Culture Clash and the Oppression Olympics

Cultural proficiency opens the window to understanding diversity and its value in society. Studies have shown that when communities organize, have the ability to see the differences, and respond positively, their interactions are effective in diverse environments. Alliance-forming approaches to grapple with inequities substantiate the need for communities of color to collaborate and willingly address power imbalances by speaking out against systems of oppression. Instead of engaging in divisive forms of advocacy, cultural humility encourages critical self-reflection and acknowledges that unhealthy comparison about racial oppression implies that power structures and privilege are reserved for one specific group. This critical commentary calls for increased solidarity and compassion to learn from one another to further the movement towards an anti-racist society.

Control, Contribute, Collaborate

This chapter identifies tools that scholarly training brings to collaborative projects, and also identifies aspects of collaborative work that run contrary to the self-defined and self-guided nature of scholarly work. It suggests ways to modify and expand the ethnomusicologists’ toolkit in order to adapt to new forms of collaboration, and therefore thrive in culture and heritage projects and institutions. Public culture and heritage professionals bring a myriad of skill sets and backgrounds to every project. Furthermore, many projects are defined by stakeholder desires and institutional parameters. The culture clash between “self-guided” and “collaborative” requires navigation, adaptation, and reorientation of one’s own approach to work. The chapter uses examples from museum-based projects and operations to reveal the value of “pivoting” and adaptation: why and how professionals should and can do so, and the end result of doing so or not doing so. The lessons can apply to work in a variety of culture and heritage projects and institutions.

Uncensored

The second of two related poems in which an imaginary dialogue takes place between the Speaker and the Researcher where key issues are explored related to being a Black immigrant woman in the White and winter white Manitoba, where no one really cares about the culture clash experienced.

Hamlet and the 47 Ronin

The importation of Shakespeare into Japan in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, following the opening of Japan to the outside world effected by the Meiji empire, generated a culture clash between the antiquity of the plays themselves, and the identification of Shakespeare with modern English drama. Harue Tsutsumi’s play Kanadehon Hamlet explores this conflict, dramatizing the difficulties encountered by a troupe of Japanese actors attempting to perform Hamlet, when their deeper loyalty is to the traditional Japanese revenge play Kanadehon Chushingura. Homing in on a crucial moment in the development of Japanese theatre and Japanese culture, Tsutsumi uses these cultural clashes to map out the possibilities of common ground, the emergence within Japan first of an informed and educated understanding of western drama, and subsequently the development of specifically Japanese appropriations of Shakespeare in which the two cultures can achieve a complex but dynamic engagement.

Defining and Developing the Workforce Needed for Success in the Digital Era of Medicine

Artificial intelligence offers the promise of transforming biomedical research and helping clinicians put the “care” back in healthcare. Digital medicine is on its way to becoming just plain medicine. But who will digitize how we define health and disease? And who will deploy this knowledge to improve the lives of patients that medicine – and digital medicine – exists to serve? Here we define the emerging field of digital medicine and identify the disciplines and skills needed for success. We examine the current and projected skills gaps. We also consider the impact of the culture clash that occurs at the intersection of healthcare and technology, and the lack of diversity in the workforce of both of these fields. We conclude by describing the requirements for the skills pivot needed to ensure that the digital transformation of healthcare is successful: (1) big tent thinking to recognize the critical importance of new technical skills alongside more traditional clinical disciplines, (2) the integration of clinical and technical skill sets within educational curricula, companies, and professional institutions, and (3) a commitment to diversity that goes beyond lip service.