The newly formed Greater Romania engaged in a process of modernization, with Bucharest as its flagship metropolis, striving to be recognized internationally and reach economic stability. Women’s fashion became a marker in substantiating Romania’s self-assertion as a modern state, with great emphasis on creating a viable textile industry. This occ…[Read more]

This paper proposes a journey between Bucharest viewed as Little Paris and the original Paris, to determine the way in which the two capitals communicated with each other, whether it was based on dynamic interactions, beyond a simplistic Parisian dialogue. I will interpret Little Paris as an identity construction, clearly mirrored in the universe…[Read more]

My paper will use gender studies and theories about nation and nationhood in order to explain the argument that beauty queens are viewed by the pageant organizers and aficionados as ambassadors not only of local, regional and national beauty, but also representatives of their cultures and nations. Therefore, they not only function as objects for…[Read more]

My intention in this brief monograph is to stimulate a re-assessment of laïcité by philosophers and theologians, particularly within the Anglophone academic world. Often the term is understood by Anglophones not quite as accurately as its French advocates intend. The translated texts are copied from the official French Government website, as i…[Read more]

Laïcité: Some Catholic readers may be familiar with Giuseppe Alberigo’s understanding of the term as outlined in “Facteurs de laïcité au Concile Vatican II” in Revue des Sciences Religieuses, tome 74, fas. 2, 2000, in which he writes in a footnote: “Ce mot est utilisé dans le sens du processus de ‘déclericalisation’ à l’interieur de l’É…[Read more]

In the period 1929-1936, Romania evolved from a traditional agricultural society to a modern, cosmopolitan and consumerist society. Bucharest, its capital,synthesized these transformations. The ideal of beauty – as reflected in fashion – was subject to the same processes of modernization and commodification. Beauty contests showed how the cha…[Read more]

This paper delineates the conceptual variations between the notions ‘fashion’, ‘dress’ and ‘costume’ in English-language texts on women’s garment histories using relevant examples from interwar Romanian periodicals. The aim is to offer a more precise formulation, as these three terms have largely been used interchangeably. This paper is built on a…[Read more]

Interwar Romania was a space of social-cultural contrasts which it wholeheartedly embraced. Bucharest, as the capital, was the perfect mirror of Romanian society, a liminal space, geographically and culturally. Women’s fashion and beauty in interwar middle-class Bucharest, offers a wide array of unexplored research questions which are addressed i…[Read more]

Studiul de față decodifică influența Hollywood-ului asupra femeilor consumatoare de modă în cazul particular al Gretei Garbo și identificarea impactului său concret după cum a fost reprezentată în presa interbelică. Aprofundarea acestor aspecte ale modei interbelice, folosind metodele inerent interdisciplinare ale studiilor de modă, oferă o imag…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: La cibernética, la neurología, la semiótica y la narratología han de emprender conjuntamente el estudio interdisciplinar de la consciencia entendida como la circulación retroalimentativa compleja entre distintos sistemas y circuitos cerebrales—así como entre distintas modalidades de representación en el cerebro. Se entender…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: ‘Modernidad Líquida’ de Zygmunt Bauman ofrece perspectivas iluminadoras para la interpretación de muchos fenómenos característicos de cultura y la economía del siglo XXI. Leemos a su luz la política de endeudamiento y déficit sistemático de los estados nacionales, y en concreto de España, promovida en años recientes por el establ…[Read more]

This mini-essay was published as part of a “dossier” of authors discussing various forms of “queer inhumanisms.” In my piece, I address the relations between queer studies and post/humanist studies through the lens of Michel Foucault’s 1981 interview, “Friendship as a Way of Life.” These relations are tied together in critique but also in various…[Read more]

An commentary upon the poet Spencer Reese, and more specifically, upon Reece’s “addresses” in his book “The Clerk’s Tale: Poems” (Houghton Mifflin, 2004) in light of Barbara Johnson’s work on the “apostrophe” in her book chapter “Toys R Us,” in her book “Persons and Things” (Harvard University Press, 2008), and also in light of Graham Harman’s…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: El concepto de ‘autor implícito’ (implied author) lo difundió Wayne Booth en ‘La Retórica de la Ficción’ (1961) pero, como veremos, algo apuntaron al respecto con anterioridad otros autores. Aquí señalamos más en concreto el precedente de Hegel. ______…[Read more]

Inspired and informed by contemporary research within Science and Technology Studies (STS), this essay discusses how social epidemiological research serves to create and produce health inequalities in society. Focusing in particular on how social epidemiology establishes the relationship between socio-economic status and health, it examines how…[Read more]

Spanish abstract: El inmaterialismo del siglo XVIII nos enseñó que el mundo que habitamos no es de naturaleza física sino básicamente informacional o semiótica. Yendo más allá del constructivismo psicológico y de la fenomenología, nos sugieren Berkeley y otros que el mundo es una construcción mental—que habitamos, sin sospecharlo, en una realida…[Read more]

A note on the existential significance of Miguel de Unamuno’s metafiction. His novels question the ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ which is the bedrock of workaday human reality. (A retropost from 2011).

An article (20 p., PDF) about the claims and reality of traditional spiritual and rational philosophy, how they have set back, damaged, and obstructed improvements of the human condition, and how we can overcome these impediments to a thriving existence and find a new beginning.

Text of my keynote talk at Universitas Negeri Semarang (UNNES) about video game cultures, focusing on the global south.

Vae terrae et mari! * QRt by PRURITUS MIGRANS * CC: BY-NC-SA