81 research outputs found
Politics, freedoms and spirituality in Alaa Al Aswany's Yacouian Building
Although set in the 1990s and published in 2002, Alaa
Al Aswany’s novel The Yacoubian Building conveys the
corruption and brutality that led to explosive revolutions in
Egypt from 2011. Moreover, his depiction of Cairo-dwellers
with diverse class, cultural and gendered experiences
functions as a microcosm of the dense forms and histories
of contemporary Egyptian socio-political processes. This
article argues that the novel’s power derives not only from
its prophetic insight into Egyptian neo-colonial politics,
but also from its expansive exploration of personal and
collective freedoms. Connecting ideas about freedom to his
scrutiny of how Islamic discourses have been represented
and appropriated, Al Aswany shows that aspects of
Islam have played a vital part in liberating personal and
political struggles. The article therefore demonstrates
that Al Aswany challenges Western-centric, orientalist
and narrowly rights-based conceptions of social justice by
exploring the interconnectedness of sexual, spiritual and
political freedoms.Department of HE and Training approved lis
Gender, feminism and food studies
Policy research and scholarship on food has rapidly increased in recent decades. The
attention to 'gender' within this work appears to signal important practical and academic
efforts to mainstream gendered understandings of food consumption, distribution and
production into expansive conceptualisations of human security. This article argues
that the gender-related work on food has wide-ranging and often troubling political
and theoretical foundations and implications. Often growing out of knowledge
regimes for managing social crises and advancing neo-liberal solutions, much gender
and food security work provides limited interventions into mainstream gender-blind
work on the nexus of power struggles, food resources and globalisation. A careful
analysis of knowledge production about gender and food is therefore crucial to understanding
how and why feminist food studies often transcends and challenges dominant
forms of scholarship and research on food security. This article's critical assessment of
what food security studies in South Africa has entailed at the regional level and in global
terms also focuses on the methodological and theoretical feminist interventions that can
stimulate rigorous conceptual, research and practical attention to what has come to be
understood as food sovereignty.DHE
Exploring new media technologies among young South African women
This article reflects on how the use of digitised communication and
social media among young black South African women can be situated and
assessed within the current context. The authors focus especially on nuanced
explorations of “civic participation,” “empowerment” and “identity politics” in
acknowledging the liberatory potential of young women’s use of information
and communication technology (ICTs) and seeking to assess its effects in
realistic ways. We therefore speculate about how the uses of ICTs can both
open up new possibilities for activism and agency and reveal the difficult
formation of what Nancy Fraser has called “subaltern counterpublics” (1992:
109–142) among socially marginalised young women.Department of HE and Training approved lis
Guest editors’ introduction : special Issue on critical food studies in South Africa : feminist perspectives
Currently, our social, cultural, and existential experiences are being very directly influenced by our relationships to food. The health, economic, social, and psychological consequences of pathogens originating in industrial agriculture are glaringly manifested around the world, while poverty, inequalities, vulnerabilities, social injustices and hegemonic knowledge are being magnified by the impact of COVID-19. Innovative thought and practices around food therefore seem to be more relevant than ever before. Understanding the connections between corporate food systems and the Anthropocene, or unravelling the conviviality and humane values underlying many indigenous or localised food events and discourses, can generate revolutionary understandings of assemblages among the human, the social, and the non-human.https://upjournals.co.za/index.php/GQam2022Humanities EducationPsycholog
Exploring current practices in pediatric ARV rollout and integration with early childhood programs in South Africa: A rapid situation analysis
This Horizons program report describes the status of pediatric HIV treatment in selected sites in South Africa, identifies gaps in service delivery, and proposes recommendations for strengthening services and expanding children’s access to treatment. The study provides much needed information on critical issues of pediatric HIV care, especially regarding health service and contextual issues surrounding the expansion of access to treatment for HIV-infected children, and key factors that facilitate sustainability of treatment by young children. The aims of the study were to identify successful program strategies in pediatric HIV treatment in South Africa and to determine priority knowledge gaps to be addressed by operations research. The demonstrated model of collaboration between government and NGOs, though not an easy relationship to manage, can be very successful at scaling up and ensuring sustainability
Expanding pediatric access to antiretroviral therapy in South Africa
In sub-Saharan Africa, AIDS has become one of the leading causes of death among children under the age of five years. Yet, despite increased availability of antiretroviral therapy (ART), children have been largely ignored or excluded from treatment initiatives. While efforts to get more children on treatment are increasing, important information is lacking to guide program and policy implementation. To address these gaps, the Horizons Program and the University of Cape Town conducted a rapid situational analysis in 2005 of pediatric HIV treatment sites in South Africa. In 2003, the South African government approved a plan for a national HIV treatment program with the goal of at least one service delivery point in each district providing treatment. The government guidelines emphasized providing treatment for both adults and children and the initial effort resulted in a significant number of children initiating treatment. This research summary details what is happening on the ground to understand how children have been affected by the ART rollout and what can be done to reach the thousands more that should be on treatment
A conversation with Anne Phillips on multiculturalism
During March 2015, Professor Anne Phillips of the London School of Economics was
a visiting fellow at Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS). On 13 March
a group of nine gender scholars from different disciplines held a one-day workshop
to explore the notion of multiculturalism with her. At the end of the workshop it was
suggested that Gender Questions should conduct an electronic interview with Professor
Phillips and that the scholars who attended the workshop would write responses to the
interview. What follows are the interview with Professor Phillips and responses from
four of the gender scholars who attended: Professor Amanda Gouws (Political Science,
Stellenbosch University) Professor Desiree Lewis (Women's and Gender Studies,
University of the Western Cape), Professor Louise du Toit (Philosophy, Stellenbosch
University), and Dr Stella Viljoen (Fine Arts, Stellenbosch University). The other
scholars who attended were Professor Shireen Hassim (Political Studies, University
of the Witwatersrand), Professor Kopano Ratele (Unisa/Medical Research Council),
Professor Cherryl Walker (Sociology, Stellenbosch University) and Dr Christi van der
Westhuizen (HUMA, University of Cape Town)
Late-Stage Metastatic Melanoma Emerges through a Diversity of Evolutionary Pathways
Understanding the evolutionary pathways to metastasis and resistance to immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in melanoma is critical for improving outcomes. Here, we present the most comprehensive intrapatient metastatic melanoma dataset assembled to date as part of the Posthumous Evaluation of Advanced Cancer Environment (PEACE) research autopsy program, including 222 exome sequencing, 493 panel-sequenced, 161 RNA sequencing, and 22 single-cell whole-genome sequencing samples from 14 ICI-treated patients. We observed frequent whole-genome doubling and widespread loss of heterozygosity, often involving antigen-presentation machinery. We found KIT extrachromosomal DNA may have contributed to the lack of response to KIT inhibitors of a KIT-driven melanoma. At the lesion-level, MYC amplifications were enriched in ICI nonresponders. Single-cell sequencing revealed polyclonal seeding of metastases originating from clones with different ploidy in one patient. Finally, we observed that brain metastases that diverged early in molecular evolution emerge late in disease. Overall, our study illustrates the diverse evolutionary landscape of advanced melanoma.SIGNIFICANCE: Despite treatment advances, melanoma remains a deadly disease at stage IV. Through research autopsy and dense sampling of metastases combined with extensive multiomic profiling, our study elucidates the many mechanisms that melanomas use to evade treatment and the immune system, whether through mutations, widespread copy-number alterations, or extrachromosomal DNA.See related commentary by Shain, p. 1294. This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 1275.</p
Late-Stage Metastatic Melanoma Emerges through a Diversity of Evolutionary Pathways
UNLABELLED: Understanding the evolutionary pathways to metastasis and resistance to immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) in melanoma is critical for improving outcomes. Here, we present the most comprehensive intrapatient metastatic melanoma dataset assembled to date as part of the Posthumous Evaluation of Advanced Cancer Environment (PEACE) research autopsy program, including 222 exome sequencing, 493 panel-sequenced, 161 RNA sequencing, and 22 single-cell whole-genome sequencing samples from 14 ICI-treated patients. We observed frequent whole-genome doubling and widespread loss of heterozygosity, often involving antigen-presentation machinery. We found KIT extrachromosomal DNA may have contributed to the lack of response to KIT inhibitors of a KIT-driven melanoma. At the lesion-level, MYC amplifications were enriched in ICI nonresponders. Single-cell sequencing revealed polyclonal seeding of metastases originating from clones with different ploidy in one patient. Finally, we observed that brain metastases that diverged early in molecular evolution emerge late in disease. Overall, our study illustrates the diverse evolutionary landscape of advanced melanoma. SIGNIFICANCE: Despite treatment advances, melanoma remains a deadly disease at stage IV. Through research autopsy and dense sampling of metastases combined with extensive multiomic profiling, our study elucidates the many mechanisms that melanomas use to evade treatment and the immune system, whether through mutations, widespread copy-number alterations, or extrachromosomal DNA. See related commentary by Shain, p. 1294. This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 1275
Recommended from our members
Determinants of anti-PD-1 response and resistance in clear cell renal cell carcinoma.
ADAPTeR is a prospective, phase II study of nivolumab (anti-PD-1) in 15 treatment-naive patients (115 multiregion tumor samples) with metastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) aiming to understand the mechanism underpinning therapeutic response. Genomic analyses show no correlation between tumor molecular features and response, whereas ccRCC-specific human endogenous retrovirus expression indirectly correlates with clinical response. TÂ cell receptor (TCR) analysis reveals a significantly higher number of expanded TCR clones pre-treatment in responders suggesting pre-existing immunity. Maintenance of highly similar clusters of TCRs post-treatment predict response, suggesting ongoing antigen engagement and survival of families of TÂ cells likely recognizing the same antigens. In responders, nivolumab-bound CD8+ TÂ cells are expanded and express GZMK/B. Our data suggest nivolumab drives both maintenance and replacement of previously expanded TÂ cell clones, but only maintenance correlates with response. We hypothesize that maintenance and boosting of a pre-existing response is a key element of anti-PD-1 mode of action
- …