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Religion for Realists: Why We All Need the Scientific Study of Religion
by Samuel L. PerryMore than half a century ago, sociologist J. Milton Yinger remarked about religion, "There are few major subjects about which men know so little, yet feel so certain." Samuel L. Perry says that Yinger had it right. Americans--and Westerners more generally--neglect the scientific study of religion, and we do so at our peril. In Religion for Realists, Perry argues that we need the scientific study of religion--the rational, data-driven analysis of religious life-now more than ever. Contrary to the fears of many religious Americans, the scientific study of religion only threatens empirical falsehoods, promulgated often to the benefit of charlatans and demagogues. And contrary to the silent hopes of many secular academics, religion doesn't go away when you ignore it. Instead, interest groups fill the void to shape the public's understanding of religious reality: sometimes well, usually poorly. Perry makes the case that, as people in the West self-sort into partisan tribes, all of us--religious and irreligious alike--need the scientific study of religion. This book presents a practical roadmap for ensuring that its insights are widely available, accessible, and impactful.
The Human Right to Science: History, Development, and Normative Content
by Cesare P. Romano Andrea BoggioRecognized as early as 1948, the right to benefit from progress in science and its applications (known more succinctly as "the right to science") has long confounded international legal scholars and practitioners. While it is key to properly framing the relationship between science, technology, and society, the right to science continues to be poorly understood and very rarely invoked by those who could benefit from it. The Human Right to Science: History, Development, and Normative Content offers a thorough and systematic analysis of this pivotal human right. After discussing the aims, methodology, and key definitions, the book examines the historical origins of the right to science, from the American Declaration of Human Rights to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. It then turns to mapping the development of the right within the United Nations system (including UNESCO) and its spread to regional regimes. Finally, the book breaks down the normative content of the right to science into twenty-two distinct rights, grouped in four clusters: the right to scientific progress, to responsible scientific progress, to participate in scientific progress, and to benefit from scientific progress. For each, the book describes in detail the legal basis, content, corresponding obligations, and indicators. The book closes by recommending the adoption of a Science Treaty to fully realize the potential that the human rights framework can offer to the regulation of science and technology. Authored by two leading experts in international law and science policy, The Human Right to Science meticulously explores the right's origins, development, and normative content. In doing so, it uncovers previously unarticulated entitlements and obligations, offering new insights on human rights interconnections.
Fathoming the Deep in English Renaissance Tragedy: Horror, Mystery, and the Oceanic Sublime
by Laurence PublicoverThis book demonstrates how a group of tragedies by Shakespeare and his contemporaries stage the fear and exhilaration generated by encounters with the unknown and the extraordinary. Arguing that the maritime art of fathoming--that is, dropping a lead and line into water to measure its depth--operates as a master-image for these plays, it illustrates how they create sublime horror through intuitions of mysterious more-than-human agencies and of worlds beyond the visible. Though tightly focused on a specific body of imagery, the book strikes up dialogue with a number of critical fields, including theories and histories of tragedy; ecocriticism and the environmental humanities; oceanic studies; and work on early modern ideas about the body, madness, and language. Countering a tendency within tragic theory to value the textual over the dramatic, it also demonstrates how the tragic effects to which it points are created through specific theatrical strategies, including the use of offstage space, intertheatricality, and the violation of dramatic conventions. Situating its arguments within recent criticism on these plays and on tragedy more generally, and pushing back against scholarship that regards the genre in Shakespeare's time as concerned more with pity than with fear, the book offers fresh and detailed readings of some of the most frequently studied plays in the English canon, including Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, The Duchess of Malfi, and The Changeling.
The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law (Oxford Handbooks)
The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law offers a sophisticated introduction to one of the most dynamic, contested, and consequential areas of American law. Election law plays a critical role in regulating the political arena at a time when most Americans are witnessing unprecedented levels of polarization. The field is rife with controversies, yet understanding it is also vital to the success of American democracy. The Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of American election law, a survey of the core themes that encompass the field, and summaries of its most pressing debates. This book is the first of its kind, bringing together 47 leading scholars of American election law to offer definitive perspectives on their field. The book begins by explaining how election law relates to several of its closest academic cousins, including constitutional law, democratic theory, and empirical social science. It then goes on to explore the major topics in election law, including the right to vote, the rules of running for office, the role of political parties, the dynamics of redistricting and gerrymandering, the history and necessity of the Voting Rights Act, the intricacies of campaign finance, and the recurring controversies surrounding election administration in the individual states. Election law warrants careful, detailed, and thorough analysis. The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law offers readers a clearly written guide to aid navigation through this thorny terrain, crystallizing controversial issues and situating them within the field's ongoing scholarly debates. The book aims to reach newcomers to the field as well as those who hope to gain a firmer understanding of election law's nuances, intricacies, and complexities. Unparalleled in the breadth and depth of its coverage, The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law is an invaluable resource for scholars, students, policymakers, and practitioners.
Calibrated Engagement: Chronicles of Local Politics in the Heartland of Myanmar (Asian Anthropologies #17)
by Stéphen HuardFor decades, the heartland of Myanmar has been configured as a pacified space under military surveillance. A closer look reveals how politics is enacted at distance with the state. Calibrated Engagement weaves together ethnography and history to chronicle the transformation of rural politics in Anya, the dry lands of central Myanmar. The book presents situations as varied as local elections, inheritance transmissions, land conflicts and ceremonies, to show that politics is about how people calibrate the way they engage with each other.
Playing the Hand We Are Dealt: The Counterpoint of Fate and Freewill in Literature and Life
by Michael JacksonThe relationship between literature and life can be construed as a counterpoint of fate and freewill. Rather than equating fate to the ‘hand we are dealt’ which is reducible to the social or familial environments into which we are born, this book explores the idea of fate through the books that shape our lives and under whose influence we write. Writing in this sense is seen as beyond its utility of making meaning. It is a way of recovering agency in the face of overwhelming experiences. In juxtaposing factuality and fiction, the author makes a case for a radically empirical approach to human experience.
Calibrated Engagement: Chronicles of Local Politics in the Heartland of Myanmar (Asian Anthropologies #17)
by Stéphen HuardFor decades, the heartland of Myanmar has been configured as a pacified space under military surveillance. A closer look reveals how politics is enacted at distance with the state. Calibrated Engagement weaves together ethnography and history to chronicle the transformation of rural politics in Anya, the dry lands of central Myanmar. The book presents situations as varied as local elections, inheritance transmissions, land conflicts and ceremonies, to show that politics is about how people calibrate the way they engage with each other.
Playing the Hand We Are Dealt: The Counterpoint of Fate and Freewill in Literature and Life
by Michael JacksonThe relationship between literature and life can be construed as a counterpoint of fate and freewill. Rather than equating fate to the ‘hand we are dealt’ which is reducible to the social or familial environments into which we are born, this book explores the idea of fate through the books that shape our lives and under whose influence we write. Writing in this sense is seen as beyond its utility of making meaning. It is a way of recovering agency in the face of overwhelming experiences. In juxtaposing factuality and fiction, the author makes a case for a radically empirical approach to human experience.
Voices in the Dark: The Energy Lives of Refugees (Forced Migration #50)
by Sarah Rosenberg-JansenHumanitarianism is in crisis: refugee numbers increase every year and humanitarian agencies are struggling to meet the needs of displaced people. In refugee camps all over the world, refugees are forced to secure their own access to energy and are provided with limited cooking resources and minimal electricity. Voices in the Dark draws upon a decade of original research to provide evidence on the energy lives of refugees. Focusing on refugee camps in Rwanda and Kenya, the book identifies that urgent change is required within humanitarian responses to forced migration and the climate crisis to ensure that future energy provision in displacement settings is sustainable, reliable and affordable for refugees.
Rag Fair: A Different Migration History of London’s East End, 1780-1850 (Studies in British and Imperial History #10)
by Ole MünchIn the early Victorian age, the streets of East London were home to migrants from different regions and religions. In the midst of this area lay the famous Rag Fair street market, sustained by trade routes stretching across the globe. The market’s history demonstrates that it was not only a place of economic exchange, but also an intercultural contact zone where Jewish and Irish migrants mingled, entered client relationships and forged political alliances. Reconstructing the varied (partly multiethnic) group-building processes operating in the market, Rag Fair draws on approaches across migration history, economic history, economic anthropology and the sociology of political movements to uncover the social mechanisms at work in the old clothing trade.
Kubrick's Mitteleuropa: The Central European Imaginary in the Films of Stanley Kubrick
by Nathan Abrams Jeremi SzaniawskiStanley Kubrick was arguably one of the most influential American directors of the post-World War II era, and his Central European Jewish heritage, though often overlooked, greatly influenced his oeuvre. Kubrick's Mitteleuropa explores this influence in ways that range from his work with Hungarian and Polish composers Bela Bartok, György Ligeti, and Krzysztof Penderecki to the visual inspiration of artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and other central European Modernists. Beyond exploring the Mitteleuropa sensibility in Kubrick's films, the contributions in this volume also provide important commentary on the reception of his films in countries across Eastern Europe.
Rag Fair: A Different Migration History of London’s East End, 1780-1850 (Studies in British and Imperial History #10)
by Ole MünchIn the early Victorian age, the streets of East London were home to migrants from different regions and religions. In the midst of this area lay the famous Rag Fair street market, sustained by trade routes stretching across the globe. The market’s history demonstrates that it was not only a place of economic exchange, but also an intercultural contact zone where Jewish and Irish migrants mingled, entered client relationships and forged political alliances. Reconstructing the varied (partly multiethnic) group-building processes operating in the market, Rag Fair draws on approaches across migration history, economic history, economic anthropology and the sociology of political movements to uncover the social mechanisms at work in the old clothing trade.
Voices in the Dark: The Energy Lives of Refugees (Forced Migration #50)
by Sarah Rosenberg-JansenHumanitarianism is in crisis: refugee numbers increase every year and humanitarian agencies are struggling to meet the needs of displaced people. In refugee camps all over the world, refugees are forced to secure their own access to energy and are provided with limited cooking resources and minimal electricity. Voices in the Dark draws upon a decade of original research to provide evidence on the energy lives of refugees. Focusing on refugee camps in Rwanda and Kenya, the book identifies that urgent change is required within humanitarian responses to forced migration and the climate crisis to ensure that future energy provision in displacement settings is sustainable, reliable and affordable for refugees.
Kubrick's Mitteleuropa: The Central European Imaginary in the Films of Stanley Kubrick
by Nathan Abrams Jeremi SzaniawskiStanley Kubrick was arguably one of the most influential American directors of the post-World War II era, and his Central European Jewish heritage, though often overlooked, greatly influenced his oeuvre. Kubrick's Mitteleuropa explores this influence in ways that range from his work with Hungarian and Polish composers Bela Bartok, György Ligeti, and Krzysztof Penderecki to the visual inspiration of artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, and other central European Modernists. Beyond exploring the Mitteleuropa sensibility in Kubrick's films, the contributions in this volume also provide important commentary on the reception of his films in countries across Eastern Europe.
The Sexual Economy of Capitalism (Currencies: New Thinking for Financial Times)
by Noam YuranEconomics has long modeled its theories on bakers and butchers rather than husbands, wives, lovers, and prostitutes. This book argues that exchanges involving sex and intimacy, far from being external or exceptional in relation to the workings of the economy, come closest to the reality of capitalist money. Undertaking an inquiry into the sexual economy of capitalism, Noam Yuran analyzes the erotic and gendered meanings that suffuse basic economic concepts, from money to the commodity. It is not entirely true, Yuran shows, that in capitalism everything has its price. In fact, the category of things money cannot buy, including love, forms a central axis around which capitalist economic life is organized. It is inscribed on goods and economic motivations and conduct, and distinguishes capitalism from precapitalist economies in which marriage was an exchange and wives were owned. In conversation with psychoanalysis, feminist theory, and the heterodox tradition of economic thought, this book maps the erotic dimension of capitalism onto concrete economic questions around money, goods, private property, and capital. Yuran offers readers a powerful understanding of capitalism in its unique articulation of love, sex, and money.
The Sexual Economy of Capitalism (Currencies: New Thinking for Financial Times)
by Noam YuranEconomics has long modeled its theories on bakers and butchers rather than husbands, wives, lovers, and prostitutes. This book argues that exchanges involving sex and intimacy, far from being external or exceptional in relation to the workings of the economy, come closest to the reality of capitalist money. Undertaking an inquiry into the sexual economy of capitalism, Noam Yuran analyzes the erotic and gendered meanings that suffuse basic economic concepts, from money to the commodity. It is not entirely true, Yuran shows, that in capitalism everything has its price. In fact, the category of things money cannot buy, including love, forms a central axis around which capitalist economic life is organized. It is inscribed on goods and economic motivations and conduct, and distinguishes capitalism from precapitalist economies in which marriage was an exchange and wives were owned. In conversation with psychoanalysis, feminist theory, and the heterodox tradition of economic thought, this book maps the erotic dimension of capitalism onto concrete economic questions around money, goods, private property, and capital. Yuran offers readers a powerful understanding of capitalism in its unique articulation of love, sex, and money.
Walking Out: America’s New Trade Policy in the Asia-Pacific and Beyond
by Michael L. BeemanFrom tariff wars to torn-up trade agreements, Michael Beeman explores America's recent and dramatic turn away from support for freer, rules-based trade to instead go its own new way. Focusing on America's trade engagements in the Asia-Pacific, he contrasts the trade policy choices made by America's leaders over several generations with those of today–decisions that are now undermining the trading system America created and triggering new tensions between America and its trading partners, allies and adversaries alike. With keen insight as a former senior U.S. trade official, Beeman argues that America's exceptionally deep political divisions are driving its policy reversals, giving rise to a new trade policy characterized by zero-sum beliefs about the kind of trade America wants with the world and about new rules for trade that it wants for itself. With enormous implications for the future of regional and global trade, this timely analysis unravels the implications of America's seismic shift in approach for the future of the rules-based trading order and America's role in it. Walking Out is essential reading for anyone interested in the domestic and international political economy of trade, international relations, and the future of America's role in the global economy.
The Rise and Fall of the Italian Communist Party: A Transnational History (Stanford–Hoover Series on Authoritarianism)
by Silvio PonsThis book reassesses the history of Italian communism in international perspective. Analyzing the rise and fall of the Italian Communist Party as a case study in the global history of communism, Silvio Pons considers a wide range of relational and temporal contexts, from the practices of internationalism to the training of militants and leaders, and to networks established not only in Europe but also in the colonial and postcolonial world. Pons focuses on the attempts of the Italian Communist Party to forge an intellectually defensible party program that combined the international demands of Moscow with the Italians' attempts to develop their own foreign and domestic policies according to their own political circumstances. Following three leaders of the Italian Communist Party (Antonio Gramsci, Palmiro Togliatti, and Enrico Berlinguer) from the First World War to the fall of the Soviet Union, Silvio Pons considers the broader relationship between communism and Cold War history, the history of decolonization, and the rise of "Europe" as a political category.
The Rise and Fall of the Italian Communist Party: A Transnational History (Stanford–Hoover Series on Authoritarianism)
by Silvio PonsThis book reassesses the history of Italian communism in international perspective. Analyzing the rise and fall of the Italian Communist Party as a case study in the global history of communism, Silvio Pons considers a wide range of relational and temporal contexts, from the practices of internationalism to the training of militants and leaders, and to networks established not only in Europe but also in the colonial and postcolonial world. Pons focuses on the attempts of the Italian Communist Party to forge an intellectually defensible party program that combined the international demands of Moscow with the Italians' attempts to develop their own foreign and domestic policies according to their own political circumstances. Following three leaders of the Italian Communist Party (Antonio Gramsci, Palmiro Togliatti, and Enrico Berlinguer) from the First World War to the fall of the Soviet Union, Silvio Pons considers the broader relationship between communism and Cold War history, the history of decolonization, and the rise of "Europe" as a political category.
Why the Church?: Self-Optimization or Community of Faith (Cultural Memory in the Present)
by Hans JoasWhy did Christianity produce the special organizational form "church" in the first place? Is it possible to be a Christian without the church? To what extent is Christian faith in community with other believers an alternative to the mere self-optimization of individuals? In this accessible and questioning new work, Hans Joas traverses theological, church-historical, sociological, and ethical territory in search of a viable conception of the church adequate to contemporary globalized societies. Across eleven essays that draw on work by Ernst Troeltsch, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, H. Richard Niebuhr, Leszek Kolakowski and others, Joas reflects on key debates—from the failure of so-called secularization theory to explain religiosity in modern society, to the role of Christianity and the church in relation to rampant nationalism and refugee crises, and to the question of whether or not human dignity ever was, or still is, the highest value in the West. Addressing the sociology of the church as the distinctive communal formation of Christianity for the last two millennia, Joas underscores the need for Christian conceptions of church to balance theological sensibility with concrete sociological grounding. In the process, he considers the relation of a community of faith to contemporary ideas about the optimization of life.
Why the Church?: Self-Optimization or Community of Faith (Cultural Memory in the Present)
by Hans JoasWhy did Christianity produce the special organizational form "church" in the first place? Is it possible to be a Christian without the church? To what extent is Christian faith in community with other believers an alternative to the mere self-optimization of individuals? In this accessible and questioning new work, Hans Joas traverses theological, church-historical, sociological, and ethical territory in search of a viable conception of the church adequate to contemporary globalized societies. Across eleven essays that draw on work by Ernst Troeltsch, Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, H. Richard Niebuhr, Leszek Kolakowski and others, Joas reflects on key debates—from the failure of so-called secularization theory to explain religiosity in modern society, to the role of Christianity and the church in relation to rampant nationalism and refugee crises, and to the question of whether or not human dignity ever was, or still is, the highest value in the West. Addressing the sociology of the church as the distinctive communal formation of Christianity for the last two millennia, Joas underscores the need for Christian conceptions of church to balance theological sensibility with concrete sociological grounding. In the process, he considers the relation of a community of faith to contemporary ideas about the optimization of life.
The In-Between in Javanese Performing Arts: History and Myth, Interculturalism and Interreligiosity (Music / Culture)
by SumarsamThis book is the first comprehensive overview of Javanese performing arts from their origins to their dynamic present. Renowned scholar and musician Sumarsam draws from a lifetime of immersion in both wayang and gamelan to guide readers through the concept of the "in-between," revealing how the interplay of dualisms—myth and history, sacred and secular, personal and cultural—forms the bedrock of Javanese performance. Rigorously researched historical case studies reveal the intricate relationship between histories and mythologies in Java. Wayang, accompanied by gamelan, is a multimedia performance imbued with rich historical, aesthetic, religious, and emotional associations. Sumarsam delves into this intricate, profound, and ever-evolving art form, exploring its diverse manifestations and venues, from courtly village entertainment-cum-ritual to palace-based aesthetic expressions of cultural proficiency; from coastal mercantile entrepots to the verdant wet rice terraces of Java; from colonial plantation and textile factory cultures to communities centered around contemporary industrial estates and creative economy initiatives. An essential resource for scholars, musicians, and enthusiasts of wayang and gamelan, The In-Between in Javanese Performing Arts offers an unparalleled immersion into the heart of traditional Javanese performing arts, revealing their profound impact on Javanese culture, identity, and artistic expression.
Between the Night and Its Music: New and Selected Poems (Wesleyan Poetry Series)
by A. B. SpellmanA. B. Spellman is an acclaimed American poet, music critic, and arts administrator. He is widely recognized as a leading figure in the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, a cultural and literary movement that emphasized Black identity, pride, and artistic expression. Between the Night and Its Music brings together A. B. Spellman's early work with a collection of powerful new poems. Spellman's literary career took flight in 1965 with his debut poetry collection, The Beautiful Days, which introduced his distinctive voice blending elements of jazz, blues, and African oral traditions. In 1966, Four Lives in the Bebop Business established Spellman as a respected music critic and scholar. It was a groundbreaking work that chronicled the lives and struggles of four influential jazz musicians. Spellman held senior positions at the National Endowment for the Arts for thirty years with lasting impact on arts funding for inner cities and rural and tribal communities. In addition to poems from The Beautiful Days (1965) and Things I Must Have Known (2008), this book contains a trove of new and uncollected poems, confirming Spellman's continued centrality to contemporary American literature. This is an essential volume for readers already familiar with Spellman, and an excellent introduction for new readers. Lauri Scheyer's introduction situates Spellman's work within jazz writing, Black Arts, and American poetry broadly.[sample text]THE TWISTa dancer's worldis walls, movementconfined: musicgod's last breath.rhythm: the last beating of his heart. a dancerfollows that sound, blindto its source, toward wallswith others. she cannot dance aloneshe thinks of thoughtas windows, as ice around the dancecan you break it? move
Silencing the Drum: Religious Racism and Afro-Brazilian Sacred Music
by Danielle N. Boaz Umi VaughanSilencing the Drum exposes the profound struggle of Afro-Brazilian sacred music against escalating intolerance. Danielle N. Boaz and Umi Vaughan blend legal scholarship with ethnomusicology, offering a compelling narrative rooted in interviews with religious leaders, musicians, and activists across Brazil. This multidisciplinary exploration examines the relentless attacks against the practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions—from discriminatory noise complaints in Bahia to vigilante violence in Rio de Janeiro. The volume integrates multimedia elements including musical samples to vividly illustrate the struggles and resilience of Afro-Brazilian communities in the face of discrimination. As Silencing the Drum confronts the larger global issues of racism and religious freedom, it provides essential insights for scholars, activists, and anyone passionate about human rights and cultural preservation.
The legacy of John Polidori: The Romantic vampire and its progeny
by Sam George and Bill HughesJohn Polidori’s novella The Vampyre (1819) is perhaps ‘the most influential horror story of all time’ (Frayling). Polidori’s story transformed the shambling, mindless monster of folklore into a sophisticated, seductive aristocrat that stalked London society rather than being confined to the hinterlands of Eastern Europe. Polidori’s Lord Ruthven was thus the ancestor of the vampire as we know it. This collection explores the genesis of Polidori’s vampire. It then tracks his bloodsucking progeny across the centuries and maps his disquieting legacy. Texts discussed range from the Romantic period, including the fascinating and little-known The Black Vampyre (1819), through the melodramatic vampire theatricals in the 1820s, to contemporary vampire film, paranormal romance, and science fiction. The essays emphasise the background of colonial revolution and racial oppression in the early nineteenth century and the cultural shifts of postmodernity.