Panorama of scholarly work on women and music in Morocco

The article explores why a particular group of Moroccan musicians conceives of different performances of a sung poem titled “Kharbusha” as unchanging despite variables arising from the dynamics of performance practices. To this end, I explore the seeming discrepancy between discourses about “Kharbusha” and its performance, and what this discrep…[Read more]

The article examines Moroccan professional female singer-dancers (shikhat) in relation to other professional female performers . An analysis of the role that women have as entertainers, and in particular of their behavior in the course of performance, will show how they affect the status of each class of performers. Sketching a panorama of the…[Read more]

‘Aita is a sung poetry practiced by professional female singer-dancers known as shikhat along the Moroccan Atlantic plains and plateaus. By focusing on the discourses and politics employed in the revalorization of the ‘aita, this ethnographic investigation will show how the official incorporation of the ‘aita into the Moroccan heritage has…[Read more]

The article examines Moroccan professional female singer-dancers (shikhat) in relation to other professional female performers . An analysis of the role that women have as entertainers, and in particular of their behavior in the course of performance, will show how they affect the status of each class of performers. Sketching a panorama of the…[Read more]

The essay analyzes a contemporary Indian feminist performance, Thoda Dhyaan Se (A Little Carefully, 2013), by framing it in the spatial ecosystem of the city of Delhi and explores its engagement with the feminist movement and the national imaginary of India. It examines the workings of the cultural economy of the city to discuss the effect of its…[Read more]

Composting is a material labor whereby old scraps are transformed—through practices of care and attention—into nutrient-rich new soil. In this provocation, we develop “composting” as a material metaphor to tell a particular story about the environmental humanities. Building on Donna Haraway’s work, we insist “it matters what compostable…[Read more]

In the medical humanities, there has been a growing interest in diagnosing disease in fictional characters, particularly with the idea that characters in Charles Dickens’s novels may be suffering from diseases recognised today. However, an area that deserves greater attention is the representation of women’s ageing as disease in Victorian lit…[Read more]

This paper explores how everyday religious narratives in post-disaster contexts can be interpreted as key sites of agency articulated in resistance to dominant discourses of disaster relief. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among affected communities after the 2010 floods in Pakistan, we argue that religious discourses code everyday actions with…[Read more]

Review of the book ‘Cut of the Real’ by Katerina Kolozova

This article discusses the implications of the symbology of Kali from a different and fresh perspective and positions the worship of Kali in the bigger picture of the divinisation of everything in Sanatana Dharma. It also discusses the needless marginalisation of so-called ‘ugly’ and ‘terrible’ and how these prejudices have to be overcome to…[Read more]

This article focuses on Jewish women’s experiences of the amen meal ritual. The central intention of this meal is to achieve many recitations of the word “amen” in response to benedictions recited for different sorts of food. The women’s voices and experiences, reflected in in-depth interviews with participants and participant observa…[Read more]

The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) includes several provisions concerning trade facilitation such as advance ruling, duty drawback, use of information technology, post clearance audit, and single window.One important aspect of USMCA is the inclusion of de minimis threshold for imports. De minimis is a valuation ceiling for goods…[Read more]

The question this article addresses is how the WTO supports and deals with digital trade. This article briefly discusses the historical advancement of the Internet, defines the concept of digital trade and its development in the international market. The article then analyzes how existing WTO agreements have dealt with digital trade. The article…[Read more]

This paper presents a reading of Sarah (Genesis 11:29-23:19) as a proto-trans(gender) figure. The author addresses the problem of cisnormativity and its impact on biblical interpretation. In particular, throughout this paper Sarah is presented as a character who has been cisnormalised within the literary tradition of the Biblical text in order to…[Read more]

While male illustrators including Alberto Vargas (1896–1982), George Petty (1894–1975), and Gil Elvgren (1914–1980) are synonymous with the field of early-twentieth-century pin-up art, there were in fact several women who also succeeded in the genre. Pearl Frush (1907–1986), Zoë Mozert (1907–1993), and Joyce Ballantyne (1918–2006) each establi…[Read more]

Book chapter exploring the queering of identity in Bioshock, including analysis of masks and carnivalesque culture in the game. The chapter argues that Bioshock presents an opportunity to queer identity and cultural systems, but forecloses on that possibility and instead reinscribes violence. Finally, the chapter uses its close analysis of the…[Read more]

Video game culture has a long, ongoing history of problems with representation and inclusivity, as a wide variety of forces have constructed video games and gaming as masculine. Against this
background, the popular gamer-oriented web series The Guild (2007–2013) appears to offer a unique counterperspective, presenting a gender-diverse cast and f…[Read more]

Quarter Horses are considered one of the earliest and most enduringly popular breeds of horse that is “native” to the United States.

The American Quarter Horse Association formed as a breed registry in 1940, and set clear rules for what horses could be called Quarter Horses in its stud book. Recently, after several years of legal bac…[Read more]