Practicing decoloniality 3/3: Decolonizing dilemmas with a “z”

On Wednesday 22nd February 2017, PhD students at the Gender Institute organised a roundtable discussion and interactive workshop titled Practicing Decoloniality in Gender Studies. This short series of posts presents the transcripts of the three speakers’ discussion papers, concluding today with Amanda Shaw’s reflections on decolonizing dilemmas

The Effect of Heroin Self-Administration on Perineuronal Nets using an Animal Conflict Model of Abstinence and Relapse

Perineuronal Nets (PNNs) are specialized extracellular matrix structures of the brain that are found around specific neurons. PNNs play a role in structural and developmental plasticity, it remains unknown how they are affected by drugs of addiction. In the US, drug use has a very profound impact medically, economically, and socially. We used a conflict model which mimicked human drug seeking behaviors. Abstinence of heroin seeking was achieved by placing an electric barrier between the animal and drug access and increasing the shock intensities. Relapse was induced by non-contingent presentations of a drug cue. We conducted an analysis on PNN density using Wisteria Floribunda Agglutinin, We found that there was a strong negative correlation between PNN density and heroin infusion volumes during the drug acquisition phase. These findings suggest that PNNs are affected by heroin self-administration and may play a role in regulating plasticity within the brains of drug abusers

An Assessment of Two Feed Additives to Improve Feed Utilization in Pigs

Three experiments were conducted to assess the efficacy of including selected feed additives in the diet of weaning and grow-finish pigs. Experiment 1 utilized 24 crossbred grow-finish pigs and measured the effect of added EHY on DM, N, and energy digestibility. There were no differences in DM, Energy, and N digestibility between diets 1 through 4. Experiment 2 utilized a total of 36 crossbred pigs [18 barrows, 18 gilts] in order to determine if preference would be shown when presented with naturally-contaminated corn. There were three dietary comparisons, Control vs Diet 2 (Comparison 1), Control vs Diet 4 (Comparison 2), and Diet 2 vs Diet 4 (Comparison 3). A preference was shown for the control diet over Diet 2, as well as for the control diet over Diet 4. Experiment 3 utilized a total of 24 crossbred pigs [12 barrows, 12 gilts] in order to measure the effect of contaminated corn on performance and DM, energy, and N digestibility. DM, energy, and N digestibility were affected by corn quality

Testing Lidar-Radar Derived Drop Sizes Against In Situ Measurements

How well can a co-located lidar and radar retrieve a drop size distribution in drizzling clouds? To answer, we mimic scattering from a laboratory cloud to retrieve a lidar-radar effective diameter. Using only the shape parameter of the gamma-distributed drops, the mean diameter of the drops can be estimated from lidar-radar effective diameter to within a few percent of the true mean. In practice, the shape parameter of the gamma distribution is not known. To set bounds, mean diameters were calculated from the lidar-radar effective diameter using a range of in situ measured gamma shape parameters. The estimated means varied within 13% below to 18% above the true mean. To put this range of inherent uncertainty for lidar-radar retrievals in perspective, a decrease of 15-20% in drop size is argued to be sufficient to offset a doubling of carbon dioxide concentrations (e.g., Slingo 1990)

IMAGINED AND ACTIVATED CAPITAL WITHIN STUDY ABROAD: ETHNOGRAPHIC AND AUTO-ETHNOGRAPHIC REFLECTIONS

Through ethnographic interviews and auto-ethnographic reflections of Illinois State University students about the meanings and experiences of study abroad, demonstrates that students imagine the study abroad experience as that which is individually transformative, advantageous within the employment sector, and an experience that increases cultural competence and global citizenship. Study abroad participation is influenced by race and socioeconomic status; individual habitus is argued to factor into how study abroad is perceived. Focusing on how class and race determine the ways in which study abroad is constructed through analysis of the meanings of the study abroad experience through imagined, transformed, and activated cultural and social capital will answer larger questions about the state of study abroad programming in the 21st century

Provision for additional learning needs: the views of children and young people with developmental coordination disorder

This study was undertaken in partnership between NCB (National Children's Bureau) adn Bridgend County Borough Council(BCBC). The aim of this project was to raise awareness of the importance of listening to children with additional learning needs(ALN) about the support and services they receive in school

Divergent economies of agriculture in Hawaiʻi: intersecting inequalities and the social relations of agrifood Work

This thesis analyses agrifood work in Hawaiʻi from an intersectional, gendered perspective. It examines the intersecting social relations of production, investigating how different agrifood practices address, if at all, intersecting social inequalities. It asks, how do agroecological ‘alternatives’ address intersecting inequalities, if at all, in their work? Do forms of ʻalternative agriculture’ offer more ‘gender-inclusive’ forms of work when intersecting inequalities are considered? The research sought to address these questions by analysing three case studies which can be said to represent ‘outliers’ compared to the majority of Hawaiʻi’s agrifood production. It examines particular cases of small and collective agroecological growing practices, as well as examples of transnational seed production. The thesis utilised methods of participant observation, interviews and document analysis in order to understand how different how agrifood work is organised and how different participants in these practices make meaning of their work. It drew on analytical frameworks from agrifood studies of labour and justice and intersectional feminist and anti-imperialist political economic and ecological theorising. The research found that within the cases, agrifood practices are characterised by their diversity, and sought to draw out what I argue are nevertheless important tendencies within them. This entailed analysing the tensions, contradictions and possibilities these cases presented for addressing intersecting inequalities in their work. I showed that, in some ways, agroindustrial seed production offers more formal ʻgender-inclusive’ benefits but that agroecological practices create spaces to challenge gendered-norms on an individual and collective basis. At the same time, I suggested that projects for the recognition and inclusion of women and women’s work are highly limited when they fail to account for the ways gendered inequalities intersect with other differences of class and race, for example. At the same time, I argued that efforts to address intersecting gendered inequalities within agrifood work must attend to these contradictions, failures and possibilities and that doing so is not only revealing of some of the wider logics shaping agrarian ideals and agrifood practices, but potentially of how gendered colonialities operate