Transgressive sporting bodies - A theoretical and critical dicourse analysis of the representation of Caster Semenya in Swiss print media

A debate about Caster Semenya's female sex began shortly after the South African runner won gold in the women’s 800m final at the 2009 Athletic World Championships held in Berlin. Her victory was disputed through questions about her right to compete as a ‘woman’, with the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) announcing she would be required to undergo a gender verification test before her victory could be confirmed. Using the theoretical frame of social constructionism (Berger & Luckmann), poststructuralism (Foucault), gender- and postcolonial theories (Butler; Hall; Spivak) and the methodology of critical discourse analysis (Jaeger), the paper explores the way the possible intersexuality of Caster Semenya was contextualised in mainstream Swiss German-language print media. The analyses will firstly look at the way in which Caster Semenya was constructed as a ʻfallen hero’ and stigmatised as a double-dealer and unacceptable deviant body. The rumours amongst athletes and commentators became news in the media, which focused on descriptions of her habitus, her muscular body and her deep voice. Through theoretical discussion the paper argues that the media response to Caster Semenya exemplifies Butler’s claim that the discursive framework of gender constructs and naturalises sex. A key question is therefore whether the designation of deviant bodies to a ʻfield of deformation’ (Butler) works to pluralise the field of gender, or rather, as Butler suggests, it tends that those bodies might call into questions. The final part of the paper discusses how gender, ethnicity and sexuality combine to constitute the black female sporting body as a spectacle of otherness. It is evident that this otherness is made manifest through the function of those bodies as a site of transgression, as the boundary between male and female, and often as the boundary between culture and nature (Hall). Using the example of the controversy surrounding Caster Semenya, this paper aims to demonstrate how the post/colonial white female body is reproduced by western norms of gender, sexuality, beauty and sporting behaviour, in the sense of a feminine sporting genderperformance. The media controversy will be also read through the lens of the globalisation of certain ideas of normative bodies, sex, ethnicity and gender and the challenge of changing stereotypes through transgression. Keywords: gender- and postcolonial theories, discourse analysis, print media, Caster Semen-ya, deviant body, ethnicity, intersexuality

Transgressive sporting bodies - A theoretical and critical dicourse analysis of the representation of Caster Semenya in Swiss print media

A debate about Caster Semenya's female sex began shortly after the South African runner won gold in the women’s 800m final at the 2009 Athletic World Championships held in Berlin. Her victory was disputed through questions about her right to compete as a ‘woman’, with the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) announcing she would be required to undergo a gender verification test before her victory could be confirmed. Using the theoretical frame of social constructionism (Berger & Luckmann), poststructuralism (Foucault), gender- and postcolonial theories (Butler; Hall; Spivak) and the methodology of critical discourse analysis (Jaeger), the paper explores the way the possible intersexuality of Caster Semenya was contextualised in mainstream Swiss German-language print media. The analyses will firstly look at the way in which Caster Semenya was constructed as a ʻfallen hero’ and stigmatised as a double-dealer and unacceptable deviant body. The rumours amongst athletes and commentators became news in the media, which focused on descriptions of her habitus, her muscular body and her deep voice. Through theoretical discussion the paper argues that the media response to Caster Semenya exemplifies Butler’s claim that the discursive framework of gender constructs and naturalises sex. A key question is therefore whether the designation of deviant bodies to a ʻfield of deformation’ (Butler) works to pluralise the field of gender, or rather, as Butler suggests, it tends that those bodies might call into questions. The final part of the paper discusses how gender, ethnicity and sexuality combine to constitute the black female sporting body as a spectacle of otherness. It is evident that this otherness is made manifest through the function of those bodies as a site of transgression, as the boundary between male and female, and often as the boundary between culture and nature (Hall). Using the example of the controversy surrounding Caster Semenya, this paper aims to demonstrate how the post/colonial white female body is reproduced by western norms of gender, sexuality, beauty and sporting behaviour, in the sense of a feminine sporting genderperformance. The media controversy will be also read through the lens of the globalisation of certain ideas of normative bodies, sex, ethnicity and gender and the challenge of changing stereotypes through transgression. Keywords: gender- and postcolonial theories, discourse analysis, print media, Caster Semen-ya, deviant body, ethnicity, intersexuality

Ontología y estéticas post-representación : problemas de la filosofía del arte de Arthur Danto

El artículo analiza la filosofía del arte expuesta por Arthur Danto, procurando, conjuntamente, problematizar el principio de representación estética en su figuración dominante en la tradición del pensamiento filosófico sobre el arte. Comprendiendo las valiosas indagaciones de Danto respecto a las “vanguardias intratables" del siglo XX y a las metamorfosis en la estructuración del mundo del arte, así como respecto a la propia filosofía que indaga sobre las obras de arte, el presente análisis se interroga, a su vez, acerca de las consecuencias problemáticas que el pensamiento de Danto abre y que en muchos casos permanecen en discusión y disputa teórica.

Are Media ‘Watchdogs’ of Illegal State Practices in Post-Cold War Liberal Democracies?: A Case-Study of the Coke Extradition

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Levinasian ethics and the representation of the other in international and cross-cultural management

In this paper, we seek to further the discussion, problematization and critique of west/east identity relations in ICM studies by considering the ethics of the relationship – an issue never far beneath the surface in discussions of Orientalism. In particular we seek to both examine and question the ethics of representation in relation to a critique of what has come to be known as international and cross-cultural management (ICM). To pursue such a discussion, we draw specifically on the ethical elaborations of Emmanuel Levinas as well as his chief interlocutors Jacques Derrida and Zygmunt Bauman. The value of this discussion, we propose, is that Levinas offers a philosophy that holds as its central concept the relationship between the self and Other as the primary ethical and pre-ontological relation. Levinas’ philosophy provides a means of extending the post-colonial critique of ICM, and ICM provides a context in which the Levinasian ethics can be brought to bear on a significant issue on contemporary business and management.

Ideological Closure : Drug Prevention in a Post-political Society

The aim of this thesis is to critically examine drug prevention as a field of problematizations  – how drug prevention becomes established as a political technology within this field, how it connects to certain modes of governance, how and under which conditions it constitutes it’s problematic, the questions it asks,  it´s implications in terms of political participation and representation, the various bodies of knowledge through which it constitutes the reality upon which it acts, the limits it places on ways of being, questioning, and talking  in the world. The main analyses have been conducted in four separate but interrelated articles. Each article addresses a specific dimension of drug prevention in order to get a grasp of how this field is organized. Article 1 examines the shift that has occurred in the Swedish context during the period 1981–2011 in how drugs have been problematized, what knowledge has grounded the specific modes of problematization and which modes of governance this has enabled. In article 2, the currently dominant scientific discipline in the field of drug prevention – prevention science – is critically examined in terms of how it constructs the “drug problem” and the underlying assumptions it carries in regard to reality and political governance. Article 3 addresses the issue of communities’ democratic participation in drug prevention efforts by analyzing the theoretical foundations of the Communities That Care prevention program. The article seeks to uncover how notions of community empowerment and democratic participation are constructed, and how the “community” is established as a political entity in the program. The fourth and final article critically examines the Swedish Social and Emotional Training (SET) program and the political implications of the relationship the program establishes between the subject and emotions. The argument is made that, within the field of drug prevention, questions of political values and priorities in a problematic way are decoupled from the political field and pose a significant problem in terms of the possibilities to engage in democratic deliberation. Within this field of problematizations it becomes impossible to mobilize a politics against social injustice, poverty and inequality. At the same time, the scientific grounding of this mode of governing the drug “problem” acts to naturalize a specific – highly political – way of engaging with drugs.

A critical discourse analysis on the (self) representation of Hillary R. Clinton in public discourse

El rol de la mujer dentro de la sociedad ha sido y aún es un tema de mucha controversia. Incluso en nuestra sociedad, se suscitan debates sobre si les está permitido a las mujeres ocupar ciertos ámbitos laborales que han estado siempre dominados por una fuerte presencia masculina, como es el caso del ámbito político. Además, en muchos países aún ni siquiera están reconocidos los derechos de las mujeres, y mientras que, en otras culturas, a pesar de que la ley vela por los derechos humanos sin importar la raza, la religión o el género, la realidad es que incluso en las culturas más desarrolladas existe desigualdad de género y estereotipos que afectan el desenvolvimiento de la mujer. Sin embargo, a pesar de que aun la desigualdad de género está presente en la sociedad, es innegable que la situación actual es mucho más positiva para la implicación de las mujeres incluso dentro de ámbitos de la sociedad, que décadas atrás sería impensable, como la política. En esta línea, toda esta situación ha suscitado el interés de muchos investigadores y lingüistas, que han dedicado tiempo a investigaciones sobre las relaciones entre discurso y género, y sobre la representación mediática de mujeres que tienen cierta influencia en el ámbito público, y cómo la desigualdad de género afecta su imagen pública. Si bien es cierto, durante mucho tiempo el ámbito de la política ha estado dominado por presencia masculina, ahora la situación ha cambiado. En las últimas décadas, se ha hecho evidente una gran presencia de mujeres dentro de la política, mujeres que a comparación de la situación vivida décadas atrás, ahora tienen la posibilidad de presentarse incluso como candidatas a la presidencia, como es el caso de Hillary Clinton. En este sentido muchas corrientes feministas han contribuido en gran medida a esta nueva situación. Ahora bien, en vista de toda esta situación, el presente estudio de investigación intentará dar respuesta a las siguientes preguntas. ¿Hasta qué punto los estereotipos de género están aún presentes en la sociedad? ¿La representación mediática de una figura política está realmente basada en su conducta y en su actividad discursiva, o está influida por esquemas e ideas preconcebidas de género? Teniendo en cuenta que hoy en día hay una mayor presencia femenina dentro del ámbito político, una de mis hipótesis iniciales es que la situación de los estereotipos de género ha disminuido. Además, se espera que la forma en la que Hillary Clinton se representa a sí misma como una mujer y como una política esté menos perjudicada por estos esquemas. El objetivo de este estudio es, primeramente, llevar a cabo un análisis sobre diez discursos de Hillary Clinton, desde el 15 de junio de 2015, fecha en la que Hillary Clinton lanzo su candidatura a la presidencia, hasta el 26 de abril de 2016, para a través de este análisis poder identificar como Hillary Clinton se caracteriza a sí misma en sus discursos políticos, y asimismo identificar si los esquemas convencionales sobre género afectan su auto representación. Con este objetivo, el enfoque de este estudio se va a centrar en análisis cuantitativos y cualitativos sobre la frecuencia de palabras, seguido de un análisis crítico del discurso sobre la auto representación de Hillary en sus discursos. Además, siguiendo la línea de investigación de Tannen (1996), se realizará un análisis sobre los usos de los pronombres “nosotros” y “yo”, para adquirir una mayor perspectiva sobre esta situación. Seguidamente, teniendo en cuenta que los medios de comunicación reflejan ideologías sociales, este estudio ha sido también diseñado para analizar diez artículos de noticias sobre los discursos previamente analizados de Hillary Clinton. De esta manera, se examinará si los estereotipos de género están presentes en la representación mediática de Hillary Clinton, para seguidamente analizar si la interpretación mediática de la candidata a la presidencia está realmente relacionada con los discursos analizados o, si por lo contrario están influidos por estereotipos y esquemas de género. Para cumplir con este objetivo, los datos recopilados para este corpus consisten en exactamente diez artículos que reporten sobre los discursos estudiados en el primer análisis, y la actuación de Hillary Clinton. Estos artículos fueron recogidos de cuatro de los periódicos más importantes de los Estados Unidos, que son New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles times y The Washington Post. En este caso el análisis estará centrado en la frecuencia de palabras y en el uso de reporting verbs, siguiendo la línea de investigación de Caldas – Coulthard (1995). Se espera que el presente estudio pueda servir para mayores investigaciones sobre cuestiones de género, y de esta manera contribuir a la creación de teorías que puedan explicar mejor la situación de las mujeres dentro de la política. Para finalizar, aún queda mucho que investigar en esta disciplina, e incluso más por descubrir

Unnatural History: Ecological Temporality in Post-1945 American Literature

While environmental literary criticism has traditionally focused its attention on the textual representation of specific places, recent ecocritical scholarship has expanded this focus to consider the treatment of time in environmental literature and culture. As environmental scholars, activists, scientists, and artists have noted, one of the major difficulties in grasping the reality and implications of climate change is a limited temporal imagination. In other words, the ability to comprehend and integrate different shapes, scales, and speeds of history is a precondition for ecologically sustainable and socially equitable responses to climate change.

My project examines the role that literary works might play in helping to create such an expanded sense of history. As I show how American writers after 1945 have treated the representation of time and history in relation to environmental questions, I distinguish between two textual subfields of environmental temporality. The first, which I argue is characteristic of mainstream environmentalism, is disjunctive, with abrupt environmental changes separating the past and the present. This subfield contains many canonical works of postwar American environmental writing, including Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire, Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and Kim Stanley Robinson’s Science in the Capital trilogy. From treatises on the ancient ecological histories of particular sites to meditations on the speed of climate change, these works evince a preoccupation with environmental time that has not been acknowledged within the spatially oriented field of environmental criticism. However, by positing radical breaks between environmental pasts and environmental futures, they ultimately enervate the political charge of history and elide the human dimensions of environmental change, in terms both of environmental injustice and of possible social responses.

By contrast, the second subfield, which I argue is characteristic of environmental justice, is continuous, showing how historical patterns persist even across social and ecological transformations. I trace this version of environmental thought through a multicultural corpus of novels consisting of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo, Helena María Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus, Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms, and Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents. Some of these novels do not document specific instances of environmental degradation or environmental injustice and, as a result, have not been critically interpreted as relevant for environmental analysis; others are more explicit in their discussion of environmental issues and are recognized as part of the canon of American environmental literature. However, I demonstrate that, across all of these texts, counterhegemonic understandings of history inform resistance to environmental degradation and exploitation. These texts show that environmental problems cannot be fully understood, nor environmental futures addressed, without recognizing the way that social histories of inequality and environmental histories of extraction continue to structure politics and ecology in the present.

Ultimately, then, the project offers three conclusions. First, it suggests that the second version of environmental temporality holds more value than the first for environmental cultural studies, in that it more compellingly and accurately represents the social implications of environmental issues. Second, it shows that “environmental literature” is most usefully understood not as the literature that explicitly treats environmental issues, but rather as the literature that helps to produce the sense of time that contemporary environmental crises require. Third, it shows how literary works can not only illuminate the relationship between American ideas about nature and social justice, but also operate as a specifically literary form of eco-political activism.

Fixed-boundary constituencies and the principle of equal representation in Ireland

The process of constituency boundary revision in Ireland, designed to satisfy what is perceived as a rigid requirement that a uniform deputy-population ratio be maintained across constituencies, has traditionally consumed a great deal of the time of politicians and officials. For almost two decades after a High Court ruling in 1961, the process was a political one, was highly contentious, and was marked by serious allegations of ministerial gerrymandering. The introduction in 1979 of constituency commissions made up of officials neutralised, for the most part, charges that the system had become too politicised, but it continued the process of micro-management of constituency boundaries. This article suggests that the continuing problems caused by this system – notably, the permanently changing nature of constituency boundaries and resulting difficulties of geographical identification – could be resolved by reversion to the procedure that is normal in proportional representation systems: periodic post-census allocation of seats to constituencies whose boundaries are based on those of recognised local government units and which are stable over time. This reform, replacing the principle of redistricting by the principle of reapportionment, would result in more recognisable constituencies, more predictable boundary trajectories over time, and a more efficient, fairer, and speedier process of revision.

Post tenebras spero lucem : Alquimia y ritos en el Quijote y otras obras cervantinas

This study focuses on two areas: alchemy (Part I) and rituals of initiation (Part II) in the works of Miguel de Cervantes, focusing on Don Quijote de la Mancha as my main case study. The first part analyses the function of alchemy and how it can be interpreted throughout the works and various literary genres of Cervantes. It will demonstrate that the texts of Cervantes contain both explicit and implicit allusions to, as well as different aspects of alchemy, such as operative and spiritual alchemy and how these are ultimately used by Cervantes as a means of expression. The author draws from this rich source and modifies these means of expression in order to achieve various results: sometimes with wit or in relation to fraud; at other times it focuses on inner alchemy relating to chivalry in what I have called spiritual chivalry, which has the aim of self-improvement and ultimately, gnosis. Regarding the chivalric rituals of initiation, according to this investigation chivalry serves as both satire and representation of the alchemical process in the case of Don Quijote, which finds its key moments during the rituals. In this sense alchemy and chivalry are studied as two sides of the same coin, in which the search for something higher, an object (the philosopher stone, the beloved), subjects the protagonist to continuous transmutations and puts him in contact with the transitory, that is, liminal states, people and spaces. From this perspective Don Quixote de la Mancha is built upon liminal poetics. My approach, which follows the tenets of analogical hermeneutics, is included within the framework of the Western Esotericism Studies. The 16th and 17th centuries were a fertile age for alchemy throughout Europe. In Spain, alchemy and other esoteric disciplines co-existed with the Spanish Inquisition and its body for the control of ideas and texts: censorship. By being ambiguous and putting into dialogue different ideas of alchemy, Cervantes not only allowed readers to reach their own conclusions, he also protected his work from censorship.

An Efficient Protocol For The Generation Of Monocyte Derived Dendritic Cells Using Serum-free Media For Clinical Applications In Post Remission Aml Patients.

Protocols for the generation of dendritic cells (DCs) using serum as a supplementation of culture media leads to reactions due to animal proteins and disease transmissions. Several types of serum-free media (SFM), based on good manufacture practices (GMP), have recently been used and seem to be a viable option. The aim of this study was to evaluate the results of the differentiation, maturation, and function of DCs from Acute Myeloid Leukemia patients (AML), generated in SFM and medium supplemented with autologous serum (AS). DCs were analyzed by phenotype characteristics, viability, and functionality. The results showed the possibility of generating viable DCs in all the conditions tested. In patients, the X-VIVO 15 medium was more efficient than the other media tested in the generation of DCs producing IL-12p70 (p=0.05). Moreover, the presence of AS led to a significant increase of IL-10 by DCs as compared with CellGro (p=0.05) and X-Vivo15 (p=0.05) media, both in patients and donors. We concluded that SFM was efficient in the production of DCs for immunotherapy in AML patients. However, the use of AS appears to interfere with the functional capacity of the generated DCs.

Advancing Bag-of-visual-words Representations For Lesion Classification In Retinal Images.

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a complication of diabetes that can lead to blindness if not readily discovered. Automated screening algorithms have the potential to improve identification of patients who need further medical attention. However, the identification of lesions must be accurate to be useful for clinical application. The bag-of-visual-words (BoVW) algorithm employs a maximum-margin classifier in a flexible framework that is able to detect the most common DR-related lesions such as microaneurysms, cotton-wool spots and hard exudates. BoVW allows to bypass the need for pre- and post-processing of the retinographic images, as well as the need of specific ad hoc techniques for identification of each type of lesion. An extensive evaluation of the BoVW model, using three large retinograph datasets (DR1, DR2 and Messidor) with different resolution and collected by different healthcare personnel, was performed. The results demonstrate that the BoVW classification approach can identify different lesions within an image without having to utilize different algorithms for each lesion reducing processing time and providing a more flexible diagnostic system. Our BoVW scheme is based on sparse low-level feature detection with a Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF) local descriptor, and mid-level features based on semi-soft coding with max pooling. The best BoVW representation for retinal image classification was an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC) of 97.8% (exudates) and 93.5% (red lesions), applying a cross-dataset validation protocol. To assess the accuracy for detecting cases that require referral within one year, the sparse extraction technique associated with semi-soft coding and max pooling obtained an AUC of 94.2 ± 2.0%, outperforming current methods. Those results indicate that, for retinal image classification tasks in clinical practice, BoVW is equal and, in some instances, surpasses results obtained using dense detection (widely believed to be the best choice in many vision problems) for the low-level descriptors.

Temporomandibular Dysfunction Post-craniotomy: Evaluation Between Pre- And Post-operative Status.

To identify risk factors associated with post-operative temporomandibular joint dysfunction after craniotomy. The study sample included 24 patients, mean age of 37.3 ± 10 years; eligible for surgery for refractory epilepsy, evaluated according to RDC/TMD before and after surgery. The primary predictor was the time after the surgery. The primary outcome variable was maximal mouth opening. Other outcome variables were: disc displacement, bruxism, TMJ sound, TMJ pain, and pain associated to mandibular movements. Data analyses were performed using bivariate and multiple regression methods. The maximal mouth opening was significantly reduced after surgery in all patients (p = 0.03). In the multiple regression model, time of evaluation and pre-operative bruxism were significantly (p < .05) associated with an increased risk for TMD post-surgery. A significant correlation between surgery follow-up time and maximal opening mouth was found. Pre-operative bruxism was associated with increased risk for temporomandibular joint dysfunction after craniotomy.

Metals And (metallo)proteins Identification In Vitreous Humor Focusing On Post-mortem Biochemistry.

This work describes the evaluation of metals and (metallo)proteins in vitreous humor samples and their correlations with some biological aspects in different post-mortem intervals (1-7 days), taking into account both decomposing and non-decomposing bodies. After qualitative evaluation of the samples involving 26 elements, representative metal ions (Fe, Mg and Mo) are determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after using mini-vial decomposition system for sample preparation. A significant trend for Fe is found with post-mortem time for decomposing bodies because of a significant increase of iron concentration when comparing samples from bodies presenting 3 and 7 days post-mortem interval. An important clue to elucidate the role of metals is the coupling of liquid chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for identification of metals linked to proteins, as well as mass spectrometry for the identification of those proteins involved in the post-mortem interval.