C-Urge project is a doctoral network set up to research and better understand the complexity of climate and enviromental change, that is happening on global, as well as on a local scale.
Through various research approaches set in various countries, we aim to highlight the notion of urgency and need to enrich the debate around the topic of environemtal change, that is both fast, and subtle and poses a serious challenge for the future.
I've been organizing and working with the Research Data KE Working Group. We have been collecting relevant links, articles and data in this essay. Some members of our group are now going deeper into thematic areas such as looking at gender and its intersection with COVID-19 in Kenya. We have a monthly call on the second Thursday of every month. We also have a WhatsApp chat group to exchange links and articles. We are open to new members, sign up here. You can find an archive of all of our calls and notes here.
The training of and role for the (humanist?) intellectual in the world seems to be a relevant take-away point of discussion from postcolonial theory. I have been noticing a proliferation of thought pieces and various genres of writing by engaged scholars in this COVID-19 moment. While indeed there is lots to think and write about, the Late Industrial times we are in are also marked by a heavy saturation of information. Rather than feeling enlightening and motivated by the increased proliferation of opinions on COVID-19, I find it has the opposite effect. What other (new) forms of knowledge, processes for knowledge making, and ways of engaging in the world (not to mention education for critical consciousness) are needed in this moment? Perhaps unsurprisingly, I find the value and strength of new research collectives like this one to be rich spaces from which to start thinking about this question.
Ahmed describes the importance of a "humanist education" that trains the “ethical reflex” to open one up to forms of consciousness fundamentally different from one’s own. He notes that such openness eventually requires one to “rebel” against one’s training itself (developing critical consciousness?).
Ahmed also writes about the relationship where the intellectual refuses to speak for the subaltern--where the intellectual enters into a relationship with something foreign to him about which he will absolutely refuse ever to produce authoritative knowledge. "The point of the relationship is, in fact, "to question the grounds of knowledge itself."
I live in the bay area in Northern California and am a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at UC Irvine. My research has focused on shifting data ideologies in Nairobi, Kenya where I lived and worked from 2010 - 2015 and 2019. Learn more here. I can be reached at angela[dot]okune[at]gmail[dot]com.
I am especially interested in the following questions:
I looked into the wide varitey of illnesses that stemmed from the cleanup. I also investigated where the hazards came from - the get fuel, the burning chemicals and computer parts and building materials.
It is published in "Violence & Victims", which is a peer-reviewed journal that analyzes all aspects of interpeersonal violence. The journal features contributions from many fields, from medicine to law to social work.
" we aim to provide an overall picture of what we have learned from decades of research on the presentation, burden, correlates, and treatment of mental disorder following disasters. We also describe challenges to studyingdisaster-relatedpsychopathologyandlimitationsinourcurrentmethodologiesandoffer directions for future research."
"Childrenexposedtodisastersareparticularlyvulnerabletopsychologicalproblems,mostcommonly symptoms of anxiety (e.g., PTSD, panic, phobias) and depression but also acute stress reactionsandadjustmentdisorder(27).Elevatedvulnerabilityamongchildrenmaybeafunctionof their being less equipped to cope with what they have experienced (49)."
"Psychological first aid (PFA) has become the preferred post-disaster intervention, with three goals: Secure survivors’ safety and basic necessities (e.g., food, medical supplies, shelter), which promotes adaptive coping and problem solving; reduce acute stress by addressing post-disaster stressors and providing strategies that may limit stress reactions; and help victims obtain additional resources that may help them cope and regain feelings of control"
The argument is supported through research into political trends - the survivors gave up their own values to support anyone that could help them. There were interviews with the survivors and those living in the area - they dicussed how their lives changed, their inability to find work and their health issues that started immediately or soon after the disaster. The authors also did research of programs to help the survivors - looking at the compensation they could recieve, options for working, how to get healthcare, etc.
**Linda not Laura as I previously stated
"Two FDNY EMTs who had to intervene to stop four police officers beating a handcuffed patient on a stretcher have turned the cops in to authorities"
""Three cops began to punch the patient in the face, EMS (had) to get in the middle of it to intervene. Pt's. wounds and injuries cleaned in the (ambulance)," the report said."