Arts & Humanities
Exploring the impact of Title IX on women’s rights and inclusion in sports
Title IX is an amendment to the 1964 U.S. Civil Rights Act introduced in 1972, which prohibits discrimination based on gender in educational programmes and sports. Despite sparking heated debates and having unexpected consequences, this law undoubtedly played a key role in broadening women’s rights, giving women access to sports and to post-secondary education. Denise Green, Chair for the Department […]
Investigating and diagnosing cultural assets with Go-on-Target
Dr Monica Dinu and her colleagues at The National Institute of Research and Development for Optoelectronics – INOE 2000 in Romania are working on the Go-on-Target (GoT) project. The team are developing an innovative remote GoT system for the non-invasive investigation, diagnosis, and monitoring of cultural assets for use in Heritage Science. It will deliver valuable results to improve the […]
Just war and class conflict in Shakespeare’s ‘Henry V’
‘We few, we happy few, we band of brothers’ – King Henry’s speech to rouse his troops before the Battle of Agincourt is one of the most famous in Shakespeare. But what does ‘Henry V’ tell us about theories of war in Elizabethan England? Professor Anne-Marie Walkowicz of Ohio’s Central State University in the USA argues that the play explores the […]
From Charlemagne to Obama: Unifying ancestries and Western European genealogy
What do Britain’s Prince George and former American President Barack Obama have in common? The answer: they are both descendants of Charlemagne, the 9th-century Holy Roman Emperor. Reagan W Moore, Emeritus Professor at the School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA is creating a genealogical history of the Western world. Based on the […]
The paradox of Western hegemony of human nature
The world faces unprecedented social and environmental challenges that demand a coordinated, global response. However, such a response is hampered by a conundrum. The challenges are partly the outcome of Western notions of what it is to be human, yet those very notions will probably dictate the spirit and strength of how the challenges are addressed. Dr Michael Zichy, a […]
Blurred boundaries: Art in the age of social media
What divides ‘serious’ or high art from ‘popular’ art? And has the line between these become more blurred in the digital era? These questions are asked by Professor Hans Abbing, a practising visual artist and professor of art sociology and economics at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. In his book The economies of serious and popular art: […]
Green baize gladiators: Bridge as a mindsport for all
Electronic sports, or esports, have evolved the concept of ‘sport’, especially around the mental acuity needed to play. Professor Samantha Punch at the University of Stirling, together with Dr David Scott at Abertay University, Scotland, see similarities in the card game bridge. They are helping establish a new academic subdiscipline – the sociology of mindsport. In the process, Punch and […]
Reliably exploring the presence of languages on the Internet
The Internet is a precious resource for linguists as it offers an easily accessible and broad space where they can observe the evolution of languages over time. Daniel Pimienta, Head of the Observatory of Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in the Internet (OBDILCI), has developed a method to measure the presence of languages on the Web, which was greatly enhanced in […]
The Church and Academia model: A powerhouse for harnessing pain-related prayer research
There are limited alternatives to standard prescription therapy for those suffering from chronic pain. While the biopsychosocial model of pain is well established, it often neglects the influence of religious and spiritual factors on pain. Dr Marta Illueca, a leader in the Episcopal Church in Delaware, has collaborated with Dr Samantha Meints at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School in […]
Transgressing gender and genre: Isabella Whitney’s appropriation of London
The poet Isabella Whitney is considered the first professional female writer in England to have had secular poetry published under her own name. Dr Stefani Brusberg-Kiermeier, professor of English literature at Hildesheim University, Germany, explores how Whitney presents herself as a respectable female poet in a male-dominated era by ‘appropriating’ the city of London, irrevocably weaving herself into its history […]