title: A visceral approach: cooking ‘at home’ with migrant women in Hamilton, New Zealand

authors: Longhurst, Robyn

subjects: New Zealand

abstract: People’s visceral experiences of food – the tastes, textures and aromas – can tell us a great deal about their emotional and affective relations with place. Questions of bodies and embodiment are increasingly becoming a focus for geographers and migration scholars. In this article we extend some of this work by examining how the visceral can shape (and be shaped by) a range of socio-political relations. We concentrate on food and eating as a central political issue and illustrate how a visceral approach can push understandings of migrants’ experiences. We focus on a group of 11 migrant women from South Africa, Singapore, Korea, Iraq, Thailand, Hong Kong, Somalia, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and India in their ‘new home’ in Hamilton, New Zealand. Each of the women prepared and cooked for us a dish that was significant to them in some way. These migrant women are comfortable in their domestic spaces and largely experience cooking not as a burden but as an important way of staying viscerally connected with their ‘old home’. Creating a domestic space where the body feels ‘at home’ can help resituate and reconstitute the diasporic subject. This kind of visceral approach is useful for informing the development of social policy.

text: A visceral approach: cooking ‘at home’ with migrant women in Hamilton, New Zealand People’s visceral experiences of food – the tastes, textures and aromas – can tell us a great deal about their emotional and affective relations with place. Questions of bodies and embodiment are increasingly becoming a focus for geographers and migration scholars. In this article we extend some of this work by examining how the visceral can shape (and be shaped by) a range of socio-political relations. We concentrate on food and eating as a central political issue and illustrate how a visceral approach can push understandings of migrants’ experiences. We focus on a group of 11 migrant women from South Africa, Singapore, Korea, Iraq, Thailand, Hong Kong, Somalia, Japan, Indonesia, Mexico and India in their ‘new home’ in Hamilton, New Zealand. Each of the women prepared and cooked for us a dish that was significant to them in some way. These migrant women are comfortable in their domestic spaces and largely experience cooking not as a burden but as an important way of staying viscerally connected with their ‘old home’. Creating a domestic space where the body feels ‘at home’ can help resituate and reconstitute the diasporic subject. This kind of visceral approach is useful for informing the development of social policy.

year: 2010

title: Text categorization using compression models

authors: Frank, Eibe

abstract: Text categorization, or the assignment of natural language texts to predefined categories based on their content, is of growing importance as the volume of information available on the internet continues to overwhelm us. The use of predefined categories implies a “supervised learning” approach to categorization, where already-classified articles—which effectively define the categories—are used as “training data” to build a model that can be used for classifying new articles that comprise the “test data.” This contrasts with “unsupervised” learning, where there is no training data and clusters of like documents are sought amongst the test articles. With supervised learning, meaningful labels (such as
keyphrases) are attached to the training documents, and appropriate labels can be assigned automatically to test documents depending on which category they fall into.

text: Text categorization using compression models Text categorization, or the assignment of natural language texts to predefined categories based on their content, is of growing importance as the volume of information available on the internet continues to overwhelm us. The use of predefined categories implies a “supervised learning” approach to categorization, where already-classified articles—which effectively define the categories—are used as “training data” to build a model that can be used for classifying new articles that comprise the “test data.” This contrasts with “unsupervised” learning, where there is no training data and clusters of like documents are sought amongst the test articles. With supervised learning, meaningful labels (such as
keyphrases) are attached to the training documents, and appropriate labels can be assigned automatically to test documents depending on which category they fall into.

year: 2000

title: The Wairua of Self: A Path of Love, Simplicity, and Connectedness

authors: Frishman, Lezlie

subjects: love

abstract: Love is an action of freedom until something else steps in – often fear – that insists we create a box of survival. Whether self-imposed, forced, or chosen, it is interesting to notice how we limit ourselves with love. This thesis examines love; love in its purest intent and creation as the simplest way to live. An analysis of personal experiences, illuminated by psychological, mythological, philosophical, and spiritual literature, suggests that living from a place of love can be accomplished through a dedicated journeying back to the Self. The Māori myth of Tāne-Mahuta and Hine-Tītama shows the significance of releasing shame, as well as how a tragic situation might offer a catalytic possibility that shifts a core belief about one’s self. The complications of love that are self-created through loss and grief can easily mask the barely underlying truth of love in its nakedness. Reconnecting with this underlying truth, aroha in its purest sense, is essential for healing and allows for increased connection with the Divine. Doing so is often a difficult task, as hypocrisies fueled by fear and perpetuated by blame are bountiful. When love is used as an instrument and convenience in order to defend a closely held idea, person, or way of life, one often moves further from their true Self, thus surrendering their deepest power and knowing of love. The silent assault of expectations, power, will, and control can turn love into a complication. The complications of being utterly human only serve to further obscure love. Within families, how one initially learns love is often complicated by interrupted attachment, causing rebellion and the need to look for love elsewhere. The components of Tikkun Olam, aroha, mikveh, and wairua of spirit, are intertwined and interconnected, such that the delineation between cultures and spiritual beliefs cannot be divided as oppositional forces. The denominator lives in the magnitude of love for all that has been created; beginning with the Self. In setting the foundation of self-love and allowing it to settle into the fractures and rifts of porousness, love may then be extended without attachment. When freely proffered without agenda, love will seep into every curve of the universe; thus, changing the world. Through the practice of mindfulness and loving-kindness, perception can change. It is this change in perception which can return love to its origin of simplicity. This thesis is a story of love.

text: The Wairua of Self: A Path of Love, Simplicity, and Connectedness Love is an action of freedom until something else steps in – often fear – that insists we create a box of survival. Whether self-imposed, forced, or chosen, it is interesting to notice how we limit ourselves with love. This thesis examines love; love in its purest intent and creation as the simplest way to live. An analysis of personal experiences, illuminated by psychological, mythological, philosophical, and spiritual literature, suggests that living from a place of love can be accomplished through a dedicated journeying back to the Self. The Māori myth of Tāne-Mahuta and Hine-Tītama shows the significance of releasing shame, as well as how a tragic situation might offer a catalytic possibility that shifts a core belief about one’s self. The complications of love that are self-created through loss and grief can easily mask the barely underlying truth of love in its nakedness. Reconnecting with this underlying truth, aroha in its purest sense, is essential for healing and allows for increased connection with the Divine. Doing so is often a difficult task, as hypocrisies fueled by fear and perpetuated by blame are bountiful. When love is used as an instrument and convenience in order to defend a closely held idea, person, or way of life, one often moves further from their true Self, thus surrendering their deepest power and knowing of love. The silent assault of expectations, power, will, and control can turn love into a complication. The complications of being utterly human only serve to further obscure love. Within families, how one initially learns love is often complicated by interrupted attachment, causing rebellion and the need to look for love elsewhere. The components of Tikkun Olam, aroha, mikveh, and wairua of spirit, are intertwined and interconnected, such that the delineation between cultures and spiritual beliefs cannot be divided as oppositional forces. The denominator lives in the magnitude of love for all that has been created; beginning with the Self. In setting the foundation of self-love and allowing it to settle into the fractures and rifts of porousness, love may then be extended without attachment. When freely proffered without agenda, love will seep into every curve of the universe; thus, changing the world. Through the practice of mindfulness and loving-kindness, perception can change. It is this change in perception which can return love to its origin of simplicity. This thesis is a story of love.

year: 2011