Loneliness through the lens of Black feminist love-politics: pedagogical practices amid pandemic online learning

Purpose Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including contact restrictions and the switch to virtual classes, loneliness has become a pressing concern for college students and their learning. This study aims to interrogate current discussions about college student loneliness through the lens of Black feminist love-politics to reimagine online pedagogical practices. Design/methodology/approach Using a broad literature base and anecdotes from personal teaching experiences, the authors contend that Black Feminist perspectives on love, care and solidarity can illuminate the sociopolitical dimensions of loneliness in pedagogically productive ways. Findings The authors explore various pedagogical practices that are inspired by Black feminist approaches that aim to promote solidarity, love and care in either virtual or in-person classrooms. These pedagogical suggestions result from the authors’ teaching experiences amid online learning and current literature in education. Practical implications The authors seek to support educators’ understanding of the most pervasive yet misunderstood emotional experiences of student learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper explores strategies for addressing feelings of loneliness within online learning-related contexts in higher education. This discussion will be particularly relevant for educators and students from historically marginalized populations. Originality/value This work focuses on the plight of community college students, a demographic that has not garnered enough attention in the educational research concerning this pandemic. In addition, this paper offers an account of loneliness that aligns with the political and ideological crisis of today and places it in conversation with Black feminist thought.

Garments without Guilt?

Sri Lanka's apparel sector holds an enviable place in the imaginary of its competitors for having a niche position amongst global retailers, given its claims of producing 'garments without guilt'. Exploitative labour conditions are not part of the industry's portfolio – ethicality, eco-friendly production and unblemished conditions of work are. Sri Lanka's transition away from a protracted ethnic war has meant that the industry portrays itself as investing in the former war zone to create jobs without reflection on how its vaunted mantle, the deployment of ethical codes effectively, themselves may be under duress. This book uses an analytical framing informed by labour and feminist perspectives to explore how labour struggles in the post-1977 period in Sri Lanka provided important resistance to capitalist processes and continue to shape the industry both within and outside of the shop floor. It studies contextual moments in the country's recent history to rupture the dominant narrative and record the centrality of labour in the success of the country's apparel industry.

Keadilan Sosial Feminis: Interupsi terhadap Universalisme, Abstraksi dan Imparsialitas

This paper is a theoretical study of the concept of justice from philosophical theories which tend to exclude feminist perspectives. Since the era of Ancient Greek philosophy, the question of justice has been a core concern of social theory. Justice is a concept at the core of moral and political theory. Furthermore, the understanding of justice is very important because it determines how political, social, and economic practices occur in a society. Accordingly, the discussion of justice must start with concrete problems of injustice. But ironically, injustices due to gender discrimination tend to be omitted from the analyses of mainstream justice theories, even though in a society, sex and gender categories intertwine with one’s status, power, opportunity, and position in their society. This paper emphasizes the principles of interactive universalism to ensure justice is inseparable from the ethics of care. This paper finds that the feminist social justice approach is a proper approach to respond to the current situation.

Daughter-mother perspectives on feminist activism in the academy

This article addresses feminist solidarity between a daughter and a mother in academia. We are respectively a PhD student and aspirant early career academic, and a senior academic, both identifying as feminists and engaging in forms of activism to improve gender equality. We take an autoethnographical approach, drawing from vignettes and conversational dialogues, focusing on feminist perspectives, activism, our contested identities, fears and hopes. We reflect on the challenges of living feminist lives whilst working in gendered university institutions and highlight strategies to enact feminism whilst trying to progress and maintain an academic career at different positions on the career spectrum. Our contribution is to highlight differential experiences and understandings of academic activism between daughter and mother, early-career academics and senior leaders, in order to enhance mutual understanding and action on feminist solidarity and praxis in the academy.

Visual Compassion for Women’s Empowerment

Little attention has been given to principles of Buddhist moral conduct in the West. There are ten virtuous actions of Buddhist moral conduct, called the Ten Virtuous Deeds of the Bodhisattvas. Drawing from the works of contemporary women thinkers and artists, this article considers how the beauty of human nature and spirituality can be cultivated based on Buddhist feminist perspectives. There are many oppressed women in Asian countries whose voices are not heard in society. Buddhist feminism based on the Ten Virtuous Deeds of the Bodhisattvas can probe deeply into the heart of the moral issues and nurture the powerful flow of spiritual energy for the women. This is a theoretical study that elaborates on women’s struggle for their liberation as inspired by the art of Rima Fujita.

One Izidora and two Rosas: notes for a perspective on a space protagonized by Black women

The aim of this article is to discuss the leading role played by Black women in disputes over place, which have occurred at three different historical moments, in the region of Izidora, where the Vitória, Esperança and Rosa Leão occupations are currently located, in the north zone of Belo Horizonte, state capital of Minas Gerais. The article seeks to demonstrate a convergence between the struggles of the communities to remain in the physical-territorial dimension and their struggles to name it. Black feminist perspectives are taken as epistemology, in order to build a conceptual framework that, by problematizing unidimensional analyzes of the production of space, provides visibility to the multiple dynamics that intersect in space and time, informed by gender, race and class.

The importance of context-relevant feminist perspectives in disaster studies. The case of a research on forest fires with the Atikamekw first nation

PurposeMy research is a study of forest fires that occurred near the Atikamekw community of Wemotaci (Quebec, Canada). This article focuses on the gendered aspects of two forest fire situations experienced by the people of Wemotaci, as I realized during fieldwork that men and women had different experiences and roles during the fires that did not seem to be valued the same. As a result, I decided to mobilize Indigenous feminist theories to understand the entanglement of multiple oppressions especially colonialism and the patriarchy in disaster situations.Design/methodology/approachI used interviews, participant observation and focus-groups during several stays in Wemotaci. I drew on methodologies developed by Indigenous researchers who aim to decolonize research. In this approach, I built respectful relationships with participants, conscious that I was part of the network I was studying.FindingsThis research reveals the importance in disaster research to adapt our methodology to the participants realities while factoring our positionality in. More specifically, I show how the use of an Indigenous feminist perspective allows me to understand how patriarchal-colonialism manifests during forest fire situations intertwined with traditional Atikamekw gender roles. This understanding makes it possible to see ways of managing and studying disasters that challenge systemic oppressions by rethinking the notion of vulnerability and making space for Indigenous people agency, knowledge and experiences.Originality/valueThe use of a feminist framework in this male-dominated field is still innovative, especially mobilizing a feminist approach that is consistent with the participants' realities while acknowledging the researcher's positionality which translate here in the use of Indigenous feminist theories.

It's The Same Old Story: Rape Representation in New Zealand Newspapers (1975 - 2015)

<p>Newspaper reporting of rape, and in particular, representations of women as rape victims, have historically been presented by the media in a misinformed manner, influenced by myths and misconceptions about the dynamics of sexual violence. Previous research has shown media depictions can promote victim-blaming attitudes which affect society’s understanding toward sexual violence, promoting false narratives and rape-supportive beliefs. Victim narratives of sexual victimisation struggle within a ‘culture of silencing’ that prevents the majority of sexual offending from coming to the attention of authorities, and identifying the silencing of women’s experiences of rape has, and continues to be, a key objective for feminist scholars. Newspapers are one medium which has been exclusionary of women's experiences, therefore it is important to look at the role of newspapers on a longitudinal level to investigate whether there have been changes in reporting practices and attitudes. To address this issue, this study draws on feminist perspectives and adopts a quantitative and qualitative methodology utilising newspaper articles as a specific source of inquiry. Articles concerning male-female rape were collected from eight prominent New Zealand newspapers across a 40 year period from 1975 – 2015 with individual years for analysis being 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015. Results from this analysis show minimal inclusion of women’s words regarding newspaper commentary in articles concerning rape. This study also found that across the four decades of analysis, newspapers consistently reported the rape of women by strangers, and sympathetic justice system responses were achieved if the victim was ‘respectable’ and adhered to an ‘appropriate’ version of femininity. The findings from this study illustrate discourses that reflect features of a broader social discourse relating to the responsibility of women to protect themselves from rape. The implications from this research can be utilised to better inform journalists in their reporting practices on sexual violence cases in the New Zealand press, with a hope to challenge the way that newspaper reporters and consumers think about constructing rape, and women as rape victims.</p>

It's The Same Old Story: Rape Representation in New Zealand Newspapers (1975 - 2015)

<p>Newspaper reporting of rape, and in particular, representations of women as rape victims, have historically been presented by the media in a misinformed manner, influenced by myths and misconceptions about the dynamics of sexual violence. Previous research has shown media depictions can promote victim-blaming attitudes which affect society’s understanding toward sexual violence, promoting false narratives and rape-supportive beliefs. Victim narratives of sexual victimisation struggle within a ‘culture of silencing’ that prevents the majority of sexual offending from coming to the attention of authorities, and identifying the silencing of women’s experiences of rape has, and continues to be, a key objective for feminist scholars. Newspapers are one medium which has been exclusionary of women's experiences, therefore it is important to look at the role of newspapers on a longitudinal level to investigate whether there have been changes in reporting practices and attitudes. To address this issue, this study draws on feminist perspectives and adopts a quantitative and qualitative methodology utilising newspaper articles as a specific source of inquiry. Articles concerning male-female rape were collected from eight prominent New Zealand newspapers across a 40 year period from 1975 – 2015 with individual years for analysis being 1975, 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015. Results from this analysis show minimal inclusion of women’s words regarding newspaper commentary in articles concerning rape. This study also found that across the four decades of analysis, newspapers consistently reported the rape of women by strangers, and sympathetic justice system responses were achieved if the victim was ‘respectable’ and adhered to an ‘appropriate’ version of femininity. The findings from this study illustrate discourses that reflect features of a broader social discourse relating to the responsibility of women to protect themselves from rape. The implications from this research can be utilised to better inform journalists in their reporting practices on sexual violence cases in the New Zealand press, with a hope to challenge the way that newspaper reporters and consumers think about constructing rape, and women as rape victims.</p>