One of the challenges of inspiring people to care about transforming land to better grow food is making the lifestyle appealing. So far, no go! The aesthetic is monotone: white people playing folk music. This is seriously problematic! Forging alliances is not easy work, but it is meaningful labor.
Read MoreSpontaneous Action Research: Interrogating Intersectionality
by mjd • July 2nd, 2013
The challenge of making the invisible visible, of bringing those aspects of relationships and identities that have been silenced into awareness and open conversation, was a common problem across seven international research projects explored at a workshop on “intersectionality” hosted by the Center for Gender in Organizations at the Simmons College School of Management.
Read MoreGrowing Pains: Emergency Management Interpreting
by Steph • June 9th, 2013
One of the legacies of persistent discrimination is pent-up emotion. Lack of services and humane consideration adds up and seeks outlets. Get a group of sign language interpreters and Deaf people together to work on solutions to bad or absent communication and inevitably a flood of frustration will arise. This energy was very effectively re-directed toward […]
Read MoreEmergency Management Interpreter Training in Massachusetts
by Steph • June 8th, 2013
Use google to search for #demx and use Twitter to participate in spreading information about the professionalization of a new subfield in emergency management interpreting. Introduction to the Incident Command System and Interpreter Strike Teams Discussion during this introductory module demonstrated the importance of interpreters taking four of the FEMA courses offered free online before […]
Read MoreEnglish Transcript for “Holding Time: The Significance of Deaf Interpreters”
by Steph • June 4th, 2013
What’s the real difference between CDIs (Certified Deaf Interpreters) and ‘regular’ hearing interpreters? It’s not only language and internalized culture….Something else that could be described simply and taught to interpreters to help them realize one thing to do differently.
Read MoreAdventures in Looking
by Steph • April 23rd, 2013
Coincidences of of time/timing, language, and existence are simultaneously the very stuff of the scientific method, the foundation for religious faith, and the source of madness. Only blatant ethnocentrism discounts the magic of a society that successfully sent a message over one thousand years into the future.
Read MoreHope versus Hopium
by Steph • February 26th, 2013
“How to live a life not worth living?” The nihilist poses this question in a vacuum. There may not be any “meaning” beyond what we humans create for ourselves as meaningful, but we are meaning-making creatures. That is what we do. We communicate meaning into being. Using language and cognition we apply sense to patterns. ‘Rightly’ or ‘wrongly’ we interpret each other’s actions and inactions. Sense-making, and the values and behaviors that follow (or are invoked), is only possible within boundaries. There is no science without belief, just as there is no religion without faith. Skepticism involves as much commitment as being an apostle.
Read More“The World is Still Living” (Flight Behavior: A Review)
by Steph • February 5th, 2013
Kingsolver’s formulation of the intelligent non-scientist coming to terms with the scope of climate shift is brilliant. Getting beyond the paralysis of fear involves living motivated by something other than the need to feel safe. Essentially, the liberals are just as bad as the conservatives—for different reasons, but with the same effect of no change to the status quo.
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