Book review:
Pilar Cagiao Vila (Coord.). Diplomacia y acción cultural americana en la España de Primo de Rivera. Madrid: Marcial Pons – Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, 2020.

Through the case of Emerson’s appropriation of Persian poetry this volume provides a thought-provoking example of how the literary founding father of a nation is cosmopolitan and receptive of foreign cultures in what might seem a purely “nationalistic” agenda. It will appeal to those in the field of Persian literature, comparative liter…[Read more]

“Biopolitics” has become a popular concept for interpreting the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the term is often used vaguely, as a buzzword, and therefore loses its specificity and relevance. This article systematically explains what the biopolitical lens offers for analyzing and normatively criticizing the politics of the coronavirus. I argue that…[Read more]

In the Arabic-speaking mahjar (diaspora), the plight of the working poor was the focus of women’s philanthropy. Scholarship on welfare relief in the interwar Syrian, Lebanese, and Palestinian diaspora currently situates it within a gendered politics of benevolence. This article reconsiders that frame and argues for a class-centered reassessment o…[Read more]

First translated into Persian in 1949, Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is among the most popular works of American fiction in Iran. Although the anti-US policy of the post-1979 political system has tried to erase the manifestations of the previous period’s American influence, Iranian interest in Huckleberry Finn has been inc…[Read more]

نوگرایی شعری در کشورهای مختلف با پذیرش والت ویتمن، پدر شعر آزاد امریکا همراه بوده‌است. روندی مشابه در شعر فارسی نیز مشاهده می‌شود. آشنایی فارسی‌زبانان با ویتمن به زمانی برمی‌گردد که شعر فارسی در آستانة تحول بود. نخست یوسف اعتصام‌الملک در سال ۱۳۰۱ بخش کوتاهی از شعر ویتمن را ترجمه و در مجلة بهار منتشر کرد. بعدها پروین اعتصامی در شعر «جولای خ…[Read more]

‘Independence’ for bantustans was universally rejected by the international community in
the late 1970s and early 1980s. How the status of Lesotho and Swaziland as
internationally recognised states deeply embedded in South Africa’s economic and
political orbit differed from that of the bantustans was clear in some cases, murky in
others. The a…[Read more]

The Irish Sea which separates Great Britain and Ireland has often been written about in terms of divisions, threats, and hazards. Facing each other across that sea, the coast of Wales and Ireland’s eastern seaboard have a more complex story to tell, one characterised by intimate if troubled lines of connection. A place of passage for centuries, t…[Read more]

Two sections of a book comparing creation myths from ancient Greece and Rome with their Japanese counterparts from the early 8th Century Kojiki (古事記, “Records of Ancient Matters”). These fusion essays are summations of previous book sections by Greek and Japanese authors on the elements of fire and air, respectively, and, drawing from Plato and J…[Read more]

How could the ideal of a universal brotherhood of mankind be realized in an age of nationalism, colonialism and culture wars? “With God, for fatherland and humanity?” is the first comprehensive study of masonic internationalism. It explores, with a focus on England, France, Germany, and Italy, how European masonic associations promoted or opposed…[Read more]

The “Spanish influenza” pandemic that struck Egypt in fall 1918 resulted in the death of eleven out of every one thousand people. Despite the mass suffering caused by the pandemic, it has been largely ignored by historians. I describe how the Egyptian public health service was unprepared for a major health crisis because resources were red…[Read more]

A foreign exchange swap or currency swap is a contract under which two parties agree to exchange two currencies at a set rate and then to re-exchange those currencies at an agreed upon rate at a fixed date in the future. Therefore, an FX swap consists of two transactions: a spot transaction and a forward transaction.

A currency option or FX option is a contract that gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a certain currency at a specified exchange rate on or before a specified date. Currency options are one of the most common ways for corporations, individuals or financial institutions to hedge against adverse movements in exchange rates.

A currency future, also known as an FX future , is a future contract to exchange one currency for another at a specified date in the future at an exchange rate that is fixed on the purchase date. By using a currency future contract, the parties are able to effectively lock-in the exchange rate for a future transaction. Speculation and hedging in…[Read more]

A currency forward or FX forward contract is an agreement that allows the buyer to lock in an exchange rate the day on which the agreement is signed for a transaction that will be completed later. Forward contracts are one of the main methods used to hedge against exchange rate volatility, as they avoid the impact of currency fluctuation over the…[Read more]

An FX Asian option or Asian currency option is a special type of option contract where the payoff depends on the average of the underlying exchange rates over a certain period of time. The payoff is different from the case of a European option or American option, where the payoff of the option contract depends on the underlying FX rate at exercise date.

Die Debatte um die politische Differenz stellt Kontingenz und Konfliktualität als fundamentale Eigenschaften des Politischen heraus. Dies birgt ein Problem für die postfundamentalistische Demokratietheorie, die auf Augenhöhe mit dieser Debatte argumentieren will: Durch die Kontingentsetzung aller normativen Begründungen ist zunächst unklar, welc…[Read more]

A floating coupon note is a very flexible and generic funding product. The issuer pays the buyer periodic floating coupons based on a spread-adjusted reference rate, such as LIBOR. The buyer pays an upfront fee to the issuer. Also, the buyer pays the issuer a notional amount at inception and the issuer returns it upon cancellation or maturity of the deal.

Zero coupon bonds are issued at a deep discount and repaid the face value at maturity. The greater the length of the maturity is the cheaper price a bond has. Unlike other bonds, the investor’s return is the difference between the purchase price and the face value. An investor preferring a long-term investment may purchase zero coupon bonds such a…[Read more]