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Appalachia

Misria
In response to

As a hobby, tabletop role-playing games have a dubious history of appropriation of non-western fantasy tropes as supplemental, and othered. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons' Oriental Adventures (1985), and Al- Qadim (1992) tokenized East Asian, and Middle-Eastern mythology, respectively. Since the onset of Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition (2014), it's publisher, Wizards of the Coast, makes claims to progress in its depictions of BIPOC communities, by bringing in folks to talk about their own cultures, such as with Journeys through the Radiant Citadel (2022). More fundamentally however, the release of 5th edition and the hobbies resurgence coincided with the proliferation of crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, allowing new voices to populate the hobby space. Adventure games like the all indigenous Coyote and Crow allow for a non-colonial view of North America that presents indigeneity beyond traditionalist tropes, offering advanced technologies like Yutsu Lifts, Second Eyes, and Nisi. The horror game Old Gods of Appalachia offers a marginalized region the chance to celebrate their heritage, and reshape the narrative around Appalachia. The focus on local, and indigenous authorship may offer benefits beyond a sense of authentic representation. When utilized therapeutically, these games may work to address intergenerational trauma, and offer therapeutic insights specifically built to unmoor the legacies ascribed onto these groups by dominant and colonial powers. 

Thomas, Brian J. 2023. "Local Games for Local Trauma." In 4S Paraconference X EiJ: Building a Global Record, curated by Misria Shaik Ali, Kim Fortun, Phillip Baum and Prerna Srigyan. Annual Meeting of the Society of Social Studies of Science. Honolulu, Hawai'i, Nov 8-11.

UK Food Bank

AmandaWindle
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https://twitter.com/bateswalsall1/status/1264308701269233665?s=20

The twitter link above shows a video of a foodbank near where I live in London in a shopping centre in Elephant and Castle. This is a foodbank queue for the unemployed and those receiving benefits. This is not a queue for the homeless. It also shows close proximity and in some places the inability to distance and follow national guidance.

Additional information from WHO - Compound Vulnerabilities

AmandaWindle
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"Currently, there are no studies on the survival of the COVID-19 virus in drinking-water or sewage. The morphology and chemical structure of this virus are similar to those of other coronavirusesa for which there are data about both survival in the environment and effective inactivation measures. This guidance draws on the existing evidence base and current WHO guidance on how to protect against viruses in sewage and drinking-water."

and 

"The COVID-19 virus is enveloped and thus less stable in the environment compared to non-enveloped human enteric viruses with known waterborne transmission (such as adenoviruses, norovirus, rotavirus and hepatitis A). "

Link: Water, sanitation, hygiene, and waste management for the COVID-19 virus, Interim guidance, 23 April 2020 by WHO and UNICEF: https://www.who.int/publications-detail/water-sanitation-hygiene-and-wa…

These excerpts from WHO regs, relate to Aalok Khandekar’s draft commentary, “Heat and Contagion in the Off-Grid City”  in relation to mentioning hepatitis.

And, also to a comment in previous weeks around air transmission and sewage across the border in north and south America made by Kim Fortun 

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tamar.rogoszinski
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The Disaster Resiliance Leadership Academy works to strengthen global humanitarian leadership. The goal of this is to allow for increased resilience in communities and among individuals impacted by natural or manmade disasters. They do this by addressing the causes of vulnerability such as poverty and social inequality. They are able to do this through education, research, and application. 

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tamar.rogoszinski
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Because this is an academy, it does have tuition and fees. They are outlined as: Tuition, per credit hour: $981. Academic Support Fee, per semester: $420. Additional Fees (mandatory):$590 -- (Student Activity: $120, Health Center: $320, Reily Center: $150). Medical Insurance, per academic year: $3,030. Assuming people don't waive the medical insurance, take 16 credit hours (as is the norm for RPI), the yearly cost is: $20,156. 

The Provost's Office provides students up to $500 for travel needed to present a poster or paper at a conference. There are other opportunities to be granted money with the purpose of travel for conferences or training opportunities. 

Other than this information, I could not find who else would fund this academy. I can assume that Tulane takes on part of the burden as well as governmental agencies in their partner countries. 

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tamar.rogoszinski
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The "core competencies" as the academy calls them, or the 5 academic pillars that are necessary for DRLA are: human & social factors, economics of disaster, encironment and infrastructure, disaster oprations, and measurement and evaluation. 

In this program, either a Master of Science or a certificate can be obtained. A Master's degree would require 36 credits that can be done in 2 years or in 3 semesters. 18 of these credits must come from core courses that highlight each of the academic pillars as well as 2 research-based courses. The other 18 come from electives, 6 of which must be DRLS. In order to obtain a certificate, 12 credit hours of coursework over 2 semesters is needed. These 12 should be composed of 4 core academic pillar courses.

The aim of this program is "to equip students with a skill-set in emergency preparedness, nonprofit leadership, disaster management, grass-root development, monitoring and evaluation and disaster risk and recovery".  Through this aim and other goals, the requirements for the program create graduates with the professional responsibility, ethical behavior, and integrity expected of leaders in this field.