Einstein observed, “Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible laws and connections, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration of this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in fact, religious.” As the p…[Read more]

‘There is no truth, only perception of truth’, and that perception too changes with time. Lysistrata is one such text where this difference of perception prevails. Written by Aristophanes in 411 BCE, Lysistrata is one of the eleven Old Greek Comedy plays surviving out of forty-two. The play revolves around the Peleponnesian war, when women hav…[Read more]

No descubro nada nuevo comenzando estas líneas aludiendo al sobradamente conocido carácter de mecenas cultural y de impulsora de grandes obras artísticas de Isabel la Católica , cuyos resultados son fáciles de detectar a lo largo de todo su reinado (1474-1504). Concretando este comentario general en lo que ha sido el núcleo de mi tesis docto…[Read more]

This is pre-publication preview introduces the major questions, methods, and insights of my book When a Human Gives Birth to a Raven: Rabbis & the Reproduction of Species (UC Press, 2023).

This chapter presents the significance of both Spanish cancioneros and Portuguese cancioneiros for the scholarly examination of medieval Jewish history and literature on the Iberian Peninsula. Through a close integration of historiographical and literary analysis, all major cancioneros are examined and contextualized based on exemplary…[Read more]

This is a history of the Centre William Rappard, the first building designed to house an international organization in Geneva, and its art treasures. For nearly a century, these works of art and decorations offered by governments and institutions encouraged smooth diplomacy and fluent international negotiations in the fields of labour, trade and…[Read more]

In lieu of an abstract, here is the beginning of the article… One of the most striking things about speculative literature of the twenty-first century has been its increasingly focussed interest in imagining impending disaster: from the escalating likelihood of biblical deluge on a planetary scale to looming ecocatastrophes of drought and…[Read more]

This article explores an emerging cluster of ecocatastrophe narratives that locate utopian possibility within the Earth’s sub-crustal lithosphere. Texts such as N. K. Jemisin’s “Broken Earth” trilogy (2015–2017), J. G. Ballard’s The Crystal World (1966), Lars von Trier’s film Melancholia (2011), Irene Solà’s Catalan novel When I Sing, Mountains…[Read more]

Du sage Varnava la merveilleuse apparition de sa vision avec exemple pour tous, cette traduction-recréation roumaine en vers du Dialogus du poète baroque hongrois Nyéki Vörös Mátyas, effectuée en Transylvanie en 1670, peut être considérée comme la première œuvre du pope Ioan de Vintz. Sur le plan européen, sa Vision de Varnava représente l…[Read more]

“Every culture develops some kind of art as surely as it develops language. Some primitive cultures have no real mythology or religion, but all have some art – dance, song, design (sometimes only on tools or on the human body). Dance, above all, seems to be the oldest elaborated art….. Art is, indeed, the spearhead of human development, social…[Read more]

While the colonial and modern history of epidemics in South Asia is well researched, the earlier developments of this subject area have hardly been studied. The project Epidemics and Crisis Management in Pre-modern South Asia aims to fill part of this gap by exploring the intellectual history of epidemics and similar disasters in South Asia and…[Read more]

We present a valuation model for pricing two asset barrier options on commodity futures. Applications to commodity futures have a number of specific. The analytical valuation formulas are also implemented. The payoff of a two asset barrier options is made against one of the assets, while the other asset is used to trigger the barrier.

Forest conservation is a very important concept across the world. It is not only crucial for climate change but also very critical for the survival of humanity. In Africa, forests have always been an important aspect of nature that is regarded with uttermost reverence and
care. Importantly, discussions on health, healthcare, culture, economics…[Read more]

A two-asset barrier option is a European style option whose value is determined by two underlying assets. One asset, S1, determines the payoff function, and the other, S2, knocks the option in or out if the S2 value crosses the barrier.

A Market Mix GIC is a type of guaranteed investment certificate, which offers a return based on a corresponding GIC rate and the performance of a basket of certain stock and bond market indices. The payoff at maturity from a Market Mix GIC can be shown equal to the invested principal plus this principal times the sum of the minimum guaranteed…[Read more]

The Market Mix GIC is a type of guaranteed investment certificate, of 3- or 5-year term, which offers a return based on a corresponding GIC rate and the performance of a basket of certain stock and bond market indices. To determine the rate of return, the percentage change in each index level from the initial level is calculated. Here the initial…[Read more]

A pricing model was developed for pricing a total return swap between two parties. Here party A receives LIBOR plus a spread, but pays out the equity dividends arising from a collateralized loan obligation (CLO).

“The company builds cars and destroys men” was the promotional tagline of one of the posters for “Blue Collar” (1978). Shot in Detroit and Kalamazoo, Michigan, the film stars Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto playing three Detroit auto workers in financial despair who break into and rob the offices of their own union. “Blue Collar”…[Read more]

भारत में फासीवादी नीतियों का नौकरीपेशा मध्यम वर्ग प्रतिरोध नहीं कर रहा। हालांकि, प्रतिरोध की अधिक जिम्मेवारी उन प्राध्यापकों पर है, जो स्वयं को बुद्धिजीवी कहते हैं और जिन्हें लिखने और बोलने के लिए किंचित अधिक नैतिक और कानूनी सुविधा प्राप्त है।

सच यह है कि इनमें से अधिकांश भय से अधिक लोभ के कारण चुप हैं और चुपचाप निजाम बदलने का इंतजार कर रहे हैं…[Read more]

Pese a su prestigio académico y a la importancia de su producción poética, el valenciano Juan Fernández de Heredia es un poeta cancioneril de cuya vida y obra todavía albergamos bastantes lagunas. Un factor que podría explicar esta situación es que sus poesías completas, editadas por Rafael Ferreres a mediados del siglo pasado, (Fernández de Hered…[Read more]