Evolving Paths
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Featured Understanding the Impacts of Heterodoxies in Religious, Societal, and Political Spheres of Modern Day India
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rajit Das
Heterodoxies provide the avenue for people to take the unorthodox approach, hoping for new insights to existing problems found in society. To question such heterodoxies would mean to dig deeper into beliefs, how they first emerge, and why heterodoxies were needed to shift the mindset of people who prefer tradition over progressive ideas. By applying the concept of heterodoxy to India, a further exploration is done to unearth those that are found within the religious, social, and political aspects of the Indian state. By doing so, their impacts can be understood better, to see if whether these heterodoxies identified have made a lasting difference in modern India and threats to make it reach a dead end.
How to Equitably and Effectively Feed and Support Food Insecure College Students: A Case Study of a California State University Food Pantry View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jill Weigt
Multiple surveys show that a significant portion of American college students grapple with securing adequate and nutritious food. The most comprehensive annual survey found that 39 percent of college students report recent food insecurity. Though the number of campus food pantries in the U.S. has increased rapidly, relatively little is known about whether or how effectively they work. Prominent scholars in the field call for greater understanding of the pantry approaches and contexts most likely to help students. This study examines a campus pantry in the California State University system that is working – as evidenced by high satisfaction rates across race, class, and gender and significant levels of self-reported reductions in hunger and benefits to mental health, physical health, and academics – and asks what supports success. Analysis of qualitative interviews with students (n=19) and key staff (n=3) and student surveys (n=223) reveal four interwoven factors which facilitate the positive outcomes of the pantry – a set of guiding principles, practices for empowering and equipping staff, structures of accessibility, and sufficient food. The paper explores each of these factors and argues that perfection need not be achieved for a campus pantry to successfully serve students. I further examine the work of the pantry through the organizational framework of “inequality regimes” and conclude with reflections on how these four factors organizationally reinforce an “equitable regime” whose structure extends to and supports students seeking food at the pantry.
The Influences of Healthcare Building Design on Bedded Patients' Recovery Rate: The Case Study in Dokuz Eylül University Hospital
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Didem Kan-Kilic
In this research, we consider the influences of healthcare building design on bedded patients’ recovery rate in Dokuz Eylül University Hospital in İzmir/Turkey. We question how indoor space quality of hospital rooms affect the patients' recovery and how environmental stress affects their well-being. Their well-being were measured by crowding, personal space, privacy and territoriality which are the notions of environmental psychology. The influences of indoor space quality on the users' recovery were measured by the amount of daylight and artificial light, natural ventilation; acoustics and noise control in the space; and the outside view. In addition, the effects of the physical environment on the user's recovery were measured by the preferences of color and material selection of a hospital room and the plan layout of a space. The most important finding of this study is that the bedded patients who get adequate sunlight to recover faster than patients who are bedded in a room without sunlight. In addition, when heatlhcare buildings and patient rooms are designed according to notions of environmental psychology, stress levels of bedded patients diminished and recovery progress was accelerated. Also we found a significant relationship between medical staff's work performance and the duration of patient recovery. The significance of this study is to understand the effects of interior design and indoor quality on the healing process and recovery time. Hospital management, architects and interior designers, and other design disciplines may take advantage of this research for designing a healthcare facility.
After Online Education: Questioning the Challenges of Adaptation to Conventional Design Teaching View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ali Aslankan
Online education changed the interaction between the design tutor and the student by carrying them out of the physical design studio. The era of the pandemic replaced the collective hands-on-practice. Immediate surroundings became the new design studios. The students who spent their entire academic year at home behind a screen developed different skills, perspectives, and awareness in comparison to older mates. This paper questions design learning as an activity in the post-pandemic framework where new challenges of adaptation are emerging in the first-year design studios by studying 300 freshman students from five different design departments in complete mixed groups. The students are used to participate to the scholarly activities mostly individually and via computers whereas conventions call for collective act in a design studio. Such experience even enhanced their dependency to the smart phones and the internet. This paper starts with theoretical discussions on design teaching and move to a comparative analysis of the "conventional vs hybrid/online teaching" practices in the first post-pandemic year by demonstrating the new learning patterns and how to adapt to the new dynamics in the studio.
