Who's invading whom? The complex battle for Rio de Janeiro's informal settlements on federal land

Depicting favela residents as environmentally destructive invaders serves to justify evictions and undermine community heritage in the name of creating a "modern" city free of potent signs of poverty and inequality, writes Jennifer Chisholm (University of Cambridge)

Quem está invadindo quem? A complexa batalha nos assentamentos informais do Rio em área federal

Representar os moradores de favela como invasores destruidores do meio ambiente serve para justificar despejos e prejudicar o patrimônio da comunidade em nome da criação de uma cidade "moderna" sem fortes sinais de pobreza e desigualdade, escreve Jennifer Chisholm (University of Cambridge)

Forced Evictions and Black-Indigenous Land Rights in the Marvelous City

Preparations for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil have uncovered the serious issue of forced evictions in Rio de Janeiro. Forced evictions mostly affect economically and racially marginalized Brazilians who, in Rio de Janeiro, form the majority in slum tenements known as favelas. Of the marginalized, the groups that have had the most success have been indigenous and Afro-Brazilian quilombolas—descendants of escaped slaves who formed communities in remote locations. Using ideas presented in Juliet Hooker’s essay, “Indigenous Inclusion/Black Exclusion”, as the theoretical foundation, I argue that indigenous and quilombolas in Rio de Janeiro have been more successful in protecting their land and property interests because they have additional rights to land that favela dwellers do not possess. Nevertheless, police violence and continued attempts at forced eviction due to discrimination as well as ineffective and indifferent governance show the futility of these extra rights

For Keeps-Sake: Women\u27s Experiences with Elective Prenatal Ultrasound Imaging in Canada

This thesis explores women’s experiences with the practice of elective prenatal ultrasound imaging in Canada. Ultrasound technology was first introduced into obstetric practice in the late 1950s and has, since then, become a routine part of antenatal healthcare. More recently, ultrasound technology has expanded into private industry, with many businesses now offering keepsake or entertainment ultrasound to pregnant women and their families. I begin by offering a brief historical account of the development and diffusion of obstetric ultrasound, and situating the elective ultrasound industry within current debates about non-medical applications of ultrasound technology. Through in-depth interviews with women had who received (or were planning to receive) an elective ultrasound during a current or recent pregnancy, and a discourse analysis of the promotional websites of a selection of elective ultrasound clinics, I sought to understand how ultrasound is taken up in non-medical settings; how women experience ultrasound in a non-medical setting, and how the image is taken up both inside and outside the screening room. Using a feminist standpoint approach, deeply influenced by institutional ethnographic methodology, I analyze the practice, beginning from women’s lived experiences. Elective ultrasound was positioned, and in most cases experienced, as a welcome alternative to medical ultrasound. Participants described their consumer choices as inspired by a desire to bond with their fetus in a comfortable and inviting atmosphere, to counteract their feelings of anxiety around their pregnancies. The findings expose a gap in feminist theorizing around prenatal ultrasound, in that most participants discussed their experiences in positive terms. A discussion of neoliberal subjectivity addresses the ways in which participants were able to articulate their maternal identities through their consumer choices. I contend that the maternal identities to which participants aspired reflect broad social and cultural narratives of motherhood, specifically the institution of motherhood as first described by Adrienne Rich (1977). Notions of risk and responsibility are foregrounded in both medical and elective settings in ways that emphasize pregnant women’s responsibility to mitigate potential risks, without ascription of the corresponding social, political and economic power to do so

Seduction as Power? Searching for Empowerment and Emancipation in Sex Work

A longstanding debate within feminism has been whether sex work is empowering or ultimately disempowering for those who engage in it. This essay seeks to contextualize discourses about seduction, prostitution, and sexual tourism as they relate to Brazil and to make a preliminary assessment as to the ways in which the act of seduction might be empowering for Brazil’s sex workers. Based on ethnographic research and borrowing from literary theory, tourism theory, and interdisciplinary theories of power and agency, I argue that seduction has the potential to be empowering for Brazilian prostitutes who can capitalize on the racial and ethnic stereotypes of Brazilian women. Nevertheless, I maintain that although seduction may be empowering for those who utilize it, it cannot hope to be emancipatory for womankind. I also make a secondary argument that this debate can be interpreted as a conceptual dichotomy of prostitutes as seductresses and prostitutes as fatally seduced

Genetic Suppression of Basement Membrane Defects in Caenorhabditis elegans by Gain of Function in Extracellular Matrix and Cell-Matrix Attachment Genes.

Basement membranes are extracellular matrices essential for embryonic development in animals. Peroxidasins are extracellular peroxidases implicated in the unique sulfilimine cross-links between type IV basement membrane collagens. Loss of function in the Caenorhabditis elegans peroxidasin PXN-2 results in fully penetrant embryonic or larval lethality. Using genetic suppressor screening, we find that the requirement for PXN-2 in development can be bypassed by gain of function in multiple genes encoding other basement membrane components, or proteins implicated in cell-matrix attachment. We identify multiple alleles of let-805, encoding the transmembrane protein myotactin, which suppress phenotypes of pxn-2 null mutants and of other basement membrane mutants such as F-spondin/spon-1 These let-805 suppressor alleles cause missense alterations in two pairs of FNIII repeats in the extracellular domain; they act dominantly and have no detectable phenotypes alone, suggesting they cause gain of function. We also identify suppressor missense mutations affecting basement membrane components type IV collagen (emb-9, let-2) and perlecan (unc-52), as well as a mutation affecting spectraplakin (vab-10), a component of the epidermal cytoskeleton. These suppressor alleles do not bypass the developmental requirement for core structural proteins of the basement membrane such as laminin or type IV collagen. In conclusion, putative gain-of-function alterations in matrix proteins or in cell-matrix receptors can overcome the requirement for certain basement membrane proteins in embryonic development, revealing previously unknown plasticity in the genetic requirements for the extracellular matrix

'Não são tijolos; são histórias': The Favela Housing Rights Movement of Rio de Janeiro

My doctoral research consisted of fourteen months of fieldwork following anti-eviction activity within informal settlements called favelas on public land in Rio de Janeiro. In the dissertation, I make a series of arguments. The first is that despite a lack of scholarly attention post-2016 Olympics, Rio is experiencing its own favela housing rights movement, land rights, and government investment in upgrading projects that deserves academic attention. Implied in the term is a concomitant fight for land rights—both of which are needed to avoid eviction. Secondly, I explain how government officials and others antagonistic to favela housing rights use environmentalist discourse to justify evictions of informal settlements—charging them with being ‘invaders’ that spoil the natural habitat of the city. In response, favela residents have re-appropriated the discourse of environmentalism to position and re-brand themselves as conservationists instead of ‘invaders’ as one of two alternative strategies to avoid eviction. Thirdly, and regarding the second alternative anti-eviction strategy, I explain how those against favela housing rights view favelas as places without culture or history that do not need to be saved from eviction. To subvert this narrative, residents have created favela museums and initiated tourism enterprises to prove that their communities have cultures and histories that are worth preserving. The fourth and fifth arguments correspond to the gender, class, and racial implications of these alternative strategies as interpreted through emotional politics. I argue that women (the predominant demographic in the movement) feel they must justify their leadership positions and participation in the movement by engaging in what I call performative vulnerability. Lastly, I explain how residents interpret the common justifications for favela removal (i.e. environmental destruction, favelas as places without history) as being truly about classism, and to a lesser extent racism. I contend that the general lack of awareness about the role of racism in favela evictions stems from the lingering ambivalence towards racial categorisation and the false belief that Afro-descendants do not face discrimination. This research engages with academic debates on the forced eviction of informal settlements, housing rights versus environmental rights, identity politics, and contributes to the literature on urban land and housing movements.Royal Geographical Societ

FORCED EVICTIONS AND BLACK-INDIGENOUS LAND RIGHTS IN THE MARVELOUS CITY

Preparations for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil have uncovered the serious issue of forced evictions in Rio de Janeiro. Forced evictions mostly affect economically and racially marginalized Brazilians who, in Rio de Janeiro, form the majority in slum tenements known as favelas. Of the marginalized, the groups that have had the most success have been indigenous and Afro-Brazilian quilombolas—descendants of escaped slaves who formed communities in remote locations. Using ideas presented in Juliet Hooker’s essay, “Indigenous Inclusion/Black Exclusion”, as the theoretical foundation, I argue that indigenous and quilombolas in Rio de Janeiro have been more successful in protecting their land and property interests because they have additional rights to land that favela dwellers do not possess. Nevertheless, police violence and continued attempts at forced eviction due to discrimination as well as ineffective and indifferent governance show the futility of these extra rights

Phase I, II and III Investigations of Wye Hall (18QU977), Queen Anne’s County, Maryland, for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources

This report describes a three years of investigations to further define the archaeological resources of the privately owned Wye Hall plantation (18QU977), late 18th century home of William Paca, Maryland governor and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Wye Hall is located on Wye Island on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in Queen Anne‟s County. Past archaeological work at Wye Hall, from 2000 through 2002, revealed extensive information about the design and usage of the original mansion and gardens from William Paca‟s time. The fieldwork documented in this report was centered on investigation of the area to the east of the main mansion, which is believed to be an area of enslaved habitation during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This represents the first recognized Phase III investigation of a slave quarter in Queen Anne‟s County. Therefore, the results are very important for augmenting Maryland‟s Eastern Shore narratives of the past, particularly in relation to the voice and space given to African and African American histories