Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in the Age of AI explores how AI is reshaping the dynamics of influence in international affairs. Bridging theory and practice, the Handbook examines the close relationship between soft power and public diplomacy through the lens of AI's expanding role. Covering themes of theory, narrative, conflict, culture, and governance, the volume features contributions from leading international scholars as well as fresh voices introducing cutting-edge ideas. Topics range from bioelectronic measures of attraction to AI's impact on digital diplomacy, narrative warfare, and cultural projection. This timely resource will appeal to students, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers who want to understand how influence, persuasion, and power are being transformed in our digitally networked world.
]]>Craig Hayden chairs the Security Studies Department at the Marine Corps University (USA). He co-edited The Routledge Handbook of Soft Power (2016).
Hendrik Ohnesorge is Managing Director, Center for Global Studies, University of Bonn (Germany). His latest book is titled Soft Power and the Future of US Foreign Policy (2023).
Chenjun Wang teaches at Sydney University (Australia) and is a researcher at the SPARC at Macquarie University (Australia) where she is a PhD candidate in international studies.
]]>After August 1833, when the British Parliament abolished slavery in the British Caribbean, Mauritius and the Cape, the former slave-owners were paid compensation for the loss of their 'property'. New research has begun to show that many beneficiaries had ties to other parts of the British Empire, including the settler colonies of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. Through a range of case studies, contributors to this collection trace the movement of people, goods, capital, and practices from the Caribbean to the new Australasian settler colonies. Chapters consider a range of places, people and themes to reveal the varied ways that slavery continued to shape imperial relationships, economic networks, and racial labour regimes after 1833.
]]>Jane Lydon is Professor of History at the University of Western Australia.
]]>This collection of articles by one of the leading philosophers of education in the English-speaking world takes up themes in the philosophy of language, epistemology and the philosophy of learning to shed light on philosophical puzzles concerning learning, concept formation, knowing how, the following of norms and whether there is a single concept of rationality that can be applied universally. Winch writes from a Wittgensteinian perspective, seeking dissolution rather than solution to philosophical problems. The collection also has a strong practical emphasis; the topics chosen are nearly all related to practical problems of educational policy and practice as well as have intrinsic philosophical interest.
]]>This book explores fourteen case studies of state crime, crimes/immoralities of the powerful, including disasters caused by neglect, pharmaceutical fraud, state sponsored or instigated crime, corporate crime, organisational crime and state terrorism. The book offers a valuable contribution to critical social science perspectives on criminality, providing analysis which explores issues of accountability and social harm and linking these to wider structural contexts, particularly the role of neoliberal ideologies. At the same time, the book will provide a critical perspective on historical case studies which continue to have legacies in the present, and which help to shed light on histories of domination and inequalities and to illustrate continuities and changes in crimes of the powerful over time.
]]>Simon Prideaux is an assistant professor of social welfare and crime in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds.
]]>Films fill our imagination with figures, figurines, and talismans. They ceaselessly rework the same archetypes and invent troubling prototypes especially when they establish a deeper relationship to reality. How do we understand these presences that are both so characteristic and so diverse in cinema? How does film deal with bodies, movements, and gestures? Why are we so drawn to these shadows, silhouettes, and hypothetical beings? What organises the figurative values at work in a film? How do cinematic creatures circulate from film to film and image to image? How does film articulate the links between the abstract and figurative? Is it possible to write a history of figurative forms? Starting from films themselves and works that are both classical (Sergei Eisenstein, Roberto Rossellini, Orson Welles) and contemporary (Abel Ferrara, Brian DePalma, Patricia Mazuy), celebrated (Robert Bresson, John Cassavetes, Ken Jacobs, Paul Sharits) and overlooked (Al Razutis, Jean Genet, Monte Hellman, and John Travolta), from auteurs as well as aesthetic questions (representations of dance, the naked body, character development...), the essays in this volume, most available for the first in English, aim to open a field that has been neglected by analysis, while also suggesting the tools necessary to understanding figurative phenomena specific to cinema.
]]>The philosophical biography penned by the eminent Polish philosopher and translator Professor Piotr Nowak presents the difficult fate of Polish thinkers who reflected and created their philosophies in the 20th century the century of three Polands, three wars, and two totalitarian regimes. Building his narrative around three key words, the author presents the lives and work of Wadysaw Tatarkiewicz, Tadeusz Kroski, Leszek Koakowski, Andrzej Walicki, Adam Schaff, Bronisaw Baczko, Krzysztof Pomian, Zbigniew Kuderowicz, Stefan Amsterdamski, Jerzy Szacki, Zygmunt Bauman, Jan Garewicz, Barbara Skarga, Juliusz Domaski, Ryszard Legutko, Krzysztof Michalski, Marek J. Siemek, Jzef Tischner, Roman Ingarden, Henryk Elzenberger, Tadeusz Kotarbiski, Kazimierz Adjunkiewicz, Marian Przecki, Bogusaw Wolniewicz, Jzef Maria Bocheski, Alfred Tarski, Leon Chwistek, and Stanisaw Ignacy Witkiewicz. The book concludes with a transcript of a conversation between Zbigniew Janowski (an American philosopher of Polish descent) and the author of this book, discussing the influence of two powerful ideologies born in the 19th century, Marxism and liberalism, on the intellectual and political life of contemporary nations.
]]>This book examines the definitional differences between classical and modern political theory as they relate to the constituent parts of justice. Since the earliest days of political philosophy, justice has been understood as the goal of the state. And most thinkers have spent a considerable time addressing the components of justice nature, happiness, freedom, equality, and virtue. This book looks at these terms using both the classical and modern conceptions and argues that modern thinkers' redefinition of the terms has changed the way we conceive of justice and thus, transformed the ways states evaluate issues of right and wrong.
]]>Beethoven's Freude theme or 'Ode to Joy' is perhaps the most iconic melody ever created. This book sets out to show why the Freude theme has acquired this almost mythic status and what its use in the finale of the Ninth Symphony reveals about the mechanics of tonal composition. The book explains how the finale of the Ninth Symphony offers a crash course in music theory made possible by Beethoven's extensive training with Neefe, Haydn, Albrechtsberger, and others, and his enormous library of theory treatises, by the likes of Fux, C. P. E. Bach, Riepel, and Koch. That course covers everything from the basics of tonal voice leading and motivic development to advanced topics such as double counterpoint, canon, and ars combinatoria. The book also draws on details from his own students such as Ries and Czerny.
]]>In the last thirty to forty years, interdisciplinary scholarship on law has significantly increased. Law has a number of different potential disciplinary bed fellows. It can be seen as a social science but also as part of the humanities.
Given how ubiquitous social scientific theories and methods are within legal studies, this collection explores law's place within the humanities. It examines a number of 'law and' interactions in turn with the aim of exploring what these different fields can learn from each other and what this reveals about the law and humanities approach in general.
Law and Humanities provides the first accessible, introductory but critical guide to this emerging area of scholarship. Unlike the existing works that adopt a thematic approach, this is the only edited collection that explores law and humanities field by field. Experts in each 'law and field' will analyse the nature, development and future of their respective fields, placing this within the law and humanities context for the first time. Each chapter provides a seminal contribution to the respective field while the volume as a whole will represent a major work in the development of law and humanities, as well as to interdisciplinary legal studies generally.
]]>Russell Sandberg is Professor of Law at Cardiff University. His research interrogates the interaction between law and humanities, with particular reference to law and religion and legal history.
]]>The study of modern Mediterranean history and society has long featured debates over cross-cultural values, norms and perspectives in the region. The rise of nationalism in the Mediterranean in the 19th and early 20th centuries has led scholars to explore the tension between national and transnational group identities across the sea and its basin. As numerous Mediterranean sub-regions entered the nationalist era expressing intercultural characteristics, many questions remain to be answered about, first, the repurposing of pre-nationalist shared identities for nation-building causes and, second, attempts by nationalist forces to divide and erase those same shared identities. This book engages in this debate and provides five historical case studies, centred on the national experiences of Italy, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon and Libya.
]]>Aiming to contribute to the literature of what works to make peace, this volume examines the roles of land, water and mineral resources in conflict and peacemaking. The analysis focuses on six cases of prolonged, ethno-national, asymmetric conflict and six cases of special interest. Land, water and natural resources were causes of conflict, sources of funding to combatants, weapons of war, reasons to make peace and incentives to make peace. Nine of the cases ended in a negotiated, written peace accord which lasted more than 5 years. While some of the conflict areas saw a resurgence of armed conflict, other cases are exemplars of lasting peace agreements. The analysis shows what was successfully addressed in peace accords, as related to land and natural resources; what was addressed in aspirational terms that were never fully implemented; and what decisions were left to political processes that were agreed to, ending extensive armed conflict.
]]>This anthology includes chapters that explore case studies covering a wide range of societies of the Old and the New World ranging from ancient to modern contexts. Respectively, the chapters are based on different kinds of sources archaeological, historical, anthropological (ethnographic), and sociological. This analysis of pre-modern and modern societies sheds valuable light on the variety of ways in which social institutions were developing through time and space and of how these institutions may have fostered social evolution. Therefore, this publication may enhance our understanding of social evolution at the world-system, regional, and local-culture levels via the integration of various kinds of evidence within a unified conceptual framework.
Societies are systems composed of a great number of various social institutions. Societies change as a result of emergence, transformation, and interaction of institutions. As systems of social institutions, societies have a fundamental characteristic that can be called a 'basic principle of societal organization'. The principle of organisation a society embodies depends on the way its institutions are arranged with respect to one another. Two basic principles can be distinguished: heterarchical, at which institutions interact being unranked with respect to one another or can be ranked in different ways, and the opposite principle, homoarchical, at which institutions interact being rigidly ranked in the only way and have no or very limited potential for being unranked or ranked in other ways. Societies of the same level of overall cultural complexity and with the same basic principle of organization can take different specific forms, as alternativeness exists not only between but also within the heterarchical and homoarchical macrogroups of societies. The division of societies into predominantly heterarchical and homoarchical is a constant fact of human sociocultural history. The dichotomy of heterarchy and homoarchy has considerably determined the non-linear and alternative nature of the global sociocultural process.
Transformations in the ways social institutions and their sets, societal subsystems, are ranked (homoarchically or heterarchically) on one hand and changes in the overall sociocultural complexity on the other are two different, largely unrelated processes. Homoarchy and heterarchy are not evolutionary lines: a society can pass from a predominantly heterarchical way of ranking institutions to predominantly homoarchical or vice versa, and can do it both with and without a change in level of complexity. At any level of overall cultural complexity, one can observe both heterarchical and homoarchical societies, because an equal level of complexity (which makes it possible to solve equally difficult problems societies face) can be achieved in various forms on essentially different (though intersecting in the history of many societies and regions) principles of societal organisation.
]]>Gleb V. Aleksandrov, PhD, is Deputy Director of the International Centre of Anthropology, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
]]>This textbook is designed to introduce the reader to important and emerging issues in contemporary environmental law, policy, economics, and science. It explains the roles and interactions of Congress, federal agencies, state governments, and the courts in protecting the environment and public health from pollution. Topics include common law; administrative law; the role of environmental impact assessments and endangered species protection; and the principal legislation and court decisions dealing with greenhouse gas emissions, conventional and toxic air pollution, water pollution, the control of toxic chemicals and hazardous waste, pollution prevention and primary accident prevention, and community right-to-know. The text also explores various alternatives to regulation and concludes with a brief treatise on sustainability.
The evolving role of science and economics in legislative, regulatory, and judicial decision making is explored. The text analyzes pollution as an economic problem and a failure of markets, discusses the role of technological innovation and the concept of "dynamic" economic equilibrium, and evaluates economic incentives as an alternative or supplement to regulation. The book also provides an introduction to basic legal skills: how to read and understand judicial opinions, regulations, and statutes; how to discover the current state of the law in a specific area; and how to take action toward resolution of environmental problems. Throughout, the role of national and local politics in shaping and implementing environmental policy is acknowledged and evaluated.
Charles C. Caldart holds a law degree from the University of Washington and a master's degree in public health from Harvard University. He is a lecturer in civil and environmental engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the litigation director of the National Environmental Law Center in Boston and Seattle.
]]>This book provides a great backstory of what is happening in Ukraine. It contextualises Ukraine's 2014 EU-IMF aid deal and provides up to date empirical information and analysis through the lens of a socially connected global elite network. It contributes to the understanding of how power operates in international politics.
Using as case studies the three key outcomes during Ukraine's Euromaidan moment (late 2013 early 2014) namely, the introduction of GM agriculture; the opening up of the country's energy industry to TNC-led fracking (shale gas extraction); and, the sudden and violent 'regime change' this book examines the processes by which such foreign policy and international development outcomes came about; it does so by focussing on configurations of multiple influential actors political, corporate, philanthropic, and intellectual actors (e.g., academics, researchers at think tanks) all of whom are connected by various combinations of social, personal, structural, and political ties.
More specifically, these outcomes are best explained by focusing on global webs of diverse social relations between elites spanning governments, international institutions, philanthropic foundations, research institutions and think tanks, 'civil society' organisations, and multi-national corporations. Some of the actors in this global elite network may be state or corporate actors, but their connections are not based just on 'national interest' or structural affiliation, and their primary allegiance is to the global elite network. Elites can exercise forms of power within policy settings, but only a global elite network can influence policy to the extent that all three of these outcomes were produced.
The overall outcomes were broken down into the processes and the events that produced them. These events include conferences, parties, business meetings and mergers, political speeches, policies, etc. The key players in each of these events are identified and analysed, along with the multiple types of connections that link the various actors. The connections that link the different types of nodes into a cohesive global elite network were generated into maps as a visual aid to help follow the strong analysis of these relations and interactions.
First, this book details the multiple types of relationships, especially social and personal that enabled the outcomes. This is crucial in demonstrating how sensitive information flows along informal ties in a network. For example, social relations allow for the transfer of insider knowledge that is unregulated and has no oversight- information that the rest of the population (the masses) is not privy to. Social relations can allow for collusion, including in ways that may be legal, but unethical and thus potentially damaging in the public domain. This book also deploys a groundbreaking definition of the term "gatekeepers" used throughout the analysis. Gatekeepers link people together, they link think tanks, corporations, politicians, and foundations together, and also link nodes in different industries and sectors together (e.g., the development and foreign policy sectors, the philanthropic and corporate sectors, etc.). They bridge multiple industries, sectors, events, and processes.
Second, this book focuses on the spaces where these social connections were fostered, revealing the key places for global elites to convene, align diverse agendas, collaborate, and thus produce outcomes and agendas. Such spaces are crucial in enabling structural connections to become social connections. Mutual membership to think tanks and foundations and attending the same conferences/panels at places like Davos or Bilderberg, can serve as a space for meetings, exchange of information and ideas outside of a state capacity context and regulation.Third, this book explains how the official narrative surrounding the unusual outcome differs from the motives and actions of the members of the global elite network. There are discrepancies with expressed intent in narratives and the outcome.
Questioning political narratives with a focus on relations helps to explore how political elites can control the mainstream narrative. Identifying the linkages of political actors (social, personal, financial, professional, and political) outwards to TNCs, organisations, institutions, councils, and other elites reveals the process by which a dominant narrative is re/produced, and thus shows an alternate reality behind political and development narratives. It is important to study these connections to understand how opposition groups are forced to exist within a dualistic narrative so that anything going against the mainstream and accepted narrative is not only wrong, but also suppressed and sometimes erased.
]]>This study concerns a Gothic realism in the dark, sensorial epistemologies emerging from intersections of documentary and horror cinema. From the ineffable subjects of horror documentaries and pseudo-documentaries, to the obsessive chroniclers of mockumentary horror cinema, the films examined here express generalized millennial and 21st-century archival anxiety around an unsettled and unsettling hypermediated reality. Part I focuses on gothumentaries, nonfiction works evoking the Gothic's unreadable subjects and undetected realities. Case studies show key documentary films such as Capturing the Friedmans, Cropsey, and The Hellstrom Chronicle bringing Gothic-horror tropes and conventions to bear upon documentary subject matter to produce skepticism of American environmental, social, and national stability from the 1970s onward. Part II explores mockumentary, fake found-footage, and screenlife horror cinema that turns to strategies of documentary and factual discourse to express an archival anxiety around human interaction with recording technologies. Case studies of pivotal films such as The Blair Witch Project, Diary of the Dead, Lake Mungo, Unfriended, Sickhouse, and We Are All Going to the World's Fair turn to Gothic reflexivity as a way of expressing the subject's relationship to, and experience of, a modernity that overwhelms in terms of its immensity, speed, and recordability.
]]>This book highlights the roles of culture and institutions on economic change. In particular, it compares cultures between the United States and China and examines their impacts on entrepreneurship, innovation capabilities, and economic and social changes. It also covers their impacts on everyday life performance.
]]>Fu-Lai Tony Yu was former adjunct professor at the Department of Land Management, Feng Chia University, and emeritus professor at Hong Kong Shue Yan University.
]]>From the mid-1740s on, imaginative depictions of mining scenes increasingly adorned vessels from the Meissen Royal Porcelain Manufactory. Prior to this, sculptural depictions of mining folk can even be found on Boettger stoneware and Boettger porcelain with artists George Fritzsche Sr (probably 1697-1756) and Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) later each dedicating a series to them. The unique combination of mining and porcelain also informed and inspired other manufactories in the German-speaking realm, for example in Berlin, Furstenberg and Vienna.
Achim and Beate Middelschulte have assembled what is probably the world's most extensive collection of porcelain featuring the subject of mining. A significant selection of this has been transferred to a foundation and incorporated as a permanent loan into the collection at the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum (German Mining Museum in Bochum). An in-depth presentation of these pieces is now available in this publication.
Text in German.
]]>If we understand 'transcendence' as a multidimensional experience, can light as a medium grant us access to invisible realms? The artist Fabian Gatermann uses light as the key material for his installations, objects, and multiples in order to investigate new dimensions. Over the course of his work, Gatermann disengages himself from the classic scientific engineering system of testing; instead his works can be seen as open-ended unconventional experiments. During this creative process, light oscillates between amorphous and crystalline states, taking the viewer on a transcendental voyage of discovery. The central reference throughout remains the human being: the works provoke active participation and invite the viewer to become part of a multi-perspective game of light and space. Text in English and German.
]]>Their jewellery pieces open up new, often surprising perspectives on their artistic production. Some pieces captivate with minimalist elegance, others with their expressive, sculptural presence or playful humour, with each unique work consolidating an artistic vision into a small personal statement. With its exhibition of the same name, the Museum fr Angewandte Kunst Kln (MAKK; Museum of Applied Arts, Cologne) deliberately focuses on female standpoints, thus breaking with the male-dominated perception of avant-garde art jewellery.
Artists featured include: Lynda Benglis; Pierrette Bloch; Barbara Bloom; Katinka Bock; Louise Bourgeois; Helen Britton; Barbara Chase-Riboud; Claudia Comte; Sheila Concari; Sonia Delaunay; Nathalia Edenmont; Aube Elleouet; Claire von Falkenstein; Ruth Francken; Marcia Grostein; Jenny Holzer; Rebecca Horn; Annabelle d'Huart; Leiko Ikemura; Jacqueline de Jong; Yayoi Kusama; Alicja Kwade; Claude Lalanne; Liliane Lijn; Rita McBride; Blanca Munos; Brigitte Nahon; Eva Renee Nele [E. R. Nele]; Louise Nevelson; Michele Oka Doner; Yoko Ono; Meret Oppenheim; Francoise Petrovitch; Niki de Saint Phalle; Armelle de Sainte Marie; Elodie Seguin; Mailys Seydoux-Dumas; Kiki Smith; Sophie Taeuber-Arp; Dorothea Tanning; Sissel Tolaas; Rosemarie Trockel; Paloma Varga Weisz; Sophia Vari; Joana Vasconcelos; Zhou Yiyan.
Text in English and German.
]]>Concentrating on the difference between the two types of Arabic the classical standard language and the dialects Kees Versteegh charts the history and development of the Arabic language from its earliest beginnings to the modern age. The reader is given a solid grounding in the structure of the language, its historical context and its use in various literary and non-literary genres, as well as an understanding of the role of Arabic as a cultural, religious and political world language.
New for this edition:
At its heart, Cinema and Machine Vision is an invitation for film and media scholars to critically engage with AI at a technical level, a prompt for scientists and engineers working with images and cultural data to critically reflect on where their assumptions about vision come from, and a joint recognition of the fruitful problems of working together to understand the algorithmic governance of the visual.
]]>Giles Scott-Smith is Professor of Transnational Relations and New Diplomatic History and Dean of Leiden University College, Leiden University.
]]>Sarah Gibson is Associate Professor in the Centre for Communication and Media in Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
]]>The emergence of UK drill music made headline news, portraying it as a criminal enterprise instead of recognising it as an art form. This new rap subgenre, however, is neither the first nor the only Black music to be targeted this way.
Policing the beats rewinds the tape to demonstrate how music has been used as an instrument for policing Black people, from the era of colonial slavery to the present day, revealing the racist legal processes that make crimes out of rhymes.
This original and readable book offers the first in-depth account of the policing of Black music in Britain, highlighting the relationship between politics, culture and criminal (in)justice and inviting music lovers, scholars and activists to tune in.
]]>Looking to recent events in Britain and beyond, the book offers timely insight into the cultural processes underpinning the punitive systems that disproportionately harm racially minoritised and marginalised communities.
]]>Eric Shaw is Hon. Research Fellow at the University of Stirling.
]]>Paul Meerts is deputy general-director emeritus of Clingendael Institute in The Hague.
The editors are members of the Processes of International Negotiations (PIN) Steering Committee at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP: www.pin-negotiation.org).
]]>Simon MacLean is Professor in Medieval History at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.
]]>Christianna Bonin is Assistant Professor of Art History and Theory at American University of Sharjah.
Gabriella A. Ferrari is an independent scholar of Russian and Soviet visual culture.
]]>Marius Buning is Professor of European History at the University of Oslo.
Mala Loth is a postdoctoral fellow at ARENA Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo.
]]>Carl Marklund is affiliated scholar at Institute of Contemporary History, Sdertrn University, and senior researcher at Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Jyvskyl.
Andreas Mrkved Hellenes is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Technology Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, and research fellow at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.
Byron Zachary Rom-Jensen is post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo.
]]>Emma Weitkamp is Professor of Science Communication and Deputy Director of the Science Communication Unit, UWE Bristol. With a background in both practical science communication and science communication research, she has published widely for both academic and practitioner audiences. Emma coauthored or edited three books, her work has been included in 11 book chapters and she has published around 40 peer reviewed journal articles. She was editor of the peer reviewed journal, Journal of Science Communication from 2014 - 2022.
]]>In this collection, the first on this subject, a group of distinguished film scholars analyse some key performances in Hitchcock's work, covering his career from the British silent era to the last years of the Hollywood studio system. The actors covered range from Ivor Novello to Tippi Hedren, with classic, and less well-known films discussed including Notorious, Stage Fright, Strangers on a Train and The Man Who Knew Too Much.
This book reflects the growing academic interest in film performance, and opens new perspectives on the films of Alfred Hitchcock.
]]>Victoria Lowe is Senior Lecturer in Drama and Film Studies, University of Manchester.
]]>In Black Socialities: urban resistance and the struggle beyond recognition in Paris, Vanessa E. Thompson argues that black urban politics in the French banlieues are multi-racial and spatially grounded towards abolition. Based on a close engagement with urban black activist practices against racial imagery in the city, policing and state racism, and housing insecurity, she shows how radical anti-racism goes beyond struggles for recognition and unfolds alongside new formations of political blackness that is based on urban conviviality.
This form of black politics has much to teach us in this current conjuncture of liberal anti-racism and state recognition politics.
]]>Focused on the concept of artistic remediation, the book unravels the diverse capacities of art to combat systemic anthropogenic destruction to the environment and ecology. At its core, the book articulates the ongoing ecological transformation in art and art history that embraces a paradigm shift in human-nature relationships, emphasising interconnectedness of all life forms of the Earth. Bridging art studies, activism, and environmental studies, the book examines how artistic practices in the region have engaged with ecocritical reflection, biodiversity advocacy, sustainable practices, and environmental justice, among others. Providing a platform for critical and timely analysis of artistic interventions in the face of existential crises, the book acknowledges diverse voices of scholars who have situated their scholarship in the cultural and artistic specificities of various societies, locales, and communities in the region.
]]>The book draws on Czech and Slovak scholarship as well as primary research in archives, interviews, and fieldwork to dispel misreadings of visual and cultural idioms in pre-existing Anglophone scholarship about the region. Although the former Soviet Bloc is often equated with repression and lack of experimental art in public spaces, performance artists within the former Socialist Czechoslovakia often used public, semi-public and clandestine spheres to create their performances. By analysing both works of established artists such as Aktual, Alex Mlynrcik, Petr tembera, Jan Mlcoch, as well as under-theorised practitioners including Luba Lauffov, Karel Miler, Temporary Society of Intense Living, and Crusaders School of Pure Humour with no Joke, this book analyses how performance can survive and sometimes even thrive on the background of a politically oppressive regime. Cermak tells a unique story of localised resistance to a monolithic public sphere through artistic intervention, a closely knit community, artistic exchange, and agonistic reframing of socialism as a philosophy rather than state ideology.
]]>The Irish poet and activist Eva Gore-Booth (1870-1926) led a life defiantly at odds with her aristocratic origins. Choosing to live and work among the poor of Manchester, she campaigned on behalf of barmaids, circus performers, flower sellers and pit-brow lasses, her partner, Esther Roper, at her side.
Gore-Booth was tireless in her pursuit of justice. She was a militant pacifist during the First World War, a champion of Irish independence and a pioneering thinker on gender and sexuality. She was also a prolific author, publishing nineteen volumes of poetry and prose that reflect the full force of her radical convictions.
Featuring a new preface that situates Gore-Booth's life and work in the context of our current political climate, this biography reclaims her place as a significant figure of Anglo-Irish letters and an unsung hero of LGBT+ history.
'We are all so indebted to Sonja Tiernan...Eva Gore-Booth's extraordinary path of engagement is one that remains deeply inspiring to us today.' Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland
'A well-researched and illuminating first full biography.' Caitriona Crowe, Irish Times
'Sensational anecdotes and quirky details abound... [a] magisterial and definitive study.' Maureen O'Connor, New Hibernia Review
'A deeply researched, important and readable account of Gore-Booth's life which links many of the issues of her day.' Carla King, Irish Literary Supplement
]]>A queer scrapbook offers a treasure trove of LGBTIQ+ histories from across Britain and Ireland. Packed with materials, from interviews and newspaper articles to photographs and flyers, the book explores urban, rural and regional queer life since 1945.
Commentaries and short essays introduce a changing queer landscape, spotlighting four broad themes: home and family, sex and socialising, arts and culture and politics and activism. The book delves into the meaning and experiences of domesticity and parenting and explores the sometimes unexpected places LGBTIQ+ people met to have fun. It examines the importance of creative work in forming community and identity and shows how people fought injustice and advocated for equal rights.
Collecting has been a way for the marginalised to explore and assert identity and community. A queer scrapbook vividly illustrates the diversity of queer and trans lives across the British and Irish isles since the Second World War.
]]>Matt Cook is Jonathan Cooper Professor of the History of Sexuality at the University of Oxford
Rebecca Jennings is Associate Professor of Modern Gender History at University College London.
E. J. Scott is Senior Lecturer in Culture, Criticism and Curation, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
]]>With the unprecedented adoption of artificial intelligence and its far-reaching implications, people everywhere are witnessing the world change around them. Artificially Intelligent answers today's most pressing questions about AI from the fundamental to the futuristic offering readers a new, informed worldview.
In an age of unparalleled innovation and change, artificial intelligence has become the heart of our fears, discussions, and debates. Thus, AI researcher and award-winner David Eliot takes readers on a journey through the key moments and decisions that have shaped its creation and our world. A socially driven history, the book explores its technical breakthroughs and the social forces that made them possible.
But this book isn't just about the past it's about you. Artificially Intelligent invites readers to find their place in the story of AI, to understand its impact on their lives, and to decide what kind of future they want to help create.
Artificially Intelligent tells the story of the technology the way it was meant to be told: not as an exhaustive retelling of history, nor as a prophecy of doom and gloom, but as a human story that is not yet complete.
]]>Award-winning author and physician Brodie Ramin, trained in prevention through his work in primary care and addiction, explores how we can scale up preventative strategies and apply them at a societal level: from the wreckage of plane crashes and pandemics to nuclear catastrophes, industrial accidents, and natural disasters.
Through gripping case studies from the Notre Dame fire to Fukushima Ramin dissects the human errors, systemic failures, and overlooked warning signs that lead to catastrophe. At its core, the book argues that prevention is not only possible but essential we must act before disaster strikes, rather than learning only in its aftermath. Drawing on frameworks like James Reason's Swiss cheese model of error and insights from high-reliability organisations, Ramin shows how risk compounds when safeguards fail and how layered defenses can save lives. He offers a critical intervention: by adopting a prevention mindset and overcoming our cognitive biases, we can proactively solve problems in our personal lives, our organisations, and our society, before the next crisis unfolds.
Blending history, psychology, and public policy, Written in Blood is a compelling call to rethink how we manage risk, before it's too late.
]]>Despite advances in technology, CO poisoning remains a persistent threat today, arising from water heaters, gas stoves, charcoal barbecues, Zambonis, camp stoves, tent heaters, diesel generators, and power washers. Wigmore on Carbon Monoxide provides a comprehensive, well-organised, and thought-provoking examination of this deadly gas, tracing its impact on humans from antiquity to the present. Backed by over 600 studies, long-time forensic toxicologist James G. Wigmore presents complex information in an easily understandable manner for professionals such as lawyers, judges, scientists, coroners, unexplained death investigators, police officers, and students.
Through historical accounts, scientific discoveries, and medicolegal cases, this book illuminates the enduring dangers of carbon monoxide and underscores the importance of awareness and prevention in our modern world.
]]>With academic rigour and accessible prose, Kwong documents the ordinary fears, worries, and urgencies of cancer treatment. She takes readers through the emotional turmoil of her experiences as she undergoes complex surgery and radiation treatment. Kwong manages to complete her treatment just in time to return to Hong Kong and see her father one last time.
Crossing the Phantom Pass explores the uniqueness, as well as the commonalities, embedded in each cancer patient's experience. Centring knowledge as power and resilience, Kwong integrates practical information and unfiltered realities into the emotional narrative of the book.
Questions of hope, death, and grief intertwine with critiques and commentary on the healthcare system, offering an honest portrayal of one woman's journey and a source of solace for others facing similar trials.
]]>The Art of Being a Stranger is a darkly funny narrative told in poetry, prose, and mixed-media drawings. While her father taught her how to save herself, Bermann realised early on that what she truly needed was to be saved from him. Set against the backdrop of 1960s and 1970s New York City, The Art of Being a Stranger is a poignant comic-drama that offers an intimate, layered exploration of parents and children in the shadow of history.
]]>Through the perspectives of patients, physicians, clinicians, medical students, and nurses, The Making of a Doctor highlights the challenges faced by both patients and healthcare providers. This collection of essays uncovers pivotal moments from the denial of essential medical care by insurance companies to the emotional toll that this work has had on clinicians, some of whom have considered leaving medicine due to the pressures they face to demonstrate the dire state of our medical systems.
The Making of a Doctor sheds light on the harmful impact of a system that prioritizes profits over people, exposing the widespread issues of patient neglect and clinician burnout seen in healthcare systems around the world. Despite these challenges, the collection also points to a path forward offering solutions for reform and a sustainable approach to providing medical care that places humanity at the centre of the practice.
]]>Deeply personal and brutally honest, this extended analysis intertwines Grabowski's experiences and those of his family in Poland with a sharp critique of the state's long-standing policy of Holocaust distortion. Carried out over decades by successive political parties, this campaign has become a powerful unifying force in Polish society. To protect the narrative of 'political innocence' during the Holocaust, Poland has enacted criminal and civil laws designed to silence independent scholars, including Grabowski, who was sued for defamation in Polish court. In Whitewash, Grabowski examines Holocaust envy, distortion, denial, and de-Judaisation in a searing call to protect the integrity of Holocaust memory.
Whitewash effectively weaves together the history and politics of Holocaust distortion, grounding them in Grabowski's own lived experience to underscore the immediate need for collective reckoning and action.
]]>Through many trips, calls, and emails to his Zaidy, Heller uncovers dozens of previously unknown stories of lost friendships, personal tragedies, acts of heroism, and emotional reunions. These men played key roles in the defining events of their time fighting against Nazism and contributing to the establishment of Israel. Their voices, however, are not mere relics of the past. The dilemmas they faced faith, belonging, courage, and sacrifice continue to resonate today.
Part memoir, part historical biography, and part mystery, Zaidy's Band reveals how even the humblest acts of World War II service shaped a generation of men and left a lasting impact on their families for years to come.
]]>Not a day goes by without breathless commentary on the increasing power of this innovative technology. Hype flows from the sages of Silicon Valley. But who is behind the evolution of this technology, and how does it really work? In Humans of AI, anthropologist Joseph Wilson details his efforts to understand the process and customs of AI development.
Wilson introduces readers to the hidden world of AI behind the doors of chip design labs, coding bootcamps, and organisations teaching AI to speak dozens of languages. He meets philosophers envisioning a future without disease or death, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who warns of AI's existential risks, and ghost workers whose invisible labor powers the world's biggest tech platforms. He also speaks with writers, artists, and developers wrestling with the promise and peril of AI to find out what they really think of ChatGPT. Wilson's empathetic and thoughtful investigation provides readers a front row view on how AI is actually made.
Humans of AI is indispensable in reminding people that the work of AI is not miraculous or magical, but vividly human.
]]>With most of these changes expected within the next decade or two, Automata offers timely use cases and practical strategies to help individuals and organisations navigate this new era. It highlights needed changes in education such as the importance of learning-to-learn and emotional intelligence to help society prepare for this new age.
Automata is a vital guide for anyone seeking to thrive rather than just survive as human work, society, and daily life are redefined by the rise of machine intelligence.
]]>In line with growing movements to decolonize the academy, the essays in Affect as Cultural Critique feature ethnographic accounts of people actively describing, experimenting with, and otherwise exercising affect in ways that challenge the academy's inherited models for analyzing emotional life. Through an experimental collection of traditional ethnographic essays and artist-activist-generated critiques, this volume explores how everyday modes of feeling function as methods of knowing. By centering non-academic and non-Western affective practices as answers to traditional theoretical problems generated primarily by Western theorists, Affect as Cultural Critique seeks new trajectories for the discipline through a reciprocal practice of uncovering itself as a guiding professional aim, as methodological inspiration, and as a source of reflexive critique of the discipline's philosophical and theory-heavy analytics.
]]>Emma E. Cook is a professor of Modern Japanese Studies at Hokkaido University.
Andrea De Antoni is an associate professor in cultural anthropology at Kyoto University and research coordinator of the Italian School of East Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Kyoto.
]]>For about a decade, the somewhat unprecedented occurrence of double migration has been observed in Italian Bangladeshis engaging in a second move to London. Told through the lens of a fictionalised ethnographer and presented in the form of accessible and captivating comics, this book traces the concept of onward migration and the lives shaped by it.
Through interviews with Italian Bangladeshis who made the difficult decision to re-uproot their lives in search of better, social scientists and comic artists Francesco Della Puppa, Francesco Matteuzzi, and Francesco Saresin come together to highlight the joys and struggles of this new (e)migration. The authors offer insights on the dynamism of these 'new Italian citizens' and on the migration routes shaped by the continuous global transformations, and on the social, political, and economic situation of Italy and the Southern European countries. Moreover, by following the trajectories of Stefano the researcher, the book provides valuable insight into the modalities, processes, difficulties and turning points of conducting ethnographic research.
gives voice to diasporic communities and sheds light on their most current trials and tribulations.
Francesco Matteuzzi is a screenwriter and journalist, and he collaborates with Sergio Bonelli Editore.
Francesco Saresin is a cartoonist and illustrator who has published two books.
Clara Pope is a freelance Italian-to-English translator and editor based in Bologna.
]]>In October 1942, thirteen-year-old Rzia Handelsman (Rose Lipszyc) manages to escape certain death as her family is being deported from their home near Lublin, Poland. Alone and terrified, she flees to a neighbour's house and is reunited with her aunt, Rza Finkielsztajn. With the help of friends and strangers, the two Roses adopt false identities and disguise themselves as Polish gentile sisters. Against all odds, they survive the war in a forced-labor camp in Nazi Germany.
A collaboration between award-winning graphic novelist Miriam Libicki and Holocaust survivor Rose Lipszyc, this book illuminates a crucial part of our shared history with care, honesty, and creativity.
]]>Holocaust educator and survivor Rose Lipszyc was awarded the Order of Canada in 2021. Lipszyc still meets with Canadian and Polish youth to recount her wartime fate as a witness to history.
Award-winning author Mark Celinscak is the Louis and Frances Blumkin professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Executive Director of the Sam and Frances Fried Holocaust and Genocide Academy at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Charlotte Schallie is a professor of Germanic Studies in the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures at the University of Victoria. Her areas of interests include memory studies, visual culture studies, genocide education, care ethics, and more. She also edited the award-winning collection of graphic novels But I Live.
Timothy Snyder holds the inaugural Temerty Chair in Modern European History at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.
]]>In Volume One, historian Mathew Kuefler delves into the eras from prehistory to the sixteenth century, touching upon themes including patriarchy, gender diversity, sexual norms in religious and medical traditions, and perceptions of sexual 'others'. Volume Two focuses on the modern period, addressing topics such as sexual thought among puritans and libertines, scientific influences, censorship, and sexuality as self-expression and liberation. Each volume is structured around thematic chapters, with twenty sources per chapter and five chapters per volume, allowing for use in both chronological and thematic teaching. This collection is ideal for courses in the history of sexuality or world history, gender and women's studies, sociology, or cultural studies.
The Global History of Sexuality Sourcebook emphasises both the universal aspects of human sexuality and the particularities of individual and cultural experience, challenging students and readers to think critically about how sexual norms, identities, and practices have been shaped across time and place.
]]>In 1949, the year of the Berlin airlift and the founding of the two post-war German states, Elisabeth Kusian (nurse, black marketeer, morphine and methamphetamine addict, and pathological liar) garroted and dismembered two people in a mini crime spree. Her actions both fascinated and terrified the public how could this woman, a nurse, commit such a violent act?
West Berlin detectives attempted to run an efficient investigation under new democratic rules. Their East Berlin counterparts, newly structured along Soviet lines, employed their restricted resources to solve the case and prove the advantages of their socialist system. Both tried to use the investigation to demonstrate their distance from the Third Reich and build a brighter future.
Based on the true story of Elisabeth Kusian, Death in the Rubble explores shifting identities, evolving gender expectations, post-fascist politics and norms, and the violence lurking beneath a city struggling to redefine itself.
]]>This book proposes that a renewed emphasis on history education, taught with depth and rigour, can foster civic reason, empathy, and a shared sense of civic truth. Through detailed frameworks and practical approaches, the book outlines how history can be taught to develop students' abilities in civic reasoning and engagement, ultimately strengthening democracy.
Rescuing Reason makes a compelling case for the vital role of history education in nurturing civic competencies. The book offers a clear, actionable plan for educators, policymakers, and the public to reorient education towards preparing students not just for the workforce, but for active, thoughtful citizenship in a complex democratic society.
]]>Carla L. Peck is a professor in the Faculty of Education and an adjunct professor in the Department of History, Classics, and Religion at the University of Alberta.
]]>For Roth and Morgenstern, Galicia encapsulates the rich interplay between contemporary developments including urbanisation, secularisation, embourgeoisement, political self-determination, and new technologies and traditional Jewish life in Eastern European villages and shtetls, characterised by tight-knit families and communities, religious observance and ritual, Yiddish language and culture, and Hasidic belief systems. Despite the tensions between these elements, this book presents them as a complex network rather than a battle between old and new, east and west, or tradition and modernity. German and Jewish studies scholar, Kata Gellen, also traces the shifting attachments of Galician Jews to German, a language that symbolised emancipation, culture, empire, and, ultimately, disillusionment and persecution.
Through original readings of well-known and neglected works by Roth and Morgenstern, Gellen shows how the literary idea of Galicia is shaped by continuous struggle and emergent hope, whether as earthly possibility or redemptive promise. This book thereby uncovers the complex relationship between center and periphery in Jewish modernity and reanimates a dimension of modern Jewish literary history that has been obscured by the dark shadow of the Holocaust.
]]>Drawing on materials from KGB archives and Soviet publications long out of print, KGB Literati offers the first-ever account of spy fiction written, frequently with institutional support, by Soviet intelligence and counterintelligence officers. Spy fiction can give insights into the operational workings of clandestine agencies and the personal dimensions of secret service work. By analysing the literary output of KGB spies and counterspies, the book shows that for the KGB, this type of intervention into Soviet popular culture was a crucial component of their overall counterintelligence strategy. These texts played an instrumental role in the Soviet state's efforts to neutralise and counter Western cultural influences on the Soviet population.
Filip Kovacevic's research is of great relevance today, given that a large segment of the Russian ruling elite is still composed of former KGB officers, including Russian president Vladimir Putin. KGB Literati illuminates the deep-seated KGB myths, values, aspirations, and fears that continue to have a profound impact on the foreign and domestic policies of the Russian Federation.
]]>In Democracy's Second Act, Peter MacLeod and Richard Johnson argue that the First Act of democracy anchored in voting rights and representative government achieved extraordinary gains. Free elections, near-universal suffrage, and the peaceful transfer of power reshaped societies and expanded human freedom. But these achievements represent the promise of democracy, not its completion.
Their book offers a hopeful, clear-eyed vision for what comes next. Drawing on ground-breaking citizens' assemblies in Ireland, Canada and France as well as democratic innovations from more than a dozen countries MacLeod and Johnson show how we can build on the legacy of the First Act by creating new institutions that tap into the talents, judgement, and capabilities of ordinary people. They make the case that the public isn't a risk to be managed, but a powerful resource ready to be harnessed and that the future depends on giving citizens real responsibility, not just a periodic vote.
Smart, story-driven, and deeply grounded in political theory and practice, Democracy's Second Act is for change-makers ready to move beyond cynicism and rebuild democracy for a new era.
]]>Richard Johnson is a former journalist and current policy director at MASS LBP. His writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, The Walrus, Reader's Digest, This Magazine, The New Quarterly, and many others. A former Fellow in Literary Journalism at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, he was also a longtime writer for the award-winning podcast Trailblazers, with Walter Isaacson.
]]>Drawing from her upbringing in Antwerp's Jewish community and her later life in America, Cassen weaves together historical events, family narratives, and contemporary challenges to paint a vivid portrait of Jewish experience in modern Europe. At once intimate and analytical, she reflects on childhood fears of being identified as Jewish, connecting these anxieties to the trauma of historical persecution and the Holocaust.
The book also offers a comparative analysis of Jewish life in Europe and America, highlighting the vibrancy of American Judaism while acknowledging rising concerns about antisemitism in the United States. By juxtaposing these experiences, Stained Glass invites readers to reflect on the future of Jewish communities in a world that is increasingly fractured and uncertain.
]]>With enhanced autofocus subject-detection features, this 24MP camera shares many of the advanced photography capabilities of Nikon's top tier Z9 and Z8 flagship cameras, including vibration reduction for up to 7.5 stops of stabilisation linked to the active autofocus point for superb low-light and long lens photography.
Add cutting-edge video features that include 6K/60p recording and N-RAW, N-log, and HLG 10-bit options, you'll see why photographers and videographers are so excited about the Nikon Z5 II. With this book in hand, you'll master all these impressive features, and fine tune your camera skills as you develop your creativity while taking great photographs with your new Z5 II.
Filled with detailed how-to steps and full-colour illustrations, David Busch's Nikon Z5 II Guide to Digital Photography covers the cameras' photography capabilities in depth, from taking your first photos through advanced details of setup, exposure, lens selection, lighting, and more, and relates each feature to specific photographic techniques and situations. A handy visual guide to the Z5 II offers close-up photos and descriptions of the cameras' essential features and controls. Learn when to use each option and, more importantly, when not to use them, by following the author's recommended settings for every menu entry. With best-selling photographer and mentor David Busch as your guide, you'll quickly have full creative mastery of your camera's capabilities, whether you're shooting on the job, as an advanced enthusiast, or are just out for fun. Start building your knowledge and confidence, while bringing your vision to light with the Nikon Z5 II today.
]]>The graduate of Kent State University is a former newspaper reporter/photographer, and operated his own commercial photo studio, shooting sports, weddings, portraits, fashion, architecture, product photography, and travel images. For 22 years he was a principal in CCS/PR, Inc., one of the largest public relations/marketing firms based in San Diego, working on press conferences, press kits, media tours, and sponsored photo trade magazine articles for Eastman Kodak Company and other imaging companies. His 2500 articles and accompanying photos have appeared inside and on the covers of hundreds of magazines, including Popular Photography, Rangefinder, and Professional Photographer.
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