Hierarchies of Pain

Trauma has become a pervasive cultural model for representing individual and collective injuries and suffering. This process has produced what may be called a trauma aesthetic, a set of recognizable tropes in widespread use in trauma narratives. This chapter examines the adoption of this aesthetic in graphic narratives, focusing on the special capacities of the form. Familiar tropes, such as dissociation and the somatic trace, are presented in complex combinations of visual and textual components, often exploiting the differential appearance of text and image to introduce a dynamic of belatedness or disarticulation. This chapter analyses five works ordered according to their diminishing reliance on ‘trauma’. The trauma aesthetic is used, though not explicitly, in Catherine Meurisse’s La Légèreté (2016) about the Charlie Hebdo attack, Jean-Philip Stassen’s Déogratias (2000/2006) about the genocide in Rwanda, and Emmanuel Lepage’s Un printemps à Tchernobyl (2012) about the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. By contrast, it is absent from Mazen Kerbaj’s Beirut Won’t Cry (2007/2017) about the Israel-Hezbollah conflict and Josh Neufeld’s A.D. about Hurricane Katrina (2009). These works’ reliance on formalized and sanctioned trauma tropes not only is influenced by narrative characteristics, such as temporal distance from the event or the presence of a single narrator-protagonist but may also be motivated by the prestige conferred by trauma as recognized suffering, affecting the canonization and translatability of the graphic narratives in question

How Could Children’s Storybooks Promote Empathy? A Conceptual Framework Based on Developmental Psychology and Literary Theory

This conceptual paper proposes a framework for understanding the developmental mechanisms and literary characteristics that bind children’s storybooks with empathy. The article begins with a taxonomy of empathy composed of three key continuous dimensions: cognitive/emotional empathy, empathy for in-group and out-group members and empathy with positive and negative consequences. Insights from developmental psychology and literary theory form the basis for an interdisciplinary framework based on three premises: (1) book-reading can support empathy if it fosters in-group/out-group identification and minimizes in-group/out-group bias; (2) identification with characters who are dissimilar from the readers is the most valuable contribution of children’s storybooks to cognitive empathy; and (3) the quality of language positions children’s storybooks as an exceptional, but not exclusive, empathy-building form of fictional narratives. Implications for future intervention and empirical work are provided

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in a UK university identifies dynamics of transmission

AbstractUnderstanding SARS-CoV-2 transmission in higher education settings is important to limit spread between students, and into at-risk populations. In this study, we sequenced 482 SARS-CoV-2 isolates from the University of Cambridge from 5 October to 6 December 2020. We perform a detailed phylogenetic comparison with 972 isolates from the surrounding community, complemented with epidemiological and contact tracing data, to determine transmission dynamics. We observe limited viral introductions into the university; the majority of student cases were linked to a single genetic cluster, likely following social gatherings at a venue outside the university. We identify considerable onward transmission associated with student accommodation and courses; this was effectively contained using local infection control measures and following a national lockdown. Transmission clusters were largely segregated within the university or the community. Our study highlights key determinants of SARS-CoV-2 transmission and effective interventions in a higher education setting that will inform public health policy during pandemics.</jats:p

(Re) imagining the boundary: A case of contemporary fire and emergency services education and training

Keen Dyer, HM ORCiD: 0000-0003-3071-2941The Australian Fire and Emergency Services (FES) industry environment is becoming increasingly complex, with recent research suggesting this trend is expected to continue. At the heart of this complexity is an increase in the incidence and intricacy of operational activity, advances in technology and practice plus increasing scrutiny by all levels of government and the public FES serves. The changing industry environment has been attributed to a range of factors and importantly here, manifesting in the changing of many of ‘the ways’, that is, the ways of being, knowing and doing of FES, as they have historically been known. The contemporary industry narrative is calling for collective responses to the business of FES, and as such, calling for FES to work closely with its multiple intersecting jurisdictions and constituents. This qualitative investigation aimed to better understand one such intersection, that of FES and Higher Education (HE). FES has a long and proud history with Australia’s Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector. While this continues today, the industry is increasingly looking toward HE and its potential for preparing FES workers for the increasing complexity. The FES industry and VET have a well-established working relationship, and systems and processes in place to support this relationship. However, arrangements of this kind do not currently exist in regard to HE. As such, current FES HE efforts vary considerably and lack the mechanisms needed to support one another to come together and work in a fulsome way. The FES education and training environment and its enactments, such as training products, present as highly particular, and these particularities come to the fore when education and training is conceptualised as encompassing VET and HE, and as a continuum of these. Against this backdrop, there is a pressing need for an approach which sees FES, VET and HE working in unison. Located within the constructivist perspective, and conducted using an instrumental case study design, this research explores the current FES education and training environment in order to better understand the challenges faced by FES and HE, and thereby, their working together. This research is conducted within the Queensland FES context and in relation to one particular HE provider, CQUniversity Australia. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, documents, observations of the QFES education and training environment, and a participatory workshop. As a result of the data analysis process, five themes emerged, that of 1) culture, history and tradition, 2) identity and identification, 3) boundaries, 4) accountability, and 5) imaginings. Emerging from the interpretation of these five themes is the need for a specific type of working relationship, postulated here as a collaboration. In support of the collaboration, the FES-HE Model of Collaboration was constructed. This model and its guiding principles speak to FES and HE, and the structure and function of the collaboration argued here as occurring at and within the boundary point between FES and HE, as it is currently known. Through considerations of the FES-HE boundary, and the conceiving of a FES-HE connected future, new understandings of the nature of boundary points emerged. In addition, a mechanism emerged by which boundary points can be navigated and negotiated, here called imaginings. The notion of imaginings, the boundary insights, theorised model and FES contextual understandings represent the contribution to knowledge of this thesis

(Re) imagining the boundary: A case of contemporary fire and emergency services education and training

The Australian Fire and Emergency Services (FES) industry environment is becoming increasingly complex, with recent research suggesting this trend is expected to continue. At the heart of this complexity is an increase in the incidence and intricacy of operational activity, advances in technology and practice plus increasing scrutiny by all levels of government and the public FES serves. The changing industry environment has been attributed to a range of factors and importantly here, manifesting in the changing of many of ‘the ways’, that is, the ways of being, knowing and doing of FES, as they have historically been known. The contemporary industry narrative is calling for collective responses to the business of FES, and as such, calling for FES to work closely with its multiple intersecting jurisdictions and constituents. This qualitative investigation aimed to better understand one such intersection, that of FES and Higher Education (HE). FES has a long and proud history with Australia’s Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector. While this continues today, the industry is increasingly looking toward HE and its potential for preparing FES workers for the increasing complexity. The FES industry and VET have a well-established working relationship, and systems and processes in place to support this relationship. However, arrangements of this kind do not currently exist in regard to HE. As such, current FES HE efforts vary considerably and lack the mechanisms needed to support one another to come together and work in a fulsome way. The FES education and training environment and its enactments, such as training products, present as highly particular, and these particularities come to the fore when education and training is conceptualised as encompassing VET and HE, and as a continuum of these. Against this backdrop, there is a pressing need for an approach which sees FES, VET and HE working in unison. Located within the constructivist perspective, and conducted using an instrumental case study design, this research explores the current FES education and training environment in order to better understand the challenges faced by FES and HE, and thereby, their working together. This research is conducted within the Queensland FES context and in relation to one particular HE provider, CQUniversity Australia. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, documents, observations of the QFES education and training environment, and a participatory workshop. As a result of the data analysis process, five themes emerged, that of 1) culture, history and tradition, 2) identity and identification, 3) boundaries, 4) accountability, and 5) imaginings. Emerging from the interpretation of these five themes is the need for a specific type of working relationship, postulated here as a collaboration. In support of the collaboration, the FES-HE Model of Collaboration was constructed. This model and its guiding principles speak to FES and HE, and the structure and function of the collaboration argued here as occurring at and within the boundary point between FES and HE, as it is currently known. Through considerations of the FES-HE boundary, and the conceiving of a FES-HE connected future, new understandings of the nature of boundary points emerged. In addition, a mechanism emerged by which boundary points can be navigated and negotiated, here called imaginings. The notion of imaginings, the boundary insights, theorised model and FES contextual understandings represent the contribution to knowledge of this thesis.</p

Moving beyond the individual: Addressing the social determinants of risk taking in mining communities

Increases in risk-taking behaviour, including alcohol, drugs and violence, are often associated with the cyclical nature of the mining sector in Australia. To date, such behaviour has been portrayed by mining companies and governments as an individual problem; little attention has been paid to the social contexts of such behaviour. This research uses a case study approach to explore the social determinants of risk taking in three mining communities in the Bowen Basin, Queensland, Australia. Interviews with a cross-section of health and social service providers highlight a number of social determinants underpinning risk taking and reveal a complex interplay of structural risk factors including shift work, income inequality and workplace culture. If we are serious about tackling risk taking in mining communities, governments, policy makers and mining companies need to recognise the influence of contextual factors, and shift attention to the physical, social and economic environments that impact on health outcomes

Learning and leadership : evaluation of an Australian rural leadership program

Leadership programs have been extensively promoted in rural communities in Australia. However, few have been evaluated. The results of the evaluation of a rural leadership program provided in this paper highlight the need for adult learning theories to be more overtly identified and utilised as the basis of planning and implementing leadership programs. Transformative learning theory and social learning theory were used to explain the impact the program had for participants and to provide insight into how similar programs could be enhanced