Browsing by Author "Overend, Alissa"
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Item Candida, food discipline and the dietary taming of uncertainty(2012) Overend, AlissaDiscourses of nutritional health are strongly associated with illness, and have recently been linked to the prevalence and management of chronic undefined disorders. Using the case of Candida—a yeast-related disorder of vague symptomatology—I explore the role of food in the narratives of twenty-four people living with Candida. As Candida remains a speculative illness within the boundaries of biomedical science, it is relevant to critically explore the often-focal role of food in the management of this condition, and to consider the range of personal, social and cultural motivations at work in its dietary regulation. Taking up Foucault's theory of docility, I trace the ways in which dietary practices can be understood as normalizing the Candidad-body by helping to create a sense of certainty and control in the persistent face of illness ambiguity. In drawing on Foucault's later work, I move beyond illness dieting as solely a disciplinary regime and explore the ways in which dietary regime can also be conceptualized as a practice in the care of the self, fostering a heightened, often-changing sense of self. While Candida dieting practices will never fully operate separate from the pervasive discourses of nutritional science, they can offer productive possibilities in the regulation and maintenance of an illness not fully recognized by biomedical science.Item Committing public sociology: blogging bodies, marginalization and violence(2017) Garcia, Jason; Sosa Machin, Nadia; Overend, AlissaBy exploring the sociology of the body in an independent study, we delved further into intersectional feminist and postcolonial theories to question whose bodies matter and why. We engaged in sociological blogging in order to extend our learning experience with the public, thereby making sociological knowledge more accessible to the general public.. The blogs, Embody Sociology and Simply Sociology Blog were created and hosted on Wordpress.com with content published anonymously. As bloggers, we connected relevant course topics such as the relationships between race & place or the discourse of disposable bodies to events in the news, case studies, personal experiences, government law or policy or some combination of the latter to inform our audience of relevant contemporary issues that could relate to them, be it that they feel a sense of marginalization or not. As authors in a critical sociological field, we felt the need to ensure our voices were not speaking on behalf of the marginalized identities with experiences unlike our own, meanwhile emphasizing that our own experiences were not the sole experience in the long run. We were able to find the value in shifting the tones of our writing to a more informal one in the public eye, and found ourselves better able to engage more people into a sociological dialogue. By engaging nearly 400 visitors at our blogs collectively at the end of the semester, this project had undoubtedly left a wider impact in numbers exceeding one that often remains between a student and their instructor.Item Disciplining virtue: investigating the discourses of opioid addiction in nursing(2016) Kunyk, Diane; Milner, Margaret; Overend, AlissaTwo nurses diagnosed with opioid addiction launched legal action after being found guilty of unprofessional conduct due to addiction‐related behaviors. When covered by the media, their cases sparked both public and legal controversies. We are curious about the broader discursive framings that led to these strong reactions, and analyze the underlying structures of knowledge and power that shape the issue of opioid addiction in the profession of nursing through a critical discourse analysis of popular media, legal blogs and hearing tribunals. We argue that addiction in nursing is framed as personal choice, as a failure in the moral character of the nurses, as decontextualized from addiction as disease arguments, and as an individualized issue devoid of contextual factors leading to addiction. Our investigation offers a critical case study of a nursing regulatory body that upheld popular assumptions of addiction as an autonomous, rational choice replete with individual‐based consequences – a framing that is inconsistent with evidence‐based practice in health‐care. We put forth this critical interrogation to open up possibilities for counterdiscourses that may promote more nuanced and effective responses to the issue of addiction in nursing.Item Discourses of female masturbation in human sexuality textbooks(2021) Leibel, Isha; Overend, AlissaMany studies show that masturbation is a common and healthy aspect of human functioning (Kontula & Haavio-Mannila, 2002). Despite this, masturbation has been, and continues to be, perceived by society as a sinful, unhealthy, immoral, and/or shameful act (Hare,1962; Kontula & Haavio-Mannila, 2002; Studd & Schwenkhagen, 2009). Female masturbation, in particular, is subject to harsh social criticism and experiences elevated levels of conceived social unacceptability. Female masturbation is demonized within society to such a degree that it is often perceived as inherently unworthy of discussion or consideration (Garlick, 2012; Stolberg, 2000). The purpose of this study is to trace the ways in which female masturbation is discussed in Human Sexuality textbooks. By conducting a content and discourse analysis of 21 Human Sexuality textbooks and encyclopedias, I explore the dominant themes in which female masturbation is represented and discuss the implications of these representations.Item Faculty perspectives on UDL: exploring bridges and barriers for broader adoption in higher education(2022) Hills, Melissa; Overend, Alissa; Hildebrandt, ShawnUniversal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies aim to reduce learning barriers in the classroom for all students and remove the need for students with disabilities to advocate on their own behalf. Leadership in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning has a role to play in advancing inclusive learning cultures in higher education. At the frontline of higher education delivery, faculty are best positioned to implement UDL practices. Initiatives to encourage broader implementation of UDL require an understanding of the barriers and opportunities in higher education. Published studies that investigate faculty understanding and implementation of UDL have been almost exclusively conducted in US institutions. Our study enriches the existing literature through a mixed methods approach withinterviews and a faculty survey in a Canadian context. Themes revealed in our interviews were reinforced by survey findings. Many of the issues raised by faculty, including time and resource constraints, a lack of institutional support, and a lack of understanding are consistent with previous research done in the US, highlighting the systemic challenges for UDL implementation in higher education. To conclude, we explore the limits of a strictly bottom-up approach and contend, in line with recent studies, that top-down initiatives are also vital to encouraging broader implementation of UDL practices.Item Haunting and the ghostly matters of undefined illness(2014) Overend, AlissaThe concept of haunting has become common parlance in the humanities and social sciences (Derrida, 1994; Gordon, [1997]2008; Gunn, 2006; Rosenberg, 2010; Roseneil, 2009; Saltmarsh, 2009). What I find curious, and ultimately take up in this article, is the near-virtual absence of the concept of haunting within critical studies on health, illness and the body. Following the work of cultural theorist Avery Gordon [1997]2008, I question what can be learned about the workings of undefined illness by attending to what she frames as ‘ghostly matters’ – the liminal spaces of social life. I use the case of Candida – a yeast-related disorder of vague symptomatology – to speak to the experiences of bodily uncertainty, and to the symptoms of illness which are neither wholly present nor wholly absent. I contend that what is missing in the case of Candida is not simply an empirical diagnosis, but an ability to account for all those illness experiences that fall outside biomedicine approaches to the sign, symptom and pathology of illness. It is precisely because of the empirical truths put forth by biomedicine that Candida comes to exist (and be experienced) as a bodily certainty of the barely visible, as a possessive force consuming the body it inhabits, and as a specter of death haunting positivist ideals of bodily certainty.Item Knowing and eating: a brief western history of nutrition paradigms(2022) Overend, AlissaAs a sociologist, I have long maintained that food is cultural. Food ties us to our childhoods, to our families and their ancestral histories, and to our cultures and their traditions. What we eat today—our tastes and distastes—is a reflection of those cultural histories. What we eat today is also a reflection of our access to various foods, whether through geographical location and food availability, or through the social determinants of health, such as income, affordable housing, and job security, which affect our ability to procure and prepare food. While food can be studied through a range of disciplinary lenses (psychological, anthropological, biological, etc.), this chapter analyzes how historic framings of food shape contemporary understandings of health. To understand why we eat the way we eat, we also have to examine the changing social and historical paradigms in and through which we come to know food, and, correspondingly, frame health and nutrition. This chapter offers a broad overview of three paradigm shifts in Western nutritional wisdom: (a) ancient humourism; (b) the Middles Ages and the Doctrine of Signatures; and (c) modern nutritionism. Knowledge about food is contingent and changes over time, depending on the values circulating at any given historical moment.Item Leaky bodies & the gendering of Candida experiences(2011) Overend, AlissaThe medical case of Candida remains a highly contentious illness category within the boundaries of biomedical science. Following some of the wider interrogations posed by feminist poststructural theories of the body and of illness, my concern in this paper is not about whether Candida ‘actually’ exists. My concern in this paper is in exploring the production of gendered experiences with the yeast-related disorder of vague symptomatology. Based on a series of 24 semi-structured interviews, I attend to how people talk about their experiences with Candida and I read these experiences alongside wider feminist discourses concerning leaky female and contained male corporealities—most notably, though not exclusively, through Elizabeth Grosz’s (1994) analysis of men’s seminal fluids and women’s menstrual flows. Yeast, as read through the case of Candida, can be understood as gendered and gendering, particularly as it reinscribes dominant discourses concerning leaky female and contained male embodimentsItem Situatedness: seeing thestrals, understanding social marginalization(2022) Overend, AlissaIn the famed fantasy series Harry Potter, written by J.K. Rowling,thestrals are a type of horse, with bat-like wings, skeletal bodies, and reptilian faces. Despite their ominous appearance, thestrals are harmless. But what makes them special in the series, and central to this discussion on situatedness, is that thestrals can only be seen by people who have witnessed death.Item Universal design at MacEwan(2020) Hildebrandt, Shawn; Hills, Melissa; Overend, AlissaThis executive summary reports on highlights and thematic takeaways from interviews conducted at MacEwan University over July and August of 2019 on the subject of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL differs from the system of accommodation for students with disabilities as it exists now. In the system of accommodation, supports like alternative textbook formats and time and a half for exam writing are given to a particular student in order to support them in the learning environment. Whereas in UDL, the learning environment itself is changed to fit all students, and all of the learning supports that exist as accommodation are extended to everyone’s access if they need it. And so the accommodation system is a part of UDL, is included within it, but does not map on to it entirely. We interviewed 9 people who work in an administrative capacity at MacEwan in a variety of roles relevant to the discussion of student learning. Some of the participants also work as faculty in a teaching capacity or have worked as faculty during some part of their careers. The main theme arising from the interviews is the lack of an overarching, institutionally-guided UDL framework at MacEwan. Conditioned from the main theme, arose the following subthemes: the inconsistent understanding of UDL amongst both faculty and staff; the attitudes of students with existing accommodations as a barrier to UDL; the ambiguity of what UDL means for mental health issues; and the necessity of UDL “champions” to promote UDL.