EDIA "Reading" Group

Brief Summary

"Freedom House Ambulance Service was the first emergency medical service in the United States to be staffed by paramedics with medical training beyond basic first aid. Founded in 1967 to serve the predominantly Black Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, it was staffed entirely by African Americans. Freedom House Ambulance Service broke medical ground by training its personnel to previously unheard-of standards of emergency medical care for patients en route to hospitals. The paramedic training and ambulance design standards pioneered in the Freedom House Ambulance Service would set the standard for emergency care nationally and even internationally. Despite its successes, the ambulance service was closed eight years after it began operating."  Freedom House Ambulance Service - Wikipedia

Sources

• Read - American Sirens by Kevin Hazzard a 360 page book

• Listen - Paramedics a free 1 hour podcast

• Watch - Freedom House Ambulance: The FIRST Responders a free 30 min documentary by PBS available for free on youtube

Brief Summary

"Passing, in the context of race, occurs when one conceals their socially applied racial identity or ethnicity in order to be perceived as another race for acceptance and/or other benefits. Historically, the term has been used primarily in the United States to describe a person of mixed race who has assimilated into the white majority to escape the legal and social consequences of racial segregation and discrimination. In the Antebellum South, passing as White was sometimes a temporary disguise used as a means of escaping slavery, which had become a racial caste." Passing (racial identity) - Wikipedia

Sources

• Read - Passing by Nella Larsen

• Listen:

  • Passing Audiobook LibriVox audiobook available for free on YouTube

  • Passing Radio adaptation a BBC Radio 4 adaptation available for free on ERA

  • Seriously… Thinking in colour  a BBC radio 4 podcast exploring stories of racial passing available for free on BBC sounds

• Watch: Passing a film adaptation of the book on Netflix

Brief Summary

"The 504 Sit-in was a disability rights protest that began on April 5, 1977. People with disabilities and the disability community occupied federal buildings in the United States in order to push the issuance of long-delayed regulations regarding Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Prior to the 1990 enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act was the most important disability rights legislation in the United States." 504 Sit-in - Wikipedia

Sources

• Read:

  • Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist - by Judy Heumann and Kristen Joiner

  • The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight - by Andrew Leland

  • The disabled activist who led a historic 24-day sit-in - a BBC news articles available for free 

• Watch

  • Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution - a 1hr46 documentary available on Netflix 

• Listen:

  • America's 504 Disability Rights Protests - a short BBC radio 4 podcasts available for free

Brief Summary

"AI bias, also called machine learning bias or algorithm bias, refers to the occurrence of biased results due to human biases that skew the original training data or AI algorithm—leading to distorted outputs and potentially harmful outcomes." What is AI Bias

Sources

• Read 

  •  For minorities, biased AI algorithms can damage almost every part of life An article by Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (SOAS)

  • Tackling bias in artificial intelligence (and in humans) An article by Jake Silberg and James Manyika (McKinsey)

• Listen - Bias in AI an episode of Digital Planet from the BBC World Service (minutes 11-28 are most relevant)

• Watch - Episode 3 of AI Confidential with Hannah Fry available on BBC iplayer (less focus on inhertent AI bias but does raise some interesting questions about AI could create more bias)

Brief Summary

"Despite the UK being one of the richest countries in the world, around 4.5 million children (1 in 3) live in poverty. Children in lone-parent families face an even higher risk, with 43% living in poverty. The impact of child poverty is severe, affecting children’s health, wellbeing, and future economic opportunities. Children in poverty are also more likely to experience deeper and more persistent hardship, with around 1 million children facing destitution, the most extreme form of poverty, in 2023." Joseph Roundtree Foundation 

Sources

• Read - Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns by Kerry Hudson (4 copies available at Manchester Central Library)

• Listen - (listed in order of relevance)

  • Lowborn - audiobook, available for free through Manchester Central Library

  • Must Read: Author interview with Kerry Hudson - a podcast on BBC sounds hosted by Sarah Brett

  • Class Talk - an episode of Seriously... a podcast on BBC sounds

• Watch - (still on the hunt)

Brief Summary

The Mersey Model, pioneered in Liverpool, UK, in 1986, was a groundbreaking, government-funded needle exchange program and harm reduction strategy that served as a cornerstone for preventing the spread of HIV among people who inject drugs. The model is characterized by its approach of focusing on harm reduction over immediate cessation of drug use and by integrating needle exchange with other social and health services.

Sources

• Listen - The Liverpool Exchange An episode of the podcast Criminal hosted be Pheobe Judge 

• Watch -  Danny Kilbride, The Mersey Model, 2021 A documentary in which Danny Kilbride interviews Professor John Ashton

• Read - 

  • The Mersey Harm Reduction Model An article on The Nonviolence Project website hosted by The University of Maddison-Wisconsin

  • Figures behind ground-breaking drug clinic celebrate 40 years of the 'Mersey Model' An article on the Liverpool Echo website

Brief Summary

"For members of the alt-right, dairy milk symbolises strength of body and society; drinking it reinforces notions of white superiority and idealised visions of masculinity. [...] There’s a long history of association between dairy milk and white supremacy. [...] The nutritionally “perfect” white drink was symbolically linked to the white-skinned bodies that were better able to digest it due to a genetic mutation known as lactase persistence. Early 20th century milk advertisements perpetuated this trope, often juxtaposing images of healthy-looking, light-skinned people with sickly-looking, darker-skinned ones." How the alt‑right uses milk to promote white supremacy

Sources

• Read - White Power Milk by Vasile Stănescu

• Watch/listen - What's the Deal with Raw Milk (Part 1) a podcast episode on the "This Podcast Will Kill You" hosted by Dr Erin Welsh and Dr  Erin Allmann Updyke. Available to watch on youtube via the link or listen via most podcasting apps/websites

Brief Summary

"Blood quantum laws or Indian blood laws are laws that define Native Americans in the United States status by fractions of Native American ancestry. These laws were enacted by the federal government and state governments as a way to establish legally defined racial population groups. By contrast, many tribes do not include blood quantum as part of their own enrollment criteria. Blood quantum laws were first imposed by white settlers in the 18th century. Blood quantum (BQ) continues to be a controversial topic." Blood Quantum Laws - Wikipedia 

Sources

• Watch/listen -  Blood Quantum: A Knife That Cuts Both Ways Stanford Graduate School of Business talk by Lacey Calac Dunne, MSx ’23

• Read - 

  • Blood Quantum and Soverentiy: a guide an article on the Native Governance Center website 

  • Blood quantum laws are splitting my tribe an article on The Atlantic written by Leah Meyers

Brief Summary

"The Lavender Scare was a moral panic about homosexual people in the United States government which led to their mass dismissal from government service during the mid-20th century. It contributed to and paralleled the anti-communist campaign which is known as McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare. Gay men and lesbians were said to be national security risks and communist sympathizers, which led to the call to remove them from state employment." Lavender Scare - Wikipedia

Sources

• Listen - Lavender Scare An episode of the podcast Criminal hosted be Pheobe Judge 

• Watch - 

  • The Lavender Scare | The History You Didn't Learn A short documentary by Time

  • The Lavender Scare A documenary that can be wached for around £10. Maybe we could have a viewing party 

• Read - The Lavender Scare: the shocking true story of an anti-LGBT witch-hunt An article by The Guardian 

Brief Summary

"Like many linguistic minorities, Deaf people enjoy a unique culture, as worthy of respect as any other. The Deaf way of life is quite fascinating. It is only in recent years that research has begun to explore different aspects of Deaf relationships, communication and society."  British Deaf Association

Sources

• Watch -  Signs for change a BBC documentary hosted by Rose Ayling-Ellis

• Read - Seeing Voices by Oliver Sacks 

• Experience - British Deaf History Museum located in the Manchester Deaf Centre within the University of Manchester Crawford House building. Open Mon-Wed 10-3. We could plan a group visit and I could try and arrange for someone from the MDC to be there and I can do my best to translate

Brief Summary

"In the past, it was assumed that autistic people were overwhelmingly men and boys, and only very rarely women and girls. This is wrong. There are many women, girls and non-binary people on the autism spectrum. Although we now know much more about the experiences of autistic women and girls, society's understanding of autism has been limited by outdated stereotypes and incorrect assumptions. Although autism research and professional practice are slowly catching up to the realities of life for autistic women and girls, many barriers to diagnosis and support remain." National Autistic Society 

Sources

• Watch -  Unmasking My Autism a BBC documentary hosted by Christine McGuinness  

• Read - The Lost Girls of Autism: The Untold Story of Women on the Spectrum by Gina Rippon

• Listen - The Neurodivergent Woman a podcast series hosted by clinical psychologist Monique Mitchelson and clinical neuropsychologist Michelle Livock

Brief Summary

"The Sixties Scoop, also known as The Scoop, was a period in which a series of policies were enacted in Canada that enabled child welfare authorities to take, or "scoop up", Indigenous children from their families and communities for placement in foster homes, from which they would be adopted by white families." Sixties Scoop - Wikipedia 

Sources

• Watch -  Birth of a Family a National Film Board of Canada documentary available on YouTube 

• Read - Sixties Scoop an article on the website Indigenous Foundations written by Erin Hanson

• Listen - The Sixties Scoop a CBC radio podcast