Exposing the flaws in the child marriage discourse: a critical examination of childhood, victimhood, & agency

Within the child marriage discourse certain problematic assumptions are treated as a given. The child bride is represented as the perpetual victim; a Western notion of childhood is presented as universal at the expense of silencing counter-narratives; and the child bride’s potential for agency is excluded from the discourse, reinforcing her status as a victim. Analytical tools that highlight the faults within the human rights movement are seldom applied to the child marriage discourse. By applying the work of critical theorists to the child marriage discourse issues such as race, unequal power relations, and colonial aftereffects are brought to the foreground of the discussion. Incorporating alternative narratives of childhood as well as countering the dominant narrative of victimhood by recognizing the potential for agency can significantly improve the discourse on child marriage. The case of Nujood Ali encompasses all of these factors. Her case not only challenges the human rights conception of childhood by highlighting instances of agency at a young age but also counters the dominant narrative of victimhood

2021: Tiffany Taylor Smith

During Women’s History Month, the Women’s Center coordinates, as an experiential learning opportunity for students, an annual exhibit highlighting the contributions women have made at the University of Dayton. The 2021 theme, Leading with Character and Resilience, captures what it means to work in the midst of a pandemic, social and political unrest and economic uncertainty. Each honoree displayed resilience, drive, character and tenacity and created inspiring ways to move forward.https://ecommons.udayton.edu/women_of_ud/1060/thumbnail.jp

My Formative Years

Slides trace Tiffany Taylor Smith\u27s growing up in Dayton, showing how her experience shaped her professional life. Her neighborhood in Dayton was vibrant and forward-looking. She credits and her parents and siblings, and by the time she went off to graduate school in New York, her fundamental values about what it means to be human had been formed. She is passionate about creating a diverse and inclusive community for all

Public Elementary School Counselors’ Experiences Serving Military-Connected Students with Active-Duty Parents

Most military-connected students (MCS) with active-duty parents attend public schools in the United States. Due to the highly mobile military lifestyles of MCS, some are at risk for academic, emotional, and social challenges. School counselors are often charged with supporting and advocating for MCS; therefore, it is vital to understand elementary school counselors’ experiences with these students. The purpose of this qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of elementary school counselors who work with MCS with active-duty parents in U.S. public-schools. Heidegger’s hermeneutic phenomenological approach served as a theoretical framework for this study. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 elementary school counselors who worked in U.S. public schools with MCS with active-duty parents for at least one year. Data were analyzed using hand-coding and thematic analysis. Thematic analysis yielded four main themes: (a) creating public school environments that are welcoming and supportive for MCS, (b) supporting MCS through challenges and barriers, (c) participating in military-focused continuing education to support MCS, and (d) fostering resiliency and identifying strengths of MCS. Results revealed that elementary school counselors are aware of the diverse needs of MCS, the challenges and barriers that some MCS face, and their strengths, and they are willing to develop homegrown practices or utilize support services to meet their needs. Military-focused continuing education or professional development related military families is not provided in most school districts for staff who serve MCS. The results may contribute to social change by providing higher education institutions and public-school systems with information to help facilitate more inclusive school counseling programs for MCS

Competition and dispersal in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Dispersal plays a crucial role in a range of evolutionary and ecological processes; hence there is strong motivation to understand its evolution. One key prediction is that the relative benefits of dispersal should be greater when dispersing away from close relatives, because in this case dispersal has the additional benefit of alleviating competition with individuals who share the same dispersal alleles. We tested this prediction for the first time using experimental populations of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. We measured the fitness of isogenic genotypes that differed only in their dispersal behaviors in both clonal and mixed populations. Consistent with theory, the benefit of dispersal was much higher in clonal populations, and this benefit decreased with increasing growth rate costs associated with dispersal

Situated Learning and the Development of Relationships: Bridging the Gap between Veterinarians and Researchers

The development of the student teacher relationship has been largely ignored within the tenets of situated learning. Here we report the results of a mixed method study that explored relationships between researchers and veterinarians in a biomedical techniques training program designed theoretically and practically from the lens of situated learning

Watching Aggressive, Attractive, Female Protagonists Shapes Gender Roles for Women Among Male and Female Undergraduate Viewers

The impact of exposure to media representations of aggressive, attractive, female protagonists on audiences’ gender role expectations for women was explored through a laboratory experiment with 122 undergraduates from a large university on the west coast of the United States. Participants viewed a segment of a major Hollywood motion picture that featured a female protagonist who was either highly attractive or less attractive and either highly aggressive or not aggressive. Viewing clips featuring a female protagonist who was both aggressive and stereotypically attractive led to greater endorsement of stereotypically feminine and stereotypically masculine gender role expectations for women. The effect on endorsement of stereotypically masculine expectations was partially mediated by the perception that the protagonist was a good role model for women. Although women endorsed both feminine and masculine gender role expectations for women more strongly than men, the effects of exposure to aggressive, attractive, female protagonists were similar for both male and female participants. Results are discussed in terms of gender stereotype activation and superwoman expectations for women

Cancer cell lines show high heritability for motility but not generation time

Tumour evolution depends on heritable differences between cells in traits affecting cell survival or replication. It is well established that cancer cells are genetically and phenotypically heterogeneous; however, the extent to which this phenotypic variation is heritable is far less well explored. Here, we estimate the broad-sense heritability (H2) of two cell traits related to cancer hallmarks––cell motility and generation time––within populations of four cancer cell lines in vitro and find that motility is strongly heritable. This heritability is stable across multiple cell generations, with heritability values at the high end of those measured for a range of traits in natural populations of animals or plants. These findings confirm a central assumption of cancer evolution, provide a first quantification of the evolvability of key traits in cancer cells and indicate that there is ample raw material for experimental evolution in cancer cell lines. Generation time, a trait directly affecting cell fitness, shows substantially lower values of heritability than cell speed, consistent with its having been under directional selection removing heritable variation

Who Do You Think You Are?

Walking on central campus on a Sunday afternoon, you may notice a strange game being played. This game isn’t soccer, it isn’t dodgeball, it isn’t capture the flag—it’s a combination of all three. For Quidditch president Andrew Folkmann, it’s not just a game—it’s a competitive sport. A question-and-answer column with Andrew Folkmann