We don’t need just the DFC, we needs lots of comics, and what’s more, we can make them. Let’s get to it!

Comics have too often been dismissed as unsophisticated, popular culture texts or as a phase of reading which children are encouraged to move out of towards more ‘worthy’ literary fare. Mel Gibson, in exploring the recent comics-book initiative by David Fikling, The DFC, defends the attraction and value of comics culture and the complexity of its multimodal narratives

Cruise Report 66-S-5 Shrimp

(PDF contains 3 pages.

Diversity in the Irish workplace - lesbian women's experience as nurses

Work is an area which represents an important part of people’s lives where they encounter the Other. It provides an individual with a sense of who they are in society, through their membership of communities. Through work, a lesbian woman’s identity has to be negotiated as private lives and public lives can overlap. For lesbian women, work and identity intersect, providing a coherent sense of accomplishment. Research has shown that lesbian women are aware of the attitudes that prevail about lesbian women in the health care environment as they encounter them in their working lives: homophobia; lack of social support and understanding leading to non-disclosure of their own sexuality. Lesbian nurses work within the institution of medicine that reflects societal heterosexual norms. The methodology derived from the qualitative tradition employing hermeneutic phenomenology. It presents an original conceptualisation and consistent application of theoretical frameworks of Heidegger and Sartre. Interviews were conducted between March 2006 and April 2007 with seven lesbian nurses. Lesbian nurses in Ireland remain in the “closet” leading some lesbian nurses to experience social isolation. This paper argues that being oneself is difficult for lesbian nurses who work in the heteronormative culture of Irish hospitals

'"So what is this mango, anyway?" understanding manga, comics and graphic novels (Primary and Secondary'

Graphic novels, comics and manga can play an important part in encouraging reading for pleasure amongst students of any age and also have a role in teaching in many subject areas. I'm going to offer a small snapshot of the least well known of these, manga, below, but want to start with a few general points about the comic strip medium ..

Unitary appreciative inquiry (UAI): A new approach for researching social work education and practice

This paper presents a methodological discussion of unitary appreciative inquiry (UAI). It considers its potential as a research tool, therapeutic intervention and an educative tool within social work practice and education due to its congruence with professional social work values. UAI seeks to gain rich and deep insight, understanding and knowledge of an experience from the person themselves. Participants are recognised as the expert of their own experience and power is shared through participatory and appreciative approaches. The aim is for participants to benefit directly from the research process as they are supported to express, analyse and reflect on their experience and to make changes which could improve their lives. Creative media such as music, art, creative writing and digital stories are used to facilitate expression and analysis. UAI seeks a synoptic perspective when viewing the wide range of data that has been generated within a research inquiry. Instead of analysing as separate parts, this is viewed as a whole and distilled to create a snapshot which seeks to capture the whole person and their experience. Insight gained from the presentation of research findings can provide a catalyst from which others can reflect, analyse and evaluate their own practice

Cruise Report 73-KB-2: Inshore fisheries habitat evaluation and monitoring program

(2pp.