Arts & Humanities
Is the Corona pandemic a gateway to global surveillance?
For the first time in human history, digital surveillance technologies have allowed governments around the world to monitor almost everyone, almost everywhere, almost all the time. The public has largely accepted such measures as necessary in the fight against the Coronavirus. But are we right to passively accept the abandonment of our right to privacy – a fundamental human right […]
Artistic expressions of 21st-century change
Suzanne Anker is an artist and theorist from New York City, chair of the School of Visual Arts’ Fine Arts Department. She is also founder and director of the School’s Bio Art Laboratory, a state-of-the-art facility which gives artists a place to bring together scientific and artistic methods to create a dialogue concerning the current state of nature and science. […]
The knowing child’s quest in contemporary American fiction
The image of an adolescent growing up and making sense of the world is a familiar icon in many cultures around the world. Yuki Namiki from Tokyo Kasei University in Japan looks at how two 21st century American novels use the trope in line with literary tradition but also depart from it to explore family relationships in contemporary society. Both […]
Dear Mr Hume, your circle might actually be a spiral
Induction is typically understood as a process of deriving principles or laws from particular or individual instances. The Empiricist David Hume argued that such generalisations about the world cannot be justified using deduction (a logic-based method of reasoning), and that induction is in fact worthless, circular reasoning. However, Professor Uwe Saint-Mont of Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences in Germany argues […]
How cultural institutions prevent stigma around Lake Victoria
Professor Koen Stroeken proposes a new method of analysis for understanding cultural practices. His method extends beyond the situational analysis by intervention professionals to focus on the logics of action embedded within cultural traditions. He applies his proposed method of Cultural Analysis to describe the layered meanings within various rituals of Sukuma farmers in Tanzania. He argues against popular understandings […]
The archaeology of political corruption in Nigeria
The research of Arno Boenner focuses on political corruption in Nigeria, widely regarded as a major issue. The analysis of this topic, however, often neglects to explore the role played by imperialism. Dr Boenner considers whether there is a causal connection between colonialism and political corruption, before offering an ethics based form of governance as a potential solution. By applying […]
The historical writings of Djiguiba Camara (Guinea)
Dr Elara Bertho, of the French National Centre for Scientific Research, and Dr Marie Rodet, at SOAS University of London, have rediscovered, studied, edited, and annotated the historical work of Djiguiba Camara (c. 1885-1963), a writer and historian from Upper Guinea. Camara’s fascinating local history, “Essai d’histoire locale”, was used without direct acknowledgement by French historian Yves Person more than […]
The Algorithm that Ate the Street: A Recursive Urbanism
Paul Guzzardo’s work examines the intersection of artificially intelligent machines and the City Street. The impact of each on the other is explored through probes, or what he calls The Storyboards. Guzzardo’s storyboards simultaneously examine and sketch the digitisation of the human experience. As artists, architects, and writers explore the world of “machines and us,” Guzzardo is keen to find […]
The wisdom of the crowd: A new typology for crowdsourcing
Dr Helen K. Liu from the National Taiwan University provides a typology for crowdsourcing public services based on theories of coproduction, public sector volunteerism, and government–citizen relations. Having carried out an extensive review of existing literature on crowdsourcing, she systematically examined the fundamental concepts applied to defining the role of citizens engaged in crowdsourcing practices in the public sector. The […]
The evolution and spiritual journey of two former Black Panther Party members: George Jackson and Eldridge Cleaver
Dr Trevin Jones is an English Professor at St. Louis Community College. In his dissertation on African American prison writers, he explores how different African American male prison writers explore issues of activism, masculinity, identity, and spirituality. In particular, he focuses on two former members of the Black Panther Party: George Jackson and Eldridge Cleaver. Although coming from similar perspectives, […]