NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Julius Caesar in Gaul and Germania : strategy, tactics, and the use of aggressive diplomacy as a tool for war

While Caesar and his writings have been thoroughly studied for the past two centuries, it is time to make use of a new approach pioneered by Arthur M. Eckstein to study him. In his Mediterranean Anarchy, Interstate War, and the Rise of Rome Eckstein argues that Rome opportunistically conquered Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean through a series of defensive wars or “invitations”. What is novel about this approach is its use of political science paradigms, with a heavy emphasis on the concept of the realist anarchy. As such, using Eckstein’s framework and applying it to Caesar’s Bellum Gallicum this thesis shows that Caesar, contrarily to traditional historiography, did not conquer Gaul out of sheer bellicosity and personal ambition, but rather, as a result of a direct invitation from Rome’s Gallic allies to defensively interfere on their behalf in an act of bellum iustum. To do so, we will demonstrate that a state of anarchy exists in Gaul in accordance to Eckstein’s wider Mediterranean system. After which, a detailed analysis of Caesar’s De Bello Gallico will outline the specific instances in which Caesar opportunistically used this pre-existing anarchy to his advantage, before finally delving into the specificities of the “invitations” along with an analysis of Caesar’s use of aggressive diplomacy. To achieve this, we used first and foremost, Caesar’s commentaries as the primary sources, while Eckstein’s aforementioned work gave us the interpretative concepts and theoretical basis we needed; additionally, we drew on multiple supplementary primary sources and the surrounding relevant scholarship. After we demonstrated that Gaul was an anarchic system, we successfully applied Eckstein’s model, and its results clearly showed that the Gauls’ bellicosity against each other blinded them to the Roman danger, which Caesar used to systematically intervene, filling the power vacua left behind in his wake. This model is important because it provides us with an alternate explanation to the Roman conquest of Gaul, using one of history’s sister disciplines, political science. With this approach’s viability proven, it opens the door for vast other studies, in this as of yet, unexplored direction.

Keyphrases: relations diplomatiques, Anarchism, Diplomatic relations, Rome Foreign relations (510-30 B.C.), Caesar. Julius, Gaul Politics and government
Une fenêtre ouverte sur l’URSS : le Spoutnik Digest durant la Guerre froide (1968-1988)

The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 allowed the Cold War historiography to renew itself: social and cultural dimensions are acknowledged and the outlook on the cultural material emanating from USSR can be analyzed with more scientific objectivity and an appeased perspective. In 1967, a new magazine appeared in many Western cities: the Sputnik Digest. Its name referred both to the Soviet satellite that fascinated the world ten years earlier and the Reader’s Digest, the famous American magazine specialized in content aggregating, the most read and sold internationally at the time. The Sputnik Digest, published on a monthly basis, even though looking similar to its American counterpart at first sight, contained texts directly extracted from official Soviet newspapers in USSR. Without doubt a propaganda tool, like its American counterpart, the magazine however offered a fresh insight of the USSR during the Cold War: from the Sputnik Digest point of view, the Soviet Union was a peaceful country, culturally rich and a great place to live in. The magazine prioritized the valorisation of the USSR as opposed to criticizing the capitalist Western powers and the United States. From that standpoint it radically diverged from the aggressive ideological tone of the Reader’s Digest.  This master’s thesis, through this new perspective, will study the Sputnik Digest as a historical and cultural object between the years 1968 and 1988. By looking both at its format and content, it will examine the origins of this monthly journal, its targeted readership and the most covered themes, revealing the message of Soviet peace and goodwill that the magazine tried to spread worldwide during the Cold War.

Keyphrases: Spoutnik Digest (SD), Reader's Digest (RD), Magazine, Cold War, United States, Propaganda, Cultural history
Le retour du balancier : les modalités narratives du récit de vengeance dans Le Comte de Monte-Cristo d’Alexandre Dumas et dans J’irai cracher sur vos tombes de Boris Vian

Vengeance, by definition, is the act undertaken by a victim who, following an offense, decides to get justice by his own means. This narrative topos is not without representation in literature. Quite the opposite, it lays at the heart of numerous fictions from the antiquity, in which the gods avenge man’s hybris, through roman noir, where the archetype of the detective attempts to bring his own justice in a somber world, up to our contemporary fictions.  Thinkers, philosophers and theoreticians from all eras have attempted to identify the pillars which support vengeance in order to apprehend its (im)possibility to be “Just”. Such debate similarly reaches the literary world, where narratives go both ways. On the one hand, certain narratives idealize vengeance by representing the journey of a protagonist who succeeds, continuing through the vindictive quest, in achieving a transcendental Justice which proves cathartic for the reader. On the other hand, some narratives highlight the limits of personal justice by staging a protagonist unable to bring about vigilante redemption, thereby confronting the reader with an insoluble and problematic story.  This literary study will examine these two categories of the vindictive story to define their respective narrative modalities and to discern the ethical and affective meaning each category attributes to vengeance. In doing so, this research project will consider canonical works (Le Compte de Monte-Cristo et J’irai cracher sur vos tombes) as well as films (Death Proof, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained, Memento, etc.), which provide contemporaneity to this reflection. Building on works by Aristotle, René Girard, Umberto Eco and Michel Erman, I will situate the ethical debate and circumscribe the relations between catharsis and vengeance.  Ultimately, this research project addresses two intermeshed concerns: the ethical questions which emerge from revenge and the role of literary (or mediatic) representation in displaying vengeance thought. This dual reflection constitutes the originality of this project.

Keyphrases: Vengeance, Justice, Affect, Ethics, Cathartic, Acathartic
Les auditeurs de France Inter : développement d’une pratique radiophonique

France Inter is the most listened to radio station in France with almost 7 million daily listeners. According to popular opinions, the typical listener would be a middle or upper class individual, in his fifties, Parisian, a “bobo” therefore by definition from the left-wing (Gustave & Péronnet, 2013). This Master’s thesis questions the nature of the relationship between France Inter listeners and their station, and how does the representation we have of them influence their radio practice? Information on these listeners is almost non-existent. Stuart Hall's theories of reception explain that there is not just one type of listener and not one way to appropriate media content (Hall, 1980). Then, Pierre Bourdieu allows us to deconstruct the received idea that tastes are the fruit of a deliberate choice, taken without external influence (Bourdieu, 1979). The sociologist came to the conclusion that our tastes are shaped by social mechanisms of distinction. Bourdieu’s research led him to establish a theory on social class ; our tastes and cultural practices can help situate us socially. France Inter listeners are put at the center with semi-structured interviews allowing to answer the two research questions: how do France Inter listeners start and keep listening to this station? And how did the representation we have of them influence the development of this listening? Four influences on listening are identified: social, family, societal, political and age. Faced with the representation, our participants disagree because they are basing themselves on their own reality. However, many agree on one point: the intellectual curiosity and the need for education. It is certain that this representation does not have a noticeable impact on their listening. If they receive negative remarks, it will only make them listen even more. For all, this station had and still has a monumental influence. It serves as a clock, a landmark and a daily companion. It affects moods throughout the day, provokes reflections and informs on the world of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Keyphrases: France Inter, Radio, Service public, Audience studies, Listeners, Radio practice, Representation, Public service
Analyse des cyanotoxines dans différents organismes aquatiques et habitats de la réserve écologique de la Rivière-aux-Brochets

The diversity and widespread distribution of cyanobacteria in aquatic ecosystems lead to harmful effects in water through the production of a variety of cyanobacterial toxins, which pose a great danger to fauna and human health. Different emerging analytical techniques have been developed to detect and quantify cyanobacterial toxins in the environment. In this thesis we examined the presence of multi-class cyanotoxins, including 12 microcystins, anatoxins, cylindrospermopsin (CYN), anabaenopeptins (AP-A, AP-B) and cyanopeptolin-A in surface water and wild fish. Sampling was conducted during the 2018 summer season in the fluvial ecosystem of the Pike River ecological reserve (QC, Canada) near Missisquoi Bay, Lake Champlain. This study was carried out using an analytical method combining ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography and ionization by electrospray (UHPLC-ESI) with the use of a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Of the 18 cyanotoxins targeted, 14 were detected in surface water samples impacted by the bloom; toxins peaked in early mid-September with the highest concentrations of MC-LR (3.8 μg L-1) and MC-RR (2.9 μg L-1). Among the 71 fish sampled in the field from 10 species, 38% had positive detections of at least one cyanotoxin. In positive samples, the concentration ranges in fish muscle were as follows: the sum of microcystins ΣMC (0.16-9.2 μg kg-1), CYN (46-75 μg kg-1), AP -A (1.1-5.4 μg kg-1) and AP-B (0.01 to 5.0 μg kg-1). Overall, 17% of the fish samples were positive for AP-A or AP-B; to our knowledge, this is the first report of accumulation of anabaenopeptins in wildlife. The maximum sum ΣMC of microcystin concentrations in fish was 1.15 times higher than the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Daily Intake (8 μg kg-1 tissue-1) for adults and was almost equivalent to the derived value for young children 9.3 μg kg-1. The concentration of CYN was also approximately 3 times higher than the limit derived from the recommended human health values.

Keyphrases: Anabaenopeptins, Quantification, UHPLC-ESI-MS, Cyanobacterial toxins, Distribution, Microcystins, Cylindrospermopsin, Fish
Les danses au Pow-wow de Kanesatake : source de guérison

Kanasatake's Pow-wow was born in 1991, following the landmark event of the "Oka Crisis". As a result of this conflict, the initial objective was an attempt at reconciliation and the maintenance of good understanding between members of the Aboriginal community and the non-members, also known as "allochtones" residing on land adjacent to their territory in the municipality of Oka. The purpose of this master thesis is to understand how a pow-wow event like Kanesatake's and the dance performances presented there can be a healing factor for Aboriginal artists. To achieve this, we spoke with traditional dancers, participants in the 2018 and 2019 Pow-wow, to learn about their personal journeys and perceptions of their own spirituality, as well as the external and historical factors that may have influenced their artistic practices. Over the course of the interviews, the notion of psychic, physical and collective healing was reiterated in several responses given by participants. We will also see in more detail the links surrounding traditional outfits, dances and musical rhythms. We will also refer to the “International Meeting of Aboriginal Performance Art” event (RIAPA), which is more in a contemporaneity to indicate a certain continuity between these two events.

Keyphrases: pow-wow, performances, powwow, dance, healing, spirituality, Pan-indianism, Native
Administrer les demandes de mort : comparaison de l'aide médicale à mourir (Québec) et de l'assistance au suicide (Canton de Vaud)

This thesis is about the administration of death requests from two controversial modalities, medical aid in dying in Quebec (Canada) and assisted suicide in the canton of Vaud (Switzerland). In Quebec, assistance in dying is a public medical service, while in the canton of Vaud it is a private act tolerated by the state and implemented by associations. According to how the assistance to dying question is raised in both contexts, different answers are given which reflect different forms of concern for this practice. I suggest that these two contrasting regimes of assistance in dying can be understood in the same analytical movement despite their differences. From a comparative and ethnographic perspective, this thesis explores how the four conditions that enable the possibility of assistance in dying that I identify are put into practice at different scales, from public debates to the experiences of people who are directly involved. The research is based on four years of investigation relying on interviews, observations, a press review, and analyses of documentary sources. This thesis concludes that the assistance in dying regimes of Quebec and Vaud have practical moral maxims used by the people involved in common. These maxims, which emerge in everyday words and institutional arrangements, frame the trouble that arises from the confrontation with assistance in dying and meet the four enabling conditions identified. This ethics in action circumscribes the narrow space that the people involved must navigate to make assistance in dying possible. Finally, I examine what awaits the actors, as well as the society, when these conditions are not met. More generally, comparing the administration of death requests in these two contrasting regimes leads to questioning the boundaries of medicine, law and life itself. Analyzing these enabling conditions and the bounds of the trouble contributes to the reflections on the implementation of rights, including the right to freedom of conscience.

Keyphrases: Suicide assisté, Controverses, Canada, Medical aid in dying, Assisted suicide, Euthanasia, End of life, Sociology of public action, Controversies, Ethics in action, Freedom of conscience, Quebec, Switzerland
Semantics of the gendered body at the IOC’s Medical Commission between 1967 and 1972

This thesis focuses on gender testing in high-level sport. More specifically, those conducted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). I begin with a historical contextualization of the various classifications of the body biomedical and social sciences have put forward. Then, through a content analysis of the minutes, correspondences, and studies read by the Medical Commission between 1967 and 1972, I highlight six categories of discourse on the body. These are divided into two types of categories: first the ways in which the body and sex differences are talked about; then, the relationship between the body and the members of the Medical Commission. The three types of discourses relating to the body are: “the polymorphic nature of the body", "the body as dimorphic", and "the abnormal body". Discourses on the relationship between the abnormal body are: "the body as scientific object", “the body as abstract category”, and "the body as an object of ethical concern".

Keyphrases: CIO, Gender-testing, IOC, Sport, Gender, Sex, Body, Women athletes, Olympics, Feminist epistemology, Content analysis, Sportives, Genre
Les facteurs contraignant et facilitant la participation des infirmières la formation continue numérique

E-learning education is widely used in the health care sector for medical education, as well as in the nursing education. Online education has established itself as an essential teaching method for the continuing education of nurses due to its accessibility and flexibility. Several studies report the experiences of health professionals pertaining to the use of e-learning training, but very few studies have addressed the issue of participation as a whole. This qualitative exploratory study aims to explore the factors that facilitate and constrain the participation of nurses in online continuing education according to the perspective of nurses. The model of Non Adoption, Abandonment, and Challenges to scale up, Spread, and sustainability of Health and Care Technologies (NASSS) (Greenhalgh, and al., 2017) served as the theoretical foundation in the development of the semi-structured interview guide. This study was conducted with eleven nurses working in one hospital centre. A thematic analysis of the data was performed using the method of Miles and Huberman (2003). The results of this study highlight three main categories: the advantages perceived by the participants, the essential support of the clinical setting and the components of e-learning. The results of this study will help to understand the challenges faced by nurses for participating in online continuing education.

Keyphrases: Participation, Nurses, Continuing education, E-learning, Qualitative study
Traitement interne et externe des dialogues interreligieux et interculturels par les organismes à but non lucratif (OBNL) aconfessionnels œuvrant auprès des populations confessionnelles réfugiées et/ou vulnérables au Liban

This action research is looking at the context of non-confessional non-profit organizations (NPOs) working with refugee and vulnerable populations in Lebanon. At a time when humanitarian organizations, international and local, favor this non-denominational status, it seems relevant to study the way in which they enter into dialogue with populations in dire needs, whose cultural and religious identities are sometimes more pronounced due to their often traumatic displacements. Based on an ethnographic method, we followed four NPOs – two Lebanese (Amel and Arcenciel) and two internationals (Jusoor and IECD Lebanon) – for almost a year, in their actions among these populations. Adopting a position of participant observer to be at the heart of their relationships and interactions, we followed the forms of interreligious and intercultural dialogues that came to life, both between the members of these NPOs and in their relations with the populations with whom they work. In order to sharpen our analysis, we also considered the cultural origin of these NPOs to establish their impact on the forms of dialogue they developed. In the final part of this thesis, we try to combine the strong points we found of the Lebanese non-confessional NPO model, in its treatment of these forms of dialogues, with an interworldview dialogue approach developed by Brodeur (2019), to extract a model for the treatment of interreligious and intercultural dialogues feasible for NPOs working in a West Asian context, that includes training on managing these types of dialogues and populations subject to discrimination, recruiting a diversity representative of the field, and identifying similarities and common values among different groups of actors. Based on an interdisciplinary conceptual framework and a qualitative survey bringing together seventeen semi-directed individual interviews, this thesis aims modestly to provide further avenues of research to this transitional question of the treatment of interreligious and intercultural dialogues by non-confessional NPOs.

Keyphrases: dialogue, in-group, ONG, out-group, pluriscope, education, identity, intercultural, interreligious, intervisional, interworldview, Lebanon, NGO, non-confessional, nonreligious, NPO, power dynamics, refugees
Stratégies de légitimation des États de facto : l’industrie touristique en « République moldave de Pridnestrovie »

This paper is interested in the study of tourism and its industry as a strategy for internal and external legitimization in de facto states. Using the particular case of Transnistria, we used a mixed analysis based on official data and policies as well as photographic observations obtained directly on the field. Tourism industry provides a "two-in-one" strategy, serving both identity and state formation and is aimed at both internal and external audiences. Our results highlight the usefulness of this strategy for legitimization purposes while establishing the existence of close links between the public and private tourism sectors. While the public sector is mainly focused on justifying the existence of the de facto state and its distinct identity, the private sector acts as a liaison with the outside world, and according to financial and economical gain. Despite the existence of some opposition between both sectors of the tourism industry, we argue that they are complementary and that they serve the Transnistrian state in its quest for internal and external legitimization.

Keyphrases: De facto states, Transnistria, Tourism, Nation-building, Legitimization, National holidays, Symbolic public space
L'étude de la composition musicale basée sur des oeuvres picturales

Music has the power to express what may be latent in other art-forms, just as it may transcend and add new layers of meaning to the text set in a song. But only the illustrations themselves can actually encapsulate the scene, character or item at the heart of the music. In this thesis, I explore the different musical means available to the composer to set his interpretation of a pictorial work to music. This work is, by definition, deprived of the temporal dimension. If, for the painter Eugène Delacroix, « The true goal of the painter is to make us take part in the intensity of the moment », music can be appreciated and leave its mark on us only according to the time it takes to deploy. Consequently, a question nurtured my reflection: From what angles and according to what criteria of analysis can I approach a pictorial work in order to draw observations that could subsequently serve as a support for the creation of my music? I try to answer these questions by approaching the interpretation of an illustration through four possible avenues: Realist or descriptive, impressionist, narrative and, finally, by a stylistic transfer from the illustrative medium to the musical medium. For the purposes of my study, I composed three works based on seven illustrations : 1) Tableaux Montmartre. Symphonic piece inspiered by Pictures at an exhibition by Modest Moussorgsky and whose illustrative support consists of five canvases representing Montmartre by five different painters: Charles Malle, Armand Lourenço, Kees Van Dongen, Eugène Paul (Gen-Paul) and Georges Braque. 2) Lumière fossile. Symphonic poem inspired by a photograph of the cosmic radiation taken by the Planck space telescope 3) Tennis Duet. Piece, whose structural form may vary, for solo piano inspired by a photograph of Arnold Schoenberg playing tennis.

Keyphrases: composition, illustrations, tableau, analysis, paintings