DIS-FEAR: Towards the Practice of Ethical Attitudes & Service-Learning in English Studies

El Plaza (@queerlologist en Instagram y Twitter ) es estudiante de doctorado en el programa de Estudios Interdisciplinares de Género de la Universidad de Huelva, así como docente en la Universidad de Limerick (Irlanda). Su píldora de conocimiento —“¿Quiénes son las personas trans? ¿Qué tiene que ver la medicina?”— visibiliza la cuestión trans* dejando claro que las vidas queer también son políticas. Partiendo de una base terminológica, El muestra una perspectiva histórica que da cuenta de cómo han ido variando las construcciones sociales en torno al sexo, el género y la orientación sexual. Se aborda asimismo la relación entre medicina y vidas trans*, reflexionando sobre la patologización de un colectivo y ofreciendo pautas claras para el futuro: desmedicalizar, despatologizar y empoderar.   El Plaza | Trans* y medicina  

Rocío Riestra Camacho es doctora en Estudios de Género por la Universidad de Oviedo, donde actualmente trabaja como Profesora Ayudante Doctora en el Departamento de Filología Inglesa, Francesa y Alemana. Además, compagina su labor profesional con el estudio del Grado en Psicología por la UNED. Su píldora de conocimiento aborda el potencial terapéutico de la lectura con respecto a la novela Crepúsculo ( Twilight , 2005), de la autora estadounidense Stephenie Meyer. Mediante un enfoque más centrado en la audiencia que en la obra, Riestra Camacho pone el foco en las lectoras con anorexia y en la relación de estas con la estética mortuoria representada en la literatura vampírica. Sus píldoras previas sobre biblioterapia , anorexia y narrativa juvenil también están disponibles en este blog.   R. Riestra Camacho | Biblioterapia & Crepúsculo

Students in the fourth-year module “Race, Gender, Sexuality, Cinema and Theatre in English-Speaking Cultures” at the University of Salamanca have created a series of appeals to the world in which they reflect upon contemporary social issues and try to instil change through artistic practice. Some examples of their written and visual work are listed below. Silvia González Almeida · A Manifesto of the Emptying Spain and its Youth: A Photograph Study Enrique Heredero Iglesias · Stop Racism (in Sport) | Video Eva Hoya Sánchez · Consumerism Does Not Buy Love Sergio Martín Vizán · Untitled (Music and Social Restrictions) Jael Rodríguez Sánchez · Lil Nas X’s Videoclip “Industry Baby” Sara Sánchez Sánchez · Make Up is an Expression, not an Imposition | Instagram Inelissa Suárez Quevedo · Little Lissa’s Manifesto Carmen Vadillo Mariscal & Blanca Martín Rosado · Visit Spain, Discover “La España Castiza”

Andrea Llano Busta (University of Oviedo) has compiled the recommendations of project members into a corpus of visual and written texts on activist artists. Such a diverse list of films, books, TV series and music videos may prove useful to both students and teachers in secondary and tertiary education who may likewise benefit from the corpora created in previous years on constructing (2020) and dispelling fear (2021), also available in this blog. The corpus was created on a set of questions and guidelines proposed by Jorge Diego Sánchez (University of Salamanca, Spain)

Ana de las Heras (Spanish Foundation of Rheumatology) is a journalist and biologist who, in the following video, provides a timely reflection on online misinformation about health issues. Apart from presenting reliable data, she addresses the intersection of rumors, trust and the internet to offer helpful advice on how to avoid unverified sources. After all, when so many people are gullible to fake news which may spread uncontrollably, we are all responsible for the information we access and circulate, especially if related to delicate matters.     A. de las Heras | Online Health Rumors

Esta sesión pretende acercar al alumnado a la realidad de la terapia con literatura o "biblioterapia" y ejemplificar mediante casos concretos cómo podemos aplicar esta disciplina a la clínica de la anorexia, haciéndolo de manera interactiva. Está impartida por Rocío Riestra Camacho, doctora en Estudios de Género por la Universidad de Oviedo con una tesis titulada "US Young Adult Sports Fiction in a Bibliotherapy Experiment on Anorexia". Actualmente es profesora de inglés en la Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio, trabajo que combina estudiando el Grado en Psicología por la UNED.   R. Riestra Camacho | Biblioterapia

Andrea Llano Busta (University of Oviedo) has compiled the recommendations submitted by project members. The resulting Corpus of visual and written texts that represent collective discourses of fear can now be accessed by clicking on the previous hyperlink. Students and teachers alike may benefit from this teaching resource in secondary and tertiary education, as well as from last year’s corpus , which is also available in this blog. The selection and thematisation follows the instructions given by Jorge Diego Sánchez (University of Salamanca, Spain)

In this talk, Ana de las Heras (Spanish Foundation of Rheumatology) addresses the relation of rumours, trust and COVID-19 vaccines. As she exemplifies through the widespread opposition to the Nigerian polio immunization campaign in 2003, the anti-vax movement has existed for a long time precisely because vaccines cannot escape the context of their development, which encompasses the political and religious spheres. In this line, she recommends both Adam Kucharski’s The Rules of Contagion: Why Things Spread—and Why they Stop (2020) for its warning against the contagiousness of historical oblivion and Laura Spinney’s Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World (2017), which serves a similar purpose by reviving the twentieth-century pandemic. The goal is to encourage action in the face of misinformation.   A. de las Heras | COVID-19 Infodemic

Ana de las Heras (Spanish Foundation of Rheumatology) draws on her academic background as a biologist and journalist to share a privileged view on mental health. From the lens of epidemiology, which intermingles body, mind and feelings, her talk breaks down the taboos surrounding supposedly invisible illnesses such as depression, illustrated in the work of internationally renowned authors. For instance, Kate Millett recounts her personal experience as a patient in The Loony-Bin Trip (1990), whereas Virginia Woolf’s On Being Ill (1926) tackles the vulnerability associated to disease. Both writers risked being branded as insane for their poignant portrayals of mental health in a patriarchal society.   A. de las Heras | Mental Health

Regiane Ramos (Mato Grosso do Sul State University) shares a list of references that may be used in the study of transgender identities with a special emphasis on India. Here is her well-chosen selection: Dutta, Aniruddha, and Raina Roy. 2014. “Decolonizing Transgender in India: Some Reflections.” TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 1, no. 3: 320–337. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-2685615. Hinchy, Jessica. 2019. Governing Gender and Sexuality in Colonial India: The Hijra, c.1850–1900 . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108592208 . Narrain, Arvind, and Gautam Bhan, eds. 2005. Because I Have a Voice: Queer Politics in India . New Delhi: Yoda Press. Pattanaik, Devdutt. 2014. Shikhandi and Other Tales They Don’t Tell You . New Delhi: Zubaan/Penguin Books. Reddy, Gayatri. 2005. With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India . Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Semmalar, Gee Imaan. 2014. “Unpacking Solidarities of the Oppressed: Note