Empire, emotion, exchange : (dis)orienting encounters of/with post-9/11 US cultural diplomacy

This article disentangles how empire, emotion and exchange intersect and work to orient and disorient processes of identity formation within post-9/11 US cultural diplomacy. Focusing on everyday cultural exchange practices, it challenges the particular cosmopolitanism embedded in these programmes that hinges upon the affective and the colonial. It reflects on how this entanglement of empire, emotion and exchange operates through modes of governmentality that produce energized, more governable subjects and masks such operations of power. Analysing one particular exchange – YES – this article disorients colonial logics of subjectification by exploring affective exchange encounters that are always already (dis)orienting. It then serves as a disorienting encounter with cultural diplomacy through four provocations, illustrating how empire is (always) (dis)orientating, can (dis)orient, can be disoriented, and must undergo disorientation. First, post-9/11 US cultural diplomacy and its logic of cosmopolitanism suggest empire is always (dis)orientating via its manifestation in ‘unusual’ sites; while exchange programmes’ onus on celebrating difference appears to conflict with ‘where’ empire ‘normally’ orients itself, as post/decolonial scholarship reveals, it is in the seemingly benign/unquestionable where empire does its work most profoundly. Second, the entanglement of emotion, empire and exchange can (dis)orient exchange subjects through how they are governed to perform and oscillate between ever-shifting ‘ideal’ subjectivities (familiar national/cosmopolitan global/enterprising neoliberal). Third, tracing colonial echoes and spectres in these exchanges reveals empire as disoriented, as that which is analytically ‘less conventional’. An arguably ‘conventional’ analysis oriented around a neo-colonial logic and an imperialistic ‘America’ while seductive in its simplicity obscures the governmental and performative complexities operating within these programmes. Finally, disorientation enables empire to be challenged and disrupted, opening up possibilities for post-9/11 US cultural diplomacy, and the self-Other relations comprising it, to be reimagined. In short, this paper’s analytical disorientation can lead to a reorientation of cultural diplomacy.PostprintPeer reviewe

Oxford County Community Food Resources

Food resources found in Oxford County, Maine: Farmers\u27 markets Food co-operatives Cooking classes CSA farms Farm stands Farm stands that accept Husky Bucks Retail Storeshttps://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/fsp-oxford/1000/thumbnail.jp

Life of/in a pandemic

This contribution features a series of short poems which trace life during the pandemic as an academic on maternity leave with her first child and whose husband is a frontline worker. These poems traverse through this life of/in the pandemic in a chronological fashion that also cuts across the globe from the death of loved ones, their children unable to leave the US to attend their funerals in England to our baby’s eight-month development review in Scotland where certain questions could not be asked due to lack of interaction with other human beings; from the covid test performed on our then ten-month old in a park and ride carpark in another part of Scotland to the birth of my nephew in Northern Ireland where my sister was dropped at the hospital door by her husband, alone until the active stage of labour; from video calls with daddy in PPE to the lingering effects of my father’s own covid experience. Titles of these short poems therefore include, amongst others, ‘Death,’ ‘Development Review,’ ‘Covid Test,’ ‘Birth’ and ‘Long Covid.’ In many ways, these short poems come together to form one larger poem that maps the ebbs and flows of how covid-19, medicine and everyday life intertwine.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Personal photographic encounters of/with the pandemic’s pathological politics

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Openings

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A paradigm shift in theorizing about justice? A critique of Sen: Laura Valentini

In his recent book The Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen suggests that political philosophy should move beyond the dominant, Rawls-inspired, methodological paradigm – what Sen calls ‘transcendental institutionalism’ – towards a more practically oriented approach to justice: ‘realization-focused comparison’. In this article, I argue that Sen's call for a paradigm shift in thinking about justice is unwarranted. I show that his criticisms of the Rawlsian approach are either based on misunderstandings, or correct but of little consequence, and conclude that the Rawlsian approach already delivers much of what Sen himself wants from a theory of justice

Unravelling the threads of war and conflict : introduction

This article introduces the Special Issue 'Unravelling the threads of war and conflict'. We offer a careful curation of three threads of conversation generated from the exhibition Threads, war and conflict and its associated programme: 'Reflections on curating, exhibiting and making'; 'Layers of war and conflict: sightings and soundings'; and 'Conversations and collaborations, stories and solidarities'. Beginning from the context of the exhibition, the threads of conversation unravel (across) a variety of intricate sites and intimate experiences of war and conflict.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Communication Center as a Resource for Professional Development

Many view university speaking centers just to be hubs for peer-to-peer tutoring, that aids students in overcoming public speaking anxiety. Although that outlook speaks of great, inspirational volumes in itself, such centers can also be hubs of valuable information in the realm of professional development and efficiency. More specifically, university speaking centers are overlooked in regard to their potential of being rich and resourceful sites of research. This is proven to be unfortunate as a plethora of insightful information can be gleaned from observing the inner workings of a university speaking center.     For example, this insightful information includes that of collaboration, healthy conflict management, and many other essential qualities that the students, or peer tutors, employed at the university speaking centers must possess and maintain to ensure the effectiveness of the center, as a whole, is also maintained. These imperative qualities can be observed through meetings of peer tutors, how peer tutors conduct themselves in times where they are unsure, along with other scenarios that may commonly occur in speaking centers.     Pertaining to this, Laura Ashley Mills, a senior at UNC-Greensboro at the time of her research, went through the process of conducting research at a university speaking center. She discovered such motifs that she found to be vital players in the success and longevity of the center. Additionally, she recognized that the motifs had a positive influence on the peer tutors who worked at the center, which greatly impacted the caliber of help they would give the students of which were coming to the center to seek help. Given this, Mills’ discoveries have the potential to ultimately serve as template qualities for other university speaking centers to adapt to increase their success and longevity

Advancing complexity science in healthcare research : the logic of logic models

BACKGROUND: Logic models are commonly used in evaluations to represent the causal processes through which interventions produce outcomes, yet significant debate is currently taking place over whether they can describe complex interventions which adapt to context. This paper assesses the logic models used in healthcare research from a complexity perspective. A typology of existing logic models is proposed, as well as a formal methodology for deriving more flexible and dynamic logic models. ANALYSIS: Various logic model types were tested as part of an evaluation of a complex Patient Experience Toolkit (PET) intervention, developed and implemented through action research across six hospital wards/departments in the English NHS. Three dominant types of logic model were identified, each with certain strengths but ultimately unable to accurately capture the dynamics of PET. Hence, a fourth logic model type was developed to express how success hinges on the adaption of PET to its delivery settings. Aspects of the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (PARIHS) model were incorporated into a traditional logic model structure to create a dynamic "type 4" logic model that can accommodate complex interventions taking on a different form in different settings. CONCLUSION: Logic models can be used to model complex interventions that adapt to context but more flexible and dynamic models are required. An implication of this is that how logic models are used in healthcare research may have to change. Using logic models to forge consensus among stakeholders and/or provide precise guidance across different settings will be inappropriate in the case of complex interventions that adapt to context. Instead, logic models for complex interventions may be targeted at facilitators to enable them to prospectively assess the settings they will be working in and to develop context-sensitive facilitation strategies. Researchers should be clear as to why they are using a logic model and experiment with different models to ensure they have the correct type

Drug-free holidays: Compliance, tolerability, and acceptability of a 3-day atovaquone/proguanil schedule for pre-travel malaria chemoprophylaxis in Australian travellers

Background Poor compliance with chemoprophylaxis is a major contributing factor to the risk of malaria in travellers. Pre-travel chemoprophylaxis may improve compliance by enabling ‘drug-free holidays’. The standard treatment dose of atovaquone/proguanil (250mg/100mg, 4 tablets/day for 3 days) provides protection against malaria for at least 4 weeks, and could therefore potentially be used for pre-travel chemoprophylaxis. In this study, we assessed the compliance, tolerability, and acceptability of the 3-day atovaquone/proguanil schedule for malarial chemoprophylaxis. Methods 233 participants were recruited from four specialised travel medicine clinics in Australia. Adults travelling to malaria-endemic areas with low/medium risk for ≤4 weeks were enrolled, and prescribed the 3-day schedule of atovaquone/proguanil, completed at least one day before departure. Questionnaires were used to collect data on demographics, travel destination, medication compliance, side effects, and reasons for choosing the 3-day schedule. The study was registered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, number ACTRN12616000640404 Results Overall, 97.7% of participants complied with the 3-day schedule. Although side effects were reported in 43.3% of the participants, these were well tolerated, and mainly occurred during the first and second day. None of the participants developed malaria. The main reasons for choosing the 3-day schedule over standard chemoprophylaxis options were that it was easier to remember (72.1%), required taking fewer tablets (54.0%), and to help scientific research (54.0%). Conclusions The 3-day atovaquone/proguanil schedule had an impressively high compliance rate, and was well tolerated and accepted by travellers. Further studies are required to assess the effectiveness of this schedule for chemoprophylaxis in travellers.C. L. L. was supported by a fellowship from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (grant number 1109035). This study was conducted as part of everyday clinical practice, and participants or their employers paid for the medications