Teaching Intersectionality to Improve MSW Students’ Understanding of Oppression and Privilege.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Grant Abstract Teaching Intersectionality to Improve MSW Students’ Understanding of Oppression and Privilege. Background and Purpose: There are growing calls to understand how clients’ multiple intersecting identities result in compounded disadvantage, which leads to disparate and disproportionate outcomes (CSWE, 2008; Ortega & Faller, 2011; Nadan, Spilsbury, & Korbin, 2015; NASW, 2015). Although social work students are required to learn about intersectionality (NASW, 2015), there is some evidence that blind spots remain with respect to the relationship between intersectionality, oppression, and privilege (Bronstein, Berman-Rossi, & Winfield, 2002; Bubar, Cespedes, & Bundy-Fazioli, 2016). In response, this project attempted to address this teaching and research gap by examining whether MSW students’ knowledge of intersectionality, systems of oppression, and privilege can improve after an enhanced lecture and modified assignments. Methods The sample consisted of 56 students enrolled in the Master of Social Work program at CSUSB in a micro social work practice course during the fall quarter 2019. The project utilized a pre-experimental research methodology consisting of a one-group pretest/posttest research design measuring participants’ responses using the Diversity and Oppression Scale (DOS) before and after the implementation of an enhanced teaching intervention (Windsor, Shorkey, & Battle, 2015). The DOS has 25 items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree) measuring cultural diversity self-confidence, diversity and oppression, social worker/client congruence, and social worker responsibilities. The enhanced teaching intervention consisted of a lecture with up-to-date material connecting intersectionality, oppression, and privilege (See attached lecture slides), and an assignment assessing the main character of Good Will Hunting, which was modified by adding the following prompt: If Will would have been part of any other non-dominant group (e.g., person of color, LGBTQ, disabled, etc.), give an example of how his life might have been different. Due to the small sample size 30 students with completed pretests and posttests, a Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was utilized comparing the pre and post-test sum scores on DOS Factor 2 (Diversity and Oppression), which were cut into tertiles measuring low knowledge about oppression (1-4), moderate knowledge (4-6), and high knowledge (7-8). Findings There was support that the teaching intervention was associated with increased knowledge on DOS Factor 2 among students in the intervention class (Z = 3.30, p \u3c .001), and it had a moderate to strong effect size (r =.43). Qualitative results also indicated that some students felt that the TED talks and interactive exercises were also helpful in learning about intersectionality. Limitations The findings are limited by the small sample size and lack of comparison group because not enough students completed the survey in other classes to make comparisons between classes feasible. Furthermore, although the DOS captured some knowledge of diversity and oppression, we did not measure how much knowledge related to intersectionality the students had prior to the intervention. Conclusions and Implications Findings suggest that enhanced teaching including pre-lecture activities, interactive lectures, and modified assignments may improve knowledge of diversity and oppresion among MSW students. In addition, several participants commented on the usefulness of media such as TED talks and Youtube videos as well as interactive exercises to facilitate discussions of intersectionality. Futures studies need larger samples & comparison groups and should test different types of delivery of lecture content

The Influence of Chronic and Situational Social Status on Stereotype Susceptibility

We tested whether stereotypical situations would affect low-status group members' performance more strongly than high-status group members'. Experiment 1 and 2 tested this hypothesis using gender as a proxy of chronic social status and a gender-neutral task thathas been randomly presented to favor boys (men superiority condition), favor girls (women superiority condition), or show no gender preference (control condition). Both experiments found that women's (Experiment 1) and girls' performance (Experiment 2) suffered more from the evoked stereotypes than did men's and boys' ones. This result was replicated in Experiment 3, indicating that short men (low-status group) were more affected compared to tallmen (high-status group). Additionally, men were more affected compared to women when they perceived height as a threat. Hence, individuals are more or less vulnerable to identity threats as a function of the chronic social status at play; enjoying a high status provides protection and endorsing a low one weakens individual performance in stereotypical situations

Preliminary geoarchaeological data from a Senegambian megalithic world heritage site (Wanar, Senegal)

The Senegambian megalithic complex spread over a territory of 250 km from east to west and 120 to 150km from north to south. It consists of various monumental forms, especially erected stones circles. At the regional Senegambian scale the excavated sites suggest dates between 7th and 16th century AD, maby older. The exceptional concentration of the alignments and the originality of the forms (“lyre” stones, bifid stones, disc decorations, associated with other monuments, e.g. burial mounds) motivated  he inscription of four sites of Senegal and Gambia as World Heritage by UNESCO, like the site of Wanar in Senegal, in the watershed of the Bao Bolon, a tributary of the Gambia River (whc.unesco.org/en/list/1226). However, very little is known about the natural environment of these spectacular monumental manifestations, nor about the socio-economic context of their edification and the surrounding landscapes. Since 2005, archaeological excavations are carried out every year on the necropolis of Wanar. Such research contributes to enrich the socio-cultural knowledge of the Senegambian megalithism, phenomenon associated with the Protohistory (wanar-excavations.jimdo.com). Geoarchaeological studies (geomorphological and palaeo-biogeographical) currently in progress atWanar aim to reconstruct palaeoenvironments and landscapes contemporary of the monument construction, in order to answer a series of questions: In which landscape context have these populations developed? What were their relations with their environment? How did they fit into their territory, and how did they adapt to environmental changes? The dated material from two cores shows that the sedimentary records cover an extended timespan which include the Senegalese protohistory and previous periods (up to 5000 cal. BP). First sedimentological results describe the hydrosedimentary functioning of the Wanar watershed during the period contemporary with the megalithic phenomenon. Palaeoclimatic signals and anthropogenic impacts must be deciphered in order to better understand the fluctuating environmental dynamics of this era. The processing of grain size parameters, CM patterns (one-percentile/median) according to the method of Passega (1964), makes possible to well characterize the fluvial functioning and the depositional environments (ponds/stagnant water, flood plain or channel with low and intermittent current). These wetlands are very good recorders of palaeoenvironmental dynamics. Paleobiological multiproxies analysis (pollens, diatoms, dendrology, palynofacies and fire signal) are currently in progress and should allow the reconstruction of the history of vegetal landscapes and natural environments. Particular attention will be given to the dynamic factors linked to human activities (fires, vegetation clearing, agro-pastoral practices) and their imprint on the landscape

Effect of ambient temperature during acute aerobic exercise on short-term appetite, energy intake, and plasma acylated ghrelin in recreationally active males

Ambient temperature during exercise may affect energy intake regulation. Compared with a temperate (20 °C) environment, 1 h of running followed by 6 h of rest tended to decrease energy intake from 2 ad libitum meals in a hot (30 °C) environment but increase energy intake in a cool (10 °C) environment (p = 0.08). Core temperature changes did not appear to mediate this trend; whether acylated ghrelin is involved is unclear. Further research is warranted to clarify these findings

Forced oscillations dynamic tribometer with real-time insights of lubricated interfaces

This paper presents an innovative forced oscillations dynamic tribometer, the CHRONOS tribometer, with a lubricated ball-on-flat contact configuration fitted out with an in situ optical visualization system and a triggered high-speed camera. The CHRONOS tribometer generates controlled oscillating kinematics by means of a shaker with a range of strokes from 5 μm to 2.5 mm and an oscillation frequency which can be adjusted from 5 Hz to 250 Hz. Displacement and velocity are measured using a vibrometer. The ball-on-flat mean contact pressure is set between 200 MPa and 600 MPa. During motion, the instantaneous normal and friction forces and the interfacial film thickness distribution (in the nanometer scale) are simultaneously measured. In addition to this instantaneous approach, a more macroscopic approach is developed in terms of moving averages of friction and velocity. Another parameter, the friction-velocity tilt angle, is also introduced. This last parameter may give information on the friction-velocity dependence. Eventually, the experiments performed on the CHRONOS device lead to the representation of synchronized temporal signals of displacement/velocity, friction, and lubricant central film thickness. This superimposition of key parameters reveals time effects introduced by the periodical fluid squeeze and flow in the contact

Risk Factors for Mortality after COVID-19 in Patients with Preexisting Interstitial Lung Disease.

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Active Membrane Fluctuations Studied by Micropipet Aspiration

We present a detailed analysis of the micropipet experiments recently reported in J-B. Manneville et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 4356--4359 (1999), including a derivation of the expected behaviour of the membrane tension as a function of the areal strain in the case of an active membrane, i.e., containing a nonequilibrium noise source. We give a general expression, which takes into account the effect of active centers both directly on the membrane, and on the embedding fluid dynamics, keeping track of the coupling between the density of active centers and the membrane curvature. The data of the micropipet experiments are well reproduced by the new expressions. In particular, we show that a natural choice of the parameters quantifying the strength of the active noise explains both the large amplitude of the observed effects and its remarkable insensitivity to the active-center density in the investigated range. [Submitted to Phys Rev E, 22 March 2001]Comment: 14 pages, 5 encapsulated Postscript figure