On Becoming a Change Agent: Journeys of Teaching Gender and Health in an African Crisis Context

This paper discusses my activities in the classroom and beyond to address African contexts of the HIV and AIDS crisis. Alongside an account of my strategies, encounters and journeys, I discuss the activist Gugu Dlamini and Mmutle, a trickster of African folklore. Both act as inspirations for the role of change agent

Jael Is Non-binary; Jael Is Not a Woman

In this article I suggest that the non-binary identity of Jael (Judg 4–5) has been erased or overlooked due to dominant discourses of heteronormativity and binary gender. This biblical narrative depicts Jael performing roles and behaviours which have been identified as masculine (violent, warrior, killer) and feminine (mother, seductress, nurturing). Moreover, Jael’s name appears in the Hebrew masculine form, alongside Jael’s feminine label of “woman/wife.” Despite such evidence of gender ambiguity, interpretations of Judg 4–5 tend to identify Jael unproblematically as a woman, thereby ignoring this character’s non-binary potential. This article contributes an original reading of Jael by interpreting the text from a non-binary perspective, employing queer methodologies. Inviting the reader to look beyond hetero-binarized expectations, my investigation reveals Jael as a gender ambiguous character

Suppression of weak localization effects in low-density metallic 2D holes

We have measured the conductivity in a gated high-mobility GaAs two dimensional hole sample with densities in the range (7-17)x10^9 cm^-2 and at hole temperatures down to 5x10^-3 E_F. We measure the weak localization corrections to the conductivity g=G/(e^2/h) as a function of magnetic field (Delta g=0.019 +/- 0.006 at g=1.5 and T=9 mK) and temperature (d ln g/dT<0.0058 and 0.0084 at g=1.56 and 2.8). These values are less than a few percent of the value 1/pi predicted by standard weak localization theory for a disordered 2D Fermi liqui

John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Food Pantry Service Project

The faculty, staff, and students of the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies are very pleased and excited to partner with UMass Boston’s Office of Urban and Off-Campus Support Services U-ACCESS initiative to empower and support all UMass Boston students who are experiencing complex personal and social issues that might prevent their academic success. Members of the McCormack Graduate School community are “walking the talk” to serve underserved populations and to help remedy economic and social inequities “in our own backyard.” Through this service project, we hope to make a positive contribution to help alleviate food insecurity issues for our students in need

Racism and anti-racism in Europe: a critical analysis of concepts and frameworks

The targets and expressions of racism vary across Europe. This article discusses the relevance of different descriptions and analyses of racism despite the different terms used in different countries such as ‘ethnic minority’, ‘foreigner’ or ‘black’ and different interpretations of which differences matter. It shows the significance of a cross-national European perspective on racism. There are important convergences across European countries in the discourses and practices of racism, particularly the distinction between ‘useful’ and ‘abusive’ migrants. A cross-European perspective can be an important inspiration for anti-racist struggles

Environmental, social and governance disclosure, integrated reporting, and the accuracy of analyst forecasts

The International Integrated Reporting Council advocates that integrated reporting (IR) should become the worldwide norm for corporate reporting aimed at serving the needs of investors. Nonetheless, only in South Africa has IR been mandated. We study the impact of the reporting regime change in South Africa on analyst forecast accuracy over the period 2008 to 2012, as a way of evaluating users’ perceptions of the usefulness of IR. We theorise that any effects of IR will be greater the greater is the level of disclosures of environmental, social and governance performance. We find results consistent with those who support IR and our theory that the level of environmental, social and governance disclosures is a mediating variable in determining the effectiveness of IR. The results are driven by the levels of environmental disclosure and, to a lesser extent, governance disclosure. Our results provide some support for those who advocate the virtues of integrated reporting

Partnerships to improve access and quality of public transport - a case report: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

This book presents findings from project R7786 Partnerships to improve access and quality of urban public transport for the urban poor carried out by the authors as part of the Knowledge and Research (KaR) programme of the Infrastructure and Urban Development Department, Department for International Development (DFID) of the British Government. The purpose of the project was to identify, explore, and document critical issues in the provision of transport services for and in low-income settlements in developing countries. The identified issues can be used at policy and operational levels to provide better transport services to low-income communities in urban areas. In the research methodology, a sustainable livelihoods framework was used to set the research framework. The city of Dar es Salaam has grown rapidly since the late 1940s. In the 1948 census the population was 69,227; by the census in 1957 it had grown to 128,742. During this period the city remained highly concentrated, with its boundaries on average less than five kilometres from the sea front or the then town centre. The growth has continued and the estimated population in 2000 was 2,286,730, with a continuing annual growth rate of about 4.5 per cent against the national average of 2.8 per cent

Large and Almost Maximal Neutrino Mixing within the Type II See-Saw Mechanism

Within the type II see-saw mechanism the light neutrino mass matrix is given by a sum of a direct (or triplet) mass term and the conventional (type I) see-saw term. Both versions of the see-saw mechanism explain naturally small neutrino masses, but the type II scenario offers interesting additional possibilities to explain large or almost maximal or vanishing mixings which are discussed in this paper. We first introduce ``type II enhancement'' of neutrino mixing, where moderate cancellations between the two terms can lead to large neutrino mixing even if all individual mass matrices and terms generate small mixing. However, nearly maximal or vanishing mixings are not naturally explained in this way, unless there is a certain initial structure (symmetry) which enforces certain elements of the matrices to be identical or related in a special way. We therefore assume that the leading structure of the neutrino mass matrix is the triplet term and corresponds to zero U_{e3} and maximal theta_{23}. Small but necessary corrections are generated by the conventional see-saw term. Then we assume that one of the two terms corresponds to an extreme mixing scenario, such as bimaximal or tri-bimaximal mixing. Deviations from this scheme are introduced by the second term. One can mimic Quark-Lepton Complementarity in this way. Finally, we note that the neutrino mass matrix for tri-bimaximal mixing can be -- depending on the mass hierarchy -- written as a sum of two terms with simple structure. Their origin could be the two terms of type II see-saw.Comment: 25 pages. Comments and references added, to appear in JHE

Maternal deaths in Pakistan : intersection of gender, class and social exclusion.

Background: A key aim of countries with high maternal mortality rates is to increase availability of competent maternal health care during pregnancy and childbirth. Yet, despite significant investment, countries with the highest burdens have not reduced their rates to the expected levels. We argue, taking Pakistan as a case study, that improving physical availability of services is necessary but not sufficient for reducing maternal mortality because gender inequities interact with caste and poverty to socially exclude certain groups of women from health services that are otherwise physically available. Methods: Using a critical ethnographic approach, two case studies of women who died during childbirth were pieced together from information gathered during the first six months of fieldwork in a village in Northern Punjab, Pakistan. Findings: Shida did not receive the necessary medical care because her heavily indebted family could not afford it. Zainab, a victim of domestic violence, did not receive any medical care because her martial family could not afford it, nor did they think she deserved it. Both women belonged to lower caste households, which are materially poor households and socially constructed as inferior. Conclusions: The stories of Shida and Zainab illustrate how a rigidly structured caste hierarchy, the gendered devaluing of females, and the reinforced lack of control that many impoverished women experience conspire to keep women from lifesaving health services that are physically available and should be at their disposal