diaphragm abnormalities in HF. However, the effects of HF on ROS sources, antioxidant enzymes, and protein oxidation in the diaphragm of humans is unknown. NAD(P)H oxidase, especially the Nox2 isoform, is an important source of ROS in the diaphragm. Our main hypothesis was that diaphragm from patients with HF have heightened Nox2 expression and p47phox phosphorylation (marker of enzyme activation) that is associated with elevated protein oxidation. We collected diaphragm biopsies from patients with HF and brain-dead organ donors (controls). Diaphragm mRNA levels of Nox2 subunits were increased 2.5–4.6-fold over controls (p \u3c 0.05). Patients also had increased protein levels of Nox2 subunits (p47phox, p22phox, and p67phox) and total p47phox phosphorylation, while phospho-to-total p47phox levels were unchanged. The antioxidant enzyme catalase was increased in patients, whereas glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutases were unchanged. Among markers of protein oxidation, carbonyls were increased by ~40% (p \u3c 0.05) and 4-hydroxynonenal and 3-nitrotyrosines were unchanged in patients with HF. Overall, our findings suggest that Nox2 is an important source of ROS in the diaphragm of patients with HF and increases in levels of antioxidant enzymes are not sufficient to maintain normal redox homeostasis. The net outcome is elevated diaphragm protein oxidation that has been shown to cause weakness in animals

Tracing the Social and Environmental History of the Don River

This presentation provides an overview of Jennifer Bonnell's dissertation research on the Don River in Toronto, highlighting among other themes the legacy of "imagined futures" for the river valley, and the competing perceptions of the valley as a "space for undesirables" and a space for regeneration, reflection and recreation.Changing Urban Waterfronts research projec

Insecticides, Honey Bee Losses and Beekeeper Advocacy in Nineteenth-Century Ontario

This article examines the debates that surrounded honey bee poisoning in the southern Ontario in the 1890s and early 1900s. It follows the efforts of beekeepers and supportive entomologists to press for toxicity studies, negotiate with neighbouring farmers, and advocate for legislative and educational remedies. Debates over such poisonings reveal the strained relationship between beekeepers and fruit growers in this period, and highlight the inconsistency of grower knowledge about the value of honey bees to their crops. Efforts to understand the poisoning problem and to protect honey bees from harm resulted in scientific studies that not only established the toxicity of early insecticides to honey bees, but also resulted in greater understanding of the role of honey bees in pollination. Finally, these debates illuminate the role of beekeepers as early advocates for environmental protection.Dans cet article, nous examinerons les débats portant sur l’empoisonnement des abeilles mellifères dans le sud de l’Ontario dans les années 1890 et au début des années 1900. Nous suivrons les efforts des apiculteurs et des entomologistes à faire des études de toxicité, négocier avec les agriculteurs voisins, et plaider pour des remèdes législatifs et éducatifs. Les débats à propos de ces mesures révèlent la relation tendue entre apiculteurs et producteurs de fruits à cette période, et mettent en évidence l’incohérence des connaissances des producteurs sur la valeur des abeilles pour leurs cultures fruitières. Les efforts visant à comprendre le problème de l’empoisonnement et à protéger les abeilles ont abouti à des études scientifiques qui ont non seulement établi la toxicité des premiers insecticides pour les abeilles mellifères, mais ont également contribué à une meilleure compréhension de leur rôle dans la pollinisation. Enfin, ces débats mettent en lumière le rôle des apiculteurs en tant que premiers champions de la protection de l’environnement

Imagined Futures and Unintended Consequences: An Environmental History of Toronto's Don River Valley

This dissertation explores human interactions with Toronto’s Don River Valley from the late eighteenth century to the present, focusing on the period of intense urbanization and industrialization between 1880 and 1940. Its concentration on the urban fringe generates new perspectives on the social and environmental consequences of urban development. From its position on the margins, the Don performed vital functions for the urban economy as a provider of raw materials and a sink for wastes. Insights derived from the intersections between social and environmental history are at the heart of this project. The dissertation begins by documenting the industrial history of the river and its transformation from a central provider in the lives of early Toronto residents to a polluted periphery in the latter half of the nineteenth century. An analysis of the valley’s related function as a repository for human “undesirables” reveals connections between the processes that identified certain individuals as deficient “others” and similar imperatives at work in classifying difficult or unpredictable environments as “waste spaces.” Efforts to “reclaim” and improve the river are the subject of the remaining chapters. A series of initiatives between 1870 and 1930 aimed at reconfiguring the lower Don as an efficient corridor for transportation and industrial development reveal in their shortcomings and unintended consequences a failure to accommodate dynamic and often unpredictable ecological processes. Reclamations of a different kind are explored in the conservation movement of the twentieth century, through which the valley emerges as a valuable public amenity. The dissertation concludes by investigating how the valley’s history informs current plans to “renaturalize” the river mouth. Throughout, the Don functions as an autonomous and causal force in the city’s history. On this small river on the urban fringe, nature and society worked in mutually constitutive ways to shape and reshape the metropolis.Ph

'Difficult' exhibitions and intimate encounters

Over the last thirty years museums around the world have shown an increased willingness to take on what is often characterized as ‘difficult subject matter.’ Absent in Anglophone museum studies literature, however, is a sustained discussion on what it is about such exhibitions that render them ‘difficult’ and, most important, what can be achieved by making painful histories public. This paper sets out to stimulate such discussion, illustrating the relevance of our concerns within the context of a comparative analysis of two recent Swedish exhibitions: The Museum of World Culture’s No Name Fever: AIDS in the Age of Globalization; and Kulturen’s Surviving: Voices from Ravensbrück. Very divergent in their presentation strategies and in the type of information presented, these exhibitions attempt to position their viewers in relation to violence and suffering of ‘others’ distant in time, place, or experience. We conclude by discussing the ways in which public history might animate a critical historical consciousness, a way of living with and within history as a never-ending question that constantly probes the adequacy of the ethical character and social arrangements of daily life