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).

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]

Part of a special issue “Making Animal Materials in Time” (HSNS 53, no. 3)

For the 16th birthday of the hereditary prince Carl August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach on 3 September 1773, his teacher Christoph Martin Wieland had the play “The Choice of Hercules”, a “dramatic cantata”, performed at the Weimar court theatre. Did Wieland thus connect to a tradition of the Hercules myth connected with the dynasty or the place…[Read more]

This essay traces the transformations of aristocratic representation using the example of the Russian Tsar’s daughter Maria Pavlovna (1786–1859), who was married to the Weimar court in 1804. Maria Pavlovna endeavoured to put her informal ruling techniques, charitable undertakings as well as her patronage and memorial ambitions in Weimar’s ‘…[Read more]

This paper explores the dynamics of women’s fashion marketing in advertisements and promotional materials related to Western ideas, materials or products. It will analyse published promotional visual and written texts in the interwar Bucharest press, with local or national distribution. The aim is to ascertain the degree and nature of Western w…[Read more]

“The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope published in 1712 is a mock-heroic narrative which satirically
glorifies trivial incident of cutting of locks of protagonist Belinda. This poem was written in the
Augustan Era (1660-1784) which is marked by the period of scientific reason and rationality, whose
effect can be seen on the writers of those…[Read more]

This book brings together thirteen contributors from diverse backgrounds – mean and women born in Cameroon, England, Scotland, South Africa, Zambia. What they all have in common is years of service within their respective communities, working individually and within projects and programmes, with both young people and adults to build social c…[Read more]

In this short article I argue that the UK government’s decision not to update the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (GRA) is more than a missed opportunity. It weaponises the GRA, now an effective instrument of assimilation and containment. The failure to reform the GRA seems like a maintenance of the status quo, but given that the circumstances have s…[Read more]

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 examines the influence of urban fashion ideas disseminated worldwide from France and how they impacted the Romanian ideas of style and beauty, as well as the nature of the communication between Paris and the Little Paris. My aim is to decode the interwar Romanian interpretation of the new woman notion and assess what type of role…[Read more]

This paper examines the influence of urban fashion ideas disseminated worldwide from France and how they impacted the Romanian ideas of style and beauty, as well as the nature of the communication between Paris and the so-colled ”Little Paris”. My aim is to decode the interwar Romanian interpretation of the new woman notion and assess what typ…[Read more]

The Camden township is located 65 kilometres southwest of the Sydney CBD and, in recent years, has been absorbed by Sydney’s urban growth. The main streets are a mix of Victorian, Edwardian and interwar architecture comprising commercial, government and domestic buildings. The town site was originally the entry point into what became Governor…[Read more]

Camden War Cemetery is located on the corner of Burragorang and Cawdor Roads, three kilometres south of the Camden Post Office. The cemetery is on a slight rise above the Nepean River floodplain, with a northerly aspect at an elevation of 75 metres. The cemetery contains the graves of 17 Royal Australian Air Force servicemen, four army personnel…[Read more]

खूबसूरत प्राकृतिक दृश्यों से परिपूर्ण किन्नौर का समाज व संस्कृति शेष भारत से अलग है। यह बौद्ध धर्म का इलाका है, जिसे हिंदूवादी संस्कृति लीलती जा रही है। आर्थिक संपन्नता के आगमन से जाति-आधारित उत्पीड़न और भेदभाव कम हो रहा है। प्रमोद रंजन ने इस यात्रा संस्मरण में किन्नौर की विशिष्ट संस्कृति, बहु पत्नी प्रथा, वहां के समाज और राजनीति…[Read more]

The pre-publication praise Natasha Brown received for her debut novel Assembly (2021) from renowned writers like Bernardine Evaristo or Ali Smith is quite remarkable. The author had been virtually unknown to the larger public before winning one of the London Writers Awards in the literary fiction category in 2019. As a young Black British woman of…[Read more]

The Camden Miss Showgirl competition is, in many ways, an anachronism from the past. It has survived for 49 years under the onslaught of feminism, post-modernism, globalization and urbanisation. A worthy feat indeed.
The competition is still popular, and the local press is always a strong supporter. The 2010 Camden Showgirl competition attracted…[Read more]

The music chapel of the Cathedral of Segorbe has historically played a primordial role in the history of Spanish music, constituting a focus of musical activity that attracted a numerous group of singers, instrumentalists, organists and chapel masters who formed part of the aforementioned chapel, whose antecedents date back to the mid-13th…[Read more]

The partition of British India into two sovereign independent nations of India and Pakistan in 1947 was one of the most defining moments of the socio-political course of the sub-continent. The fight for independence from colonial rule and the rise of nationalism rooted in the religious discourse of two prominent religious communities- Hindus and…[Read more]

In this book chapter, Dr. Davis examines the depiction of a dissimulated desire for material improvement (mejora) as it is expressed in the epic poetry of imperial Spain, particularly in Alonso de Ercilla’s La Araucana. She shows that within the aristocratic context of the times, the desire for personal betterment or “mejora” is always contingent…[Read more]