bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Ευρωπαϊκή ταυτότητα και εκπαιδευτική πολιτική μέσα από το πρόγραμμα Erasmus
Authors: Σαμαρτζής Κωνσταντίνος
Published: July 2024

Σκοπός της παρούσας έρευνας είναι να διερευνήσει την πολυδιάστατη έννοια της ευρωπαϊκής ταυτότητας στο πλαίσιο του προγράμματος ανταλλαγής φοιτητών Erasmus. Συγκεκριμένα, εξετάζεται κατά πόσο το πρόγραμμα Erasmus φαίνεται να σχετίζεται με την αυτοαντίληψη και αυτοπροσδιορισμό της ευρωπαϊκής ταυτότητας των Ελλήνων φοιτητών που έχουν συμμετάσχει σε αυτό. Η ευρωπαϊκή ταυτότητα παραμένει μια σύνθετη έννοια που δεν έχει έναν ενιαίο ορισμό γι΄ αυτό και διάφοροι ερευνητές έχουν επιδιώξει να τη μετρήσουν μέσω διάφορων εργαλείων και μεθοδολογιών. Η παρούσα έρευνα υιοθετεί δύο από τα πιο διαδεδομένα τέτοια εργαλεία σε σχετικές έρευνες: την επίσημη προσέγγιση αυτοπροσδιορισμού ταυτότητας που έχει καθιερωθεί στο Ευρωβαρόμετρο, και την προσέγγιση του Sigalas (2010). Τα εργαλεία αυτά συνδυάζονται για τη δημιουργία και στατιστική ανάλυση 325 ερωτηματολογίων που έχουν συμπληρωθεί από Έλληνες φοιτητές που έχουν ήδη συμμετάσχει στο πρόγραμμα Erasmus την περίοδο 2010-2021. Ο κύριος στόχος αυτής της έρευνας είναι να εξετάσει κατά πόσο συσχετίζεται η απόφαση για συμμετοχή στο πρόγραμμα Erasmus και η εμπειρία από αυτή τη συμμετοχή, με την ευρωπαϊκή ταυτότητα των Ελλήνων φοιτητών που συμμετέχουν σε αυτό. Οι μέθοδοι περιλαμβάνουν την εξέταση των αλληλεπιδράσεων των φοιτητών με Ευρωπαίους συνομηλίκους τους, την προσαρμογή τους στη χώρα υποδοχής και τη συνολική απόλαυση του προγράμματος Erasmus, μεταξύ άλλων παραγόντων. Η μεθοδολογική προσέγγιση συνδυάζει την ερώτηση του Ευρωβαρομέτρου, σχετικά με τον αυτοπροσδιορισμό ταυτότητας, με το αντίστοιχο ερωτηματολόγιο του Sigalas για την ευρωπαϊκή ταυτότητα (βλ. Sigalas, 2010), δημιουργώντας έτσι ένα διευρυμένο πλαίσιο για τη μελέτη του αντίκτυπου της εμπειρίας Erasmus στην ευρωπαϊκή ταυτότητα. Ένας αριθμός μελετητών έχει ήδη ασχοληθεί με το θέμα, χρησιμοποιώντας δείγματα φοιτητών από διάφορες ευρωπαϊκές χώρες. Σε ορισμένες περιπτώσεις, η υπόθεση ότι το Erasmus ενισχύει την ευρωπαϊκή ταυτότητα των συμμετεχόντων έχει επιβεβαιωθεί, ενώ σε άλλες έχει απορριφθεί. Ωστόσο, τα αποτελέσματα της παρούσας μελέτης δείχνουν ότι υπάρχει συσχετισμός μεταξύ της συμμετοχής στο Erasmus από τους Έλληνες φοιτητές και της ανάπτυξης της ευρωπαϊκής τους ταυτότητας, χωρίς αυτό να έχει αρνητικό αντίκτυπο στην εθνική τους ταυτότητα και περηφάνια. Η παρούσα έρευνα όχι μόνο συμβάλλει στην υπάρχουσα βιβλιογραφία επικυρώνοντας τη θετική σχέση του προγράμματος Erasmus με τη διαμόρφωση της ευρωπαϊκής ταυτότητας (αυτή τη φορά μεταξύ των Ελλήνων φοιτητών), αλλά προσφέρει επίσης πολύτιμες γνώσεις για τον ρόλο των προγραμμάτων ανταλλαγής φοιτητών, όπως το Erasmus, ως εργαλείων άσκησης εκπαιδευτικής πολιτικής για τη διαμόρφωση της ευρωπαϊκής ταυτότητας.
Edmonde Charles-Roux et ses biographies de personnages hors du commun
Authors: Πανταζοπούλου Ειρήνη
Published: July 2024

Η παρούσα διατριβή πραγματεύεται τις μυθιστορηματικές βιογραφίες ξεχωριστών προσωπικοτήτων της Edmonde Charles-Roux, δημοσιογράφου και συγγραφέως βραβευμένης με το Prix Goncourt το 1966 για το μυθιστόρημα Oublier Palerme. Εξετάζονται κατ’ αρχάς τα κύρια έργα της Charles-Roux, δηλαδή οι βιογραφίες της διάσημης σχεδιάστριας μόδας Coco Chanel και της εξερευνήτριας, δημοσιογράφου και συγγραφέως Isabelle Eberhardt. Στη συνέχεια παρουσιάζονται η μυθιστορηματική ιστορική βιογραφία του ισπανού πρίγκιπα και στρατηγού Δον Χουάν της Αυστρίας, νόθου γιου του Κάρολου Κουίντου, η διασκευή σε γαλλική γλώσσα του αυτοβιογραφικού έργου που συνέταξε απ’ ευθείας στα αγγλικά ο Fulco di Verdura, κοσμηματοπώλης και συνεργάτης της Coco Chanel και το άλμπουμ που έγραψε η Charles-Roux προς τιμή του συζύγου της Gaston Deferre, πολιτικό και επί τριακονταετία δήμαρχο της Μασσαλίας. Τέλος, καταδεικνύεται πως και τα μυθιστορήματα της Charles-Roux Oublier Palerme και Elle, Adrienne εμφανίζουν επιρροές από το βιογραφικό είδος στο οποίο διέπρεψε η συγγραφέας. Για την κριτική αποτίμηση των βιογραφιών της Charles-Roux, διερευνήσαμε τον τρόπο με τον οποίο εργάστηκε η συγγραφέας, τις πηγές τις οποίες χρησιμοποίησε και πώς τις αξιοποίησε, παραλληλίζοντας τα υπό μελέτη έργα με άλλες βιογραφίες για τα ίδια πρόσωπα, λαμβάνοντας υπόψη τις διακειμενικές προεκτάσεις.
Φυσική αγωγή και η συμβολή της στην ανάπτυξη της περιβαλλοντικής συνείδησης και συμπεριφοράς μαθητών δημοτικού σχολείου
Authors: Μαντζιούκα Αλεξάνδρα
Published: July 2024

Η Φυσική Αγωγή αποτελεί σημαντικό παιδαγωγικό αντικείμενο σε όλες τις βαθμίδες εκπαίδευσης που προάγει τη γενική ανάπτυξη της προσωπικότητας των νέων. Σκοπός της παρούσας εργασίας είναι να διερευνήσει, να καταγράψει και να αξιολογήσει τις απόψεις τόσο των μαθητών ηλικίας 11 -12 ετών όσο και τις απόψεις των εκπαιδευτικών Φυσικής Αγωγής σχετικά με την περιβαλλοντική συνείδηση και συμπεριφορά των μαθητών. Αναμφισβήτητα, η αξία της φροντίδας του περιβάλλοντος είναι ζωτικής σημασίας καθώς συμβάλει στην αποτροπή μίας φυσικής καταστροφής καθώς και στην αποκατάσταση μίας περιβαλλοντικής φθοράς. Η περιβαλλοντική φροντίδα, αν και διδάσκεται στα σχολεία πολλοί εκπαιδευτικοί δεν εστιάζουν σε έννοιες και γνώσεις που σχετίζονται με το φυσικό περιβάλλον παρά μόνο στις ακαδημαϊκές επιδόσεις των μαθητών. Επομένως, στην παρούσα έρευνα θα εξετάσουμε τις απόψεις μαθητών και εκπαιδευτικών εφαρμόζοντας ποσοτική μέθοδο και συλλέγοντας ποσοτικά-αριθμητικά δεδομένα με τη χρήση ενός ανώνυμου ερωτηματολογίου κατάλληλα σχεδιασμένο για τους σκοπούς της εργασίας αυτής. Πραγματοποιήθηκε αρχικά μια πιλοτική έρευνα στην οποία συμμετείχαν εκπαιδευτικοί της πρωτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης προκειμένου να αξιολογήσουμε το ερωτηματολόγιο και ύστερα πραγματοποιήθηκε η κύρια έρευνα σε μαθητές πρωτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης ηλικίας 11 – 12 ετών και σε εκπαιδευτικούς Φυσικής Αγωγής πρωτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης. Από την κύρια έρευνα στους εκπαιδευτικούς προέκυψε ότι η πλειοψηφία των εκπαιδευτικών γνωρίζει ή θεωρεί ότι υπάρχει κάποια σύνδεση της φυσικής αγωγής με την περιβαλλοντική συνείδηση. Ταυτόχρονα, διαπιστώθηκε ότι οι γυναίκες εκπαιδευτικοί ισχυρίζονται σε μεγαλύτερο βαθμό από τους άνδρες ότι υπάρχει συσχέτιση μεταξύ Φ.Α. και περιβαλλοντικής συνείδησης. Από την έρευνα των μαθητών προέκυψε πως η ηλικία και το φύλο επιδρούν στην περιβαλλοντική συνείδηση καθώς επίσης η πόλη διαμονής της οικογένειας και το επίπεδο εκπαίδευσης των γονέων επηρεάζουν τη σχέση που έχει το παιδί με το περιβάλλον καθώς και τη συχνότητα συμμετοχής σε υπαίθριες δραστηριότητες αναψυχής.
‘‘We don’t really know how it’s going to work’’: The front-end and back-end processes of action-led research at Tate
Authors: Zouli Ioanna
Published: July 2024

The paper considers the front-end and back-end processes of art production as a methodological format and a metaphor for conducting research in museums and other cultural institutions in the age of computation and rapid technological innovation. Beyond their use in software architecture, those two terms can be ways of embedding research inside an institution. Informed by research projects embedded in museums as well as through my observations from the specific case study of BMW Tate Live: Performance Room the paper explores how cultural agents assimilate the technological present and how cultural value is produced in this context. Examining this experimental project of performance art staged live online on Tate’s YouTube channel and the conceptualisations of the digital audiences that emerged throughout the programme’s development highlighted how the institutional authority upon the production of art knowledge translates into online interfaces. The museum’s ambivalence to extend its art programming in a digital, distributed, ecosystem poses wider questions about the ways that contemporary art institutions can comprehend the technological moment and whether they can be up to speed with a computational present and future.
Challenges and opportunities for the re-use of New Data Types (NDTs) in a changing landscape
Authors: Kondyli Dimitra , Klironomos Nicolas
Published: July 2024

Over the past fifteen years, technology has contributed to the emergence of new types of data, particularly big data, influencing the methods of observation, study, and measurement of social phenomena from the perspective of the social sciences. The increasing digitization of social activities generates vast amounts of data that fuel contemplation about the way modern societies function. Additionally, factors such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic with mandatory social distancing have contributed to the creation of a favourable environment for the generation of new types of data, with an emphasis on big data. Within this ongoing transformation of the data landscape, we will attempt to pose questions related to the environment of Data Repositories/Research Infrastructures and the means/methods of addressing and managing these data. It appears that social research is shifting towards a more "data-driven approach", which requires new skills and capabilities at the intersection of the computational and social sciences. One of the major issues that arise is the potential for collaborations between data organizations and researchers/users of data to promote not only a culture of data sharing but also the reuse of such data. This work will be based on primary and secondary sources generated within the framework of research projects in collaboration with CESSDA ERIC (European Social Science Data Archives-European Research Infrastructures), as well as literature on the management of data from various sources, with an emphasis on their legal/ethical and technical aspects.
Exploring the scientific literature on controversial and timely ecological questions
Authors: Buonocore Elvira , Aricò Salvatore , Napolitano Gaetana , Rendina Francesco , Grande Umberto , Franzese Pier Paolo
Published: July 2024

The structure and functioning of the world’s ecosystems have changed more rapidly during the last fifty years than at any time in the human history due to direct and indirect anthropogenic drivers. Global indicators of ecosystem extent and condition have shown a decrease by an average of 47% of their estimated natural baselines, with many ecosystems continuing to decline by at least 4% per decade (IPBES, 2019). These changes occurring in marine and terrestrial ecosystems are mostly driven by socio-economic systems run on unsustainable natural resources extraction and consumption . The unsustainable exploitation of natural capital stocks poses serious questions about long-term human and ecosystems health. Indeed, the loss of biological diversity can alter the functioning of ecosystems and their ability to provide society with flows of goods and services vital for human well-being. Over the past decades, there have been increasing research efforts to explore the interplay between humans and nature, focusing on the development of an ecosystem approach for studying human-environment interactions by means of a system-based and interdisciplinary approach to science. Human and systems ecology play a key role in this regard, but also other biological disciplines can support the development of a full awareness about the interdependence of healthy ecosystems and human well-being. This transdisciplinary knowledge is important from a scientific viewpoint and it can also better support environmental policies and decision making
Gestión de la Felicidad: bibliometría y tendencias.
Authors: Cueva-Estrada Jorge-Manuel , Sánchez-Bayón Antonio
Published: July 2024

Los estudios sobre gestión de la felicidad indagan sobre mejoras en el bienestar y la satisfacción laboral, impactando positivamente en la productividad. El objetivo de este trabajo es conocer la evolución y perspectiva académica y profesional de las investigaciones en gestión de la felicidad. Para ello se desarrolla un análisis bibliométrico, longitudinal y descriptivo a 2 de agosto de 2023, identificándose 347 investigaciones en Revistas indexadas en Scopus, cuyos datos se exploraron con VOSviewer y Microsoft Excel. Los resultados muestran el despegue de la especialidad hacia 2009 con 10 artículos al año, alcanzando 59 en 2022, los cuales se publican en diversas revistas de ranking Q1, predominando las de ciencias sociales y las de gestión empresarial y contabilidad. EEUU, España y China lideran la producción científica en este sentido. Se registra la participación de 345 autores de 77 países. En conclusión, los estudios de gestión de la felicidad están en expansión en la última década porque además de contribuir al aumento del bienestar laboral desde múltiples áreas, conforman redes internacionales de investigación.
¿Por qué Participan las Personas Activistas en los Movimientos Sociales?.
Authors: Rodriguez-Guerrero Miguel
Published: July 2024

Las identidades y representaciones sociales son factores de necesario análisis para un mayor conocimiento del porqué surge y perdura la acción colectiva. En esta dirección, el presente artículo investiga tales elementos y su difusión a través de las Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicación (TIC) en dos movimientos sociales de México y España. Para ello se desarrolla una metodología mixta que consiste en la aplicación de entrevistas y cuestionarios sobre las personas activistas. Entre los resultados destacan el alto grado de identificación de las personas activistas, primero con la forma en que concibe la realidad cada movimiento y los fines que persiguen, y segundo, con el estatus atribuido a la comunicación como herramienta clave para generar cambios sociales por medio de la difusión digital de sus propios contenidos y valores. En conclusión, la investigación comprueba de forma directa la interrelación de las representaciones sociales de cada activista con las causas de participación, los fines que persiguen, las estrategias empleadas y los valores y contenidos difundidos a través de las TIC por parte de los movimientos
Guerrilla Governance: Troubling Gender in the FARC
Authors: Theidon Kimberly
Published: July 2024

ABSTRACT: All armed groups have internal regulations, and these regulations frequently involve the governance of affect, intimacy, and reproduction. Drawing upon my ethnographic research with female former combatants from Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), I explore the gendered aspects of these governance regimes. How was intimacy dictated and policed by commanders and peers? What are the tropes regarding women and violence, and how are these frequently eroticized? What forms of reproductive governance were exercised within the ranks? For women who chose to leave the FARC, either informally or via official Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reintegration programs, to what extent does reintegration involve the redomestication of “transgressive” women?
Seeing the Future through a Kaleidoscope: Uses of Morphological Type in Michelet’s National and Natural Histories
Authors: Kim Agatha Seo-Hyun
Published: July 2024

Abstract: Michelet combined various models of morphology to build his own model of history and nature. In this model, Michelet used the concept of organic type in multiple senses and timelines, creating the dream of a predetermined, ideal future of France, while at the same time emphasizing the significance and necessity of the people’s will to bring that future into reality. In blending natural scientific models and national history, Michelet did not aim to subsume history under science, but to create a new, powerful national faith with the aid of scientific tools.
Toward a Grammar of Textiles: A Reconsideration of Medieval Silk Aesthetics and the Impact of Modern Collecting
Authors: Winnik Arielle
Published: July 2024

Abstract: Since medieval Egyptian textiles began to be unearthed in the late nineteenth century, modern aesthetic values have shaped their display, study, and form (through alterations). Early collectors detached embellishments from plain tunics, cut single motifs from larger textiles, and displayed these fragments flat to maximize the legibility of iconography. In the process, collectors obscured these textiles’ functional nature and repressed their material characteristics. Through close examination of the so-called Panopolitan or palmette silks, as well as images of textiles in mosaics and paintings, this author argues that textiles in medieval Egypt were not just valued for their decorative motifs—as has been suggested by the manipulation of these textiles by modern collectors—but were celebrated for their material and technical properties, such as light reflection, dynamic and optical effects, and symmetry.
Rethinking Mamluk Carpet Origins
Authors: Pollio Gerald
Published: July 2024

Abstract: This study summarizes what is known about Egyptian carpet production in the latter part of the Mamluk sultanate. While the output appears to have expanded in response to official requirements, foreign involvement in the local industry, typically discounted, appears to have contributed significantly to its vitality. The involvement of foreign, mainly Venetian, merchants is widely acknowledged, though their impact on output and designs is less appreciated. Some scholars, instead, conclude that Mamluk carpet designs reflect Persian or Persianate influences, although there is little direct evidence to substantiate the claim. Based on quantitative analysis of the textiles, it would appear that the predominant influences can be located mainly, if not exclusively, in the world of the eastern Mediterranean.
Put a Bird on it: What an Aviary Preoccupation Reveals about Medieval Silks
Authors: Winter Meredyth Lynn
Published: July 2024

Abstract: A small number of silks, dating from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, and spanning Iran, Byzantium, and Europe, share a common design motif: a pair of confronting birds shown in profile. The broad swath of time and space covered by this and similar specimens, far from an outlier in Medieval art history, has been largely explained by the concept of an “international courtly style.” In this model, the movement of elites and traders is credited with the dissemination of certain design elements. But whereas this model outlines the conditions for the period’s artistic koiné, we still have much to learn about the motivations which led distant weaving communities to engage in the analogous artistic processes that engendered a widespread and shared visual vocabulary. This article seeks to understand the inner workings of textiles, visually united by a motif that enjoyed popularity and stimulated numerous variations, by distinguishing technical features and aesthetic pursuits as they persisted or evolved. In order to analyze the relationship that distant iterations of similar silks shared with one another, the present study intentionally focuses on a single motif, the bird repeated in profile, and considers in detail four instances of its use in silks. What has long been seen to operate through visual appropriation—constituting what historical distance now classifies as an evident and distinct style—reveals a preponderance of approaches to design and technique, for which a top-down modeling of taste alone cannot account. By addressing deviations within the group, therefore, it is possible to theorize how local weaving practices shaped form, and how modes of making, as opposed to surface elements, may allow us to complicate the way artistic ideas moved and how meaning was assigned to visual elements by various communities from the Caspian to the Atlantic.
Stripes, Checks, and Flowers: Textile Patterns in the Murals of Lepakshi, South India
Authors: Khan Majlis Brigitte
Published: July 2024

Abstract: More than 500 persons populate the narrative paintings on the ceilings of the Virabadhra Temple in Lepakshi, Andhra Pradesh, built under the Vijayanagara ruler Achyutaraya during the first half of the sixteenth century. The costumes donned by the gods and people in the paintings can be taken as representatives of textiles en vogue during the sixteenth century. They demonstrate not only trade connections within India but also testify to imported textiles from Ottoman Turkey or Safavid Iran. The painted textiles show a wide spectrum of patterns. Some of them bear a close similarity to extant cotton textiles produced in Gujarat for export to Egypt and Indonesia in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Others were manufactured in workshops along the Coromandel Coast for export to Indonesia in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. By comparing these extant textiles with the painted ones, possible techniques are suggested for the Lepakshi fabrics.
An Unusual Shrinathji Hanging from Saurashtra in The Textile Museum
Authors: McKnight Sethi Cristin
Published: July 2024

Abstract: This paper examines an early twentieth-century embroidered hanging from Gujarat, India that depicts an image of the Hindu god Krishna in his form as Shrinathji. Strikingly different from most other Gujarati textiles as well as from large-scale temple hangings dedicated to Krishna, the textile explored here is unusual in its techniques and materials and may be the result of British interaction on the subcontinent. Furthermore, this object was likely made by a female embroiderer for her own use and as such reveals a personal expression of devotion or bhakti .
Modeling a Future for Handmade Textiles: Bhutan in the Twenty-First Century
Authors: Bean Susan S. , Myers Diana K. , Dorji Rinzin O.
Published: July 2024

Abstract: After more than two centuries of industrialized textile production, despite the displacement of textiles into the margins of modern life, handweaving persists. While each instance of successful manufacture is unique, commonalities can be identified that build towards an understanding of contemporary roles for handmade cloth and the factors that bear on its survival. This essay aims to consider Bhutan’s success in supporting and evolving handwoven textiles as a model of maintaining handmade cloth in the twenty-first century. The narrative relates the ups and downs of Bhutanese handweaving in the decades before and since the millennium, presenting the complex interplay that has influenced the ways handwoven textiles are made and used in modern Bhutan. In this sometimes chaotic scenario, patterns emerge that illuminate the situation of textiles in Bhutan and indicate bases for comparison with other regions where handmade textiles struggle, yet survive. Although Bhutan’s textile saga is unique in many ways, particularly because of the country’s powerful monarchy and self-imposed isolation, the essay highlights central elements of Bhutan’s success in maintaining the vigor of handmade cloth that can be relevant anywhere that weaving remains part of modern life.
Silk Production and Marketing in Cambodia in 1995: A Research Report for the Revival of Traditional Silk Weaving Project, UNESCO Cambodia
Authors: Morimoto Kikuo
Published: July 2024

Abstract: In 1995, Morimoto Kikuo (1948–2017) carried out field research in Cambodia for a unesco project on the revival of traditional silk weaving. His report creates a benchmark for understanding the circumstances of village-based textile production in the aftermath of the devastating Pol Pot era and the early days of a revival of silk production. After introducing the categories of traditional Khmer textiles, the report summarizes the circumstances of production province by province, capturing the voices, knowledge, and memories of numerous village specialists. The report then considers conditions of sericulture for indigenous yellow silk versus import of Vietnamese machine-spun silk, knowledge and use of natural dyes, knowledge of ikat techniques, looms and weaving equipment, and markets and the role of middlemen. The report concludes with recommendations for supporting indigenous sericulture, improving direct marketing opportunities for weavers, and enhancing traditional weaving and dyeing skills by ensuring that the skills are passed down from experienced elders to younger weavers.
Seven Early Iban Kain Kebat
Authors: Gavin Traude
Published: July 2024

Abstract: Early museum collections of Iban textiles from Borneo generally date from the late 1880s. This paper presents seven Iban ikat skirt cloths (kain kebat) with accession dates in the mid-nineteenth century: six cloths donated by James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the 1850s, and a slightly earlier specimen at the Ethnological Museum, Berlin, collected between 1846 and 1848 by Oscar von Kessel in Kalimantan. This paper follows the convoluted accession paths of the James Brooke donation and reviews the events, institutions, and personages involved in the context of early Victorian England; it catalogues the dispersal of Kessel’s extensive collection of over a thousand objects to various European institutions; and finally, the paper considers the implications of these seven early specimens for our understanding of Iban weaving history.
Indigo Reimagined : A Conversation with Peju Layiwola
Authors: Borgatti Jean
Published: July 2024

Abstract: Peju Layiwola’s recent body of work Indigo Reimagined draws on her skill in working with various media as well as her scholarship to explore the process of indigo dyed cloth within the Yoruba tradition. Indigo Reimagined marks more than a foray into textile design, however. Indeed, it could hardly be described in this way. It is rather a play on many aspects of indigo dyeing in West Africa with a focus on àdìrẹ , Yoruba indigo resist-dyed milled cotton, an extension and creative development of the Yoruba peoples’ historic use of indigo to re-dye older and worn handwoven cloth. Like the “new” àdìrẹ, Layiwola’s reimagining plays with indigo as a dye and the medium of textiles, as well as the history and processes that surround them; other Nigerian traditions in which indigo features; and their resonance with other modern/contemporary Nigerian artistic practices. Our conversation that took place in August 2020 focused on how she moved from metal work and historic (Benin-kingdom focused) installations to textiles as inspiration for the major series of works featured in her exhibition Indigo Reimagined , which opened in June 2019 at the J. F. Ade Ajayi Auditorium Gallery at the University of Lagos in Lagos, Nigeria.
Unraveling Threads: Cloth in Zohra Opoku’s Poetic Image Making
Authors: Forni Silvia
Published: July 2024

Abstract: Fabric is an essential element of Zohra Opoku’s art, both as material and as a conceptual framing of her practice. In the work of this German-Ghanaian artist, textiles are at once the support and protagonists of personal narratives and vehicles of cultural and political statements. For Opoku, who was trained in Germany as a fashion designer, cloth carries very profound biographical and emotional meanings: it is the tie to her family and to the memory of her father; it is a marker of shared belonging; it is the focus of her reflection about the tensions between local identities and international networks; it is what covers and protects her as she develops her poetic approach through image making. This article, based largely on a series of conversations with the artist, focuses on key series produced by Opoku in the last decade. It explores how the materiality of the textiles worn by the artist or chosen as her canvas provide important insights into her poetics and her exploration of the cultural, social, and political narrative of contemporary Ghana. As she envelops herself in Ghana’s own handcrafted kente cloth and adinkra textiles that connect her to her family or in secondhand clothes and veils found in local markets, Opoku seeks to connect to the country that she now calls home, while at the same time questioning whether it is possible to unravel the complex, abstract, and intimately entangled threads of communal or individual identities.
Royal Garments of the Emir of Kano Muhammadu Sanusi II, 2014–2020
Authors: Renne Elisha P. , DanAsabe Abdulkarim Umar
Published: July 2024

Abstract: Successive Kano emirs have worn resplendent garments to convey their regal political authority among their subjects. The former Emir of Kano, Sarkin Muhammadu Sanusi II, of Kano State, Nigeria, was renowned for his striking royal dress, which often included a long jacket-like robe covered by a large hooded burnous, trousers, ostrich feather shoes, and a turban with a veil-like cloth, which could cover his face. These expensive garments and accessories were made with a range of materials, which included handwoven cotton and raw silk material made in Nigeria, as well as imported textiles from Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, and China that were sewn and embroidered in Nigeria, Egypt, and Morocco. The garments of late or former emirs are not retained in the palace but rather are distributed among family members, thus continuing connections between emirs—past and present—and their relations. While similar styles and materials have been maintained to some extent, certain aspects of these royal garments have changed over the past century, which reflect the specific preferences of the reigning emir. This study is based on a selection of royal garments worn by the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, along with discussions with palace officials, embroiderers, and tailors. Photographs of burnouses, robes, and turbans worn by Sarkin Muhammadu Sanusi II as well as by earlier emirs illustrate how these garments were worn at public events, which have contributed to the continuing political authority of traditional rulers in the modern political era in northern Nigeria.
Not African? Contested Origins of Wax Print and Its High-Fashion Appropriation
Authors: Boateng Boatema
Published: July 2024

Abstract: In 2017, British fashion designer Stella McCartney’s 2018 spring collection, featuring clothing in prints widely regarded as African, was criticized by commentators as an act of cultural appropriation. Similar criticism emerged two years later when the House of Dior used African prints in its Resort 2020 collection. This was despite the fact that in the case of Dior, the fashion house worked with textile designers in Côte d’Ivoire. Some of the responses to the charges of appropriation included the claim that “African fabric…isn’t African” and noted the Dutch-mediated Indonesian origins of wax prints made for the African market and claimed by many as African culture; they also pointed to the provenance of the fabrics used in both collections in the Dutch corporation, Vlisco (in the case of McCartney), and its Ivorian subsidiary, Uniwax (in the case of Dior). Yet other voices questioned the relative merits of wax prints and handmade indigenous fabrics as markers of “African-ness.” Drawing on media coverage of the two collections and the debates they generated, as well as scholarship on the history of the prints, this article explores the contested origins of these textiles. It considers the labor of African market women in wax print’s aesthetic development, and the cultural contexts and consumption practices that inform its circulation and value in African societies and markets and beyond. Drawing comparisons with the history of handmade kente cloth from the Asante people of Ghana, and practices and values around the consumption and circulation of kente, the article seeks to identify criteria that can guide in responding to the contested origin claims around the prints in the McCartney collection of 2017 and the Dior collection of 2019. Using those criteria, it then examines the claims of appropriation in the specific instances of the two collections and, more generally, in the debates around the appropriation of African textiles.
Between History, Theory, and Practice: Iconographic Analysis and Re-Creation of the Silk and Cotton Tablet-Woven Hangings of Ethiopia
Authors: Gervers Michael , Gérentet de Saluneaux Claire
Published: July 2024

Abstract: The world’s largest known tablet-woven textiles have been found in Ethiopia and are dated to the second and third quarters of the eighteenth century. Used as partitions to separate the sanctuary from the body of Orthodox Christian churches, these “textile walls” were made of anywhere from three to fifteen panels of silk or cotton, measuring up to 5 meters in length and 70 centimeters in width. The art vanished from Ethiopia several centuries ago, leaving no archaeological traces or written or oral traditions. Scholars must therefore rely on the few extant objects to understand their meanings and makings. The first half of this article analyzes two such silk hangings that are said to have been royal gifts to churches in the former capital of Gondär—both are now in Western museum collections—as well as the cotton counterparts that have been identified in churches, largely of the Tämben region, in the distant Təgray province and demonstrates that the iconographical scenes woven into a number of figurative registers on the silk examples reflect coronation ceremonies. It also argues that weavers interpreted and transferred this iconography to similar registers on the cotton hangings, where the contextual meaning was lost and their purpose shifted to decorative symbolism. Images on the cotton examples exhibit a rich variety of ecclesiastical and courtly paraphernalia. Building on earlier technical studies by Mary Frame, in the second half of the article, tablet weaver Claire Gérentet de Saluneaux presents the methodology and results of her trials since 2002 to recreate and recapture technical aspects of Ethiopian tablet weaving.
Mathematics of Design in Plain Oblique Twining
Authors: Fraser David W.
Published: July 2024

Abstract: Ply-split braiding involves using a hook or similar tool to part the plies of one cord and draw a second cord through the gap created, and then repeating the process many times. It can be used to create one-, two-, or three-dimensional textiles, as evident in the variety of animal trappings and other constructions made traditionally by men in Rajasthan and Gujarat. Contemporary artists have used the mathematical principles basic to ply-split braiding to extend the range of its use. One category of ply-split braiding—plain oblique twining—is limited to constructions in which each cord alternately splits and is split by other cords it meets along its path. This restriction results in tessellation of the textile surface by squares where cords mate. That constraint sharpens the focus on the mathematical principles underlying ply-split braiding, so this article focuses on plain oblique twining. It describes how the rate of addition of cords determines the shape of vessel forms, the creation of complex plaids, how patterns of adding and deleting cords highlight mathematical principles, and various applications of the Pythagorean theorem that determine possible shapes of three-dimensional ply-split braiding, ranging from an enclosed cube to dramatically asymmetric forms.
Crafting Novel Knotted Textiles with Mathematics
Authors: Nimkulrat Nithikul
Published: July 2024

Abstract: Textile craft media, such as crochet, needlework, and beadwork, have been utilized by mathematicians as a means of conveying abstract mathematical ideas with tangible objects. The use of textile objects facilitates the understanding of both mathematics and craft and provides textile practitioners with insights into the underlying mathematics. This article aims to shed light on ways in which textile knot practice can be influenced by mathematics and how novel knotted textiles can consequently be designed using mathematical concepts, in particular knot theory and tiling theory (Wang tiling and rhombille tiling). The article presents collaborative artistic research between the author, who is a textile practitioner and researcher, and two mathematicians. Prior to the collaboration, the author’s textile knot practice had evolved around the material expression and form of knotted textile sculptures. All work had been created using one color, one pattern, and one structure. Although the author had wished to incorporate colors in her textile knot practice, she had not tried it. The task of determining what strands and in which combinations they should be used to achieve different color patterns seemed too difficult even for an experienced practitioner like her. Through the application of knot diagrams and tiling notations, a multitude of two-tone knotted patterns and two- and three-dimensional knotted structures are originated. The article concludes that mathematical diagrams and notations have the potential to reveal the nature of textile knots and to be used as design tools to create new knotted textiles.
Keeping Nasca Time: The Brooklyn Museum Textile as a 365-Day Calendar
Authors: Martin Lois
Published: July 2024

Abstract: The exquisite 2000-year-old Early Nasca textile from the Brooklyn Museum, 38.121, provides a focus for examining recent theories about Andean mathematics, textiles, and geometries of space and time. Completely reversible, the Brooklyn Museum textile has a sheer central cloth decorated with warp-wrapped designs, framed by an elaborate, three-dimensional border executed in cross-knit looping. Ninety-two tiny costumed figures parade along the border, marching in four single-file lines. The center’s embedded designs are visible from both faces, and the triple-layered border is duplicated on both sides, with matching veneers of crossed-knit looping. Each border figure reflects on either face. However, three errant figures have a front and a back. Throughout Andean prehistory, perfect reversibility, often virtuosic, marks fine textiles. This suggests that mirrored, two-sided designs express “wholeness”; they match like a pair of touching hands. The three front-back figures, then, are incomplete on the verso (like a single hand). By this logic, when the cloth is turned over, and the backs of the figures are revealed, the front-back border figures might count as one or zero, depending on the circumstances. For instance, if we accept that the fabric has ninety-two figures, and each figure might represent a day, the textile would represent roughly one-fourth of a year (92 × 4 = 368). If, however, we consider that each quarter of the fabric represents a different starting point in the counting of a solar year, then we could consider a scenario where the front-back figures are not counted when the quarter they belong to begins the count. The result would then total some configuration of: 92 + 90 + 92 + 91 = 365. Some traditional Andean calendars quarter the year at solstices and equinoxes; the recent identification of the Chankillo monument on Peru’s North Coast as a solar observatory proves that these time-reckoning methods predate the Nasca by centuries. The organization of the year into four parts meshes with enduring Andean notions of space and time, and the structure of four-selvedge cloths. These parallels are highlighted throughout the Brooklyn Museum textile, whose materials, structures, colors, and iconography all recursively model similar four-part schemes of ordered energy.
Two Velvet Letter Pouches and Their Role in Safavid Diplomacy
Authors: Jolly Anna , Mühlemann Corinne
Published: July 2024

Abstract: The Designmuseum Danmark in Copenhagen holds two Iranian letter pouches on loan from the Danish National Archives. Sewn from two differently patterned, cut, voided velvets, these pouches are exquisite works of Safavid textile art. They were assumed to carry a letter from Shāh Sulaymān I (r. 1666–1694) that was delivered to King Christian V of Denmark (r. 1670–1699) in 1691. This article suggests instead that they originally contained two letters from Shāh Ṣafī I (r. 1629–1642) addressed to Duke Frederick III of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp (r. 1616–1659), and received by him in 1639. Our proposal is based on handwritten inscriptions in ink on the inner linings of both pouches and a close study of the contents and physical properties of the letters, which are preserved in the Danish National Archives. A contemporaneous travel account of the Gottorp embassy to Isfahan by Adam Olearius and other archival documentation offer further support to this hypothesis. The link to these letters provides a new terminus ante quem for the dating of the velvet fabrics of these pouches to before 1637. By placing the two letter pouches in the context of diplomatic exchange between the Safavid court and a European court, this case study highlights the role luxury textiles played in seventeenth-century Iranian diplomacy.
Professor Wace’s Turkish Sampler: Ottoman Women Embroiderers and Continental Collectors of Woven Archaeologies
Authors: Türker Deniz
Published: July 2024

Abstract: This article offers a close object analysis of a nineteenth-century sampler from the Ottoman domains. While “Ottoman” as a classificatory designation helps to geographically locate the object due to the unusual length and quantity of embroidered Ottoman Turkish inscriptions, the maker leaves bolder markers of her layered identity and reveals sociocultural practices of crafting embroideries that indicate multi-sensorial improvisational modes of composition, both tactile as well as sonic. The article’s second intention is to expound on the broadening historiographical conception of a Mediterranean network of craft skills, practices, patterns, and peoples in the aftermath of World War II over and against insular distinctions and presumed parochialism, as was imposed on these types of objects in earlier decades of the twentieth century. A continental network of classical archaeologists, amateur collectors, linguists, and art historians constitute the sampler’s twentieth-century academic afterlife, underscoring a wide-ranging interest in textiles and their place in rethinking interconnected communities and regions.
Reading Mosurin in Imperial Japan
Authors: Chen Yu-Ning
Published: July 2024

Abstract: This article analyzes mosurin , a plain-weave wool fabric made in Imperial Japan (1868–1945), from both a historical and a literary standpoint. It offers an analysis of military-related patterns on mosurin fabric, representations of mosurin in print media including Japanese prewar textbooks, and descriptions of both the consumer culture surrounding this fabric and the female factory labor involved in its production in modern Japanese literature. The article argues that mosurin in Imperial Japan was linked with popular consumerism, labor activism, and imperial and wartime propaganda.
Yusuf and Zulaikha in Sufi Poetry and Safavid Silks
Authors: Munroe Nazanin Hedayat
Published: July 2024

Abstract: The romance of Yusuf and Zulaikha was codified as a Sufi allegory in Persian poetry by Abd al-Rahmān Jāmī in 1483. Included in both the Old Testament and the Qur’an, the legend of beautiful Yusuf (Joseph) and his temptress Zulaikha are illustrated in manuscripts of Jāmī’s Haft Awrang , a septet of epic poetry. Zulaikha, a would-be adulteress who is smitten with the young enslaved Yusuf, is mocked by the noblewomen of society until they too meet him in person and lose their senses. This recognizable event in the narrative is illustrated on both embroidered and woven textiles in the sixteenth century, at the height of Safavid luxury figural silk production. In the embroided textile, Yusuf wears a coat with a design of seated youths wearing taj Safavi , the emblem of Twelver Shi’a belief—a rare example of a figural silk textile referencing itself. In double cloth, the couple is rendered in late sixteenth-century Safavid dress surrounded by poetic verse. By dressing in figural silks depicting Yusuf and Zulaikha, the wearer indicated familiarity with Jāmī’s narrative, setting the poetry in motion by embodying the characters. What motivated elite consumers to display this scene on garments in the sixteenth century, and what does the story of Yusuf and Zulaikha indicate about the beliefs of its wearer? Through a comparison of textile techniques, paintings of the scene, passages from Jāmī’s poetry, and primary sources from the Safavid period, this research note examines the mystic messages communicated through these precious silk textiles.
Trends in prevalence and correlates of tobacco use among school-going adolescents in Bhutan: A secondary data analysis of the 2004–2019 Global Youth Tobacco Survey
Authors: Gyeltshen Tshewang , Rahman Mahbubur
Published: July 2024

Tobacco use remains a major public health challenge globally. In Bhutan, despite the implementation of strict tobacco control measures, the tobacco uses among the students continue to be alarmingly high compared to neighboring countries. This study aims to analyze the trends and correlates of tobacco use among students in Bhutan, utilizing the nationally representative Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) data from multiple survey years. Secondary analyses of GYTS data collected during 2004–2019 with 12,594 students aged 11–18 years were employed. Use of tobacco was defined as either smoked or smokeless tobacco use in last 30 days of the survey. Prevalence was estimated over time and multivariable log-binomial regression was used to determine the correlates of current tobacco use. Overall tobacco use prevalence increased from 18.5% in 2004 to 27.3% in 2019. Males had higher prevalence (20.4% in 2019) than females (7.0% in 2019). Smokeless tobacco use increased substantially from 8.2% to 19.4% over the study period. Earlier age of initiation had adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 9.2 for <11 years and 12.8 for 13–16 years vs. never smoking), betel quid use (aOR 3.3), peer pressure (aOR 3.6), and lower cost were significant correlates of adolescent tobacco use. Despite tobacco control policies, tobacco use among Bhutanese students is high and has been increasing over time, especially smokeless forms. Tobacco uses regulation, targeted interventions for high-risk junior high school students, and addressing social influences are urgently needed to curb this epidemic. Sustained tobacco use surveillance and public health action is imperative to protect students in Bhutan from this harmful habit.
Transpiration efficiency variations in the pearl millet reference collection PMiGAP
Authors: Grégoire Laura , Kholova Jana , Srivastava Rakesh , Hash Charles Thomas , Vigouroux Yves , Vadez Vincent
Published: July 2024

Transpiration efficiency (TE), the biomass produced per unit of water transpired, is a key trait for crop performance under limited water. As water becomes scarce, increasing TE would contribute to increase crop drought tolerance. This study is a first step to explore pearl millet genotypic variability for TE on a large and representative diversity panel. We analyzed TE on 537 pearl millet genotypes, including inbred lines, test-cross hybrids, and hybrids bred for different agroecological zones. Three lysimeter trials were conducted in 2012, 2013 and 2015, to assess TE both under well-watered and terminal-water stress conditions. We recorded grain yield to assess its relationship with TE. Up to two-fold variation for TE was observed over the accessions used. Mean TE varied between inbred and testcross hybrids, across years and was slightly higher under water stress. TE also differed among hybrids developed for three agroecological zones, being higher in hybrids bred for the wetter zone, underlining the importance of selecting germplasm according to the target area. Environmental conditions triggered large Genotype x Environment (GxE) interactions, although TE showed some high heritability. Transpiration efficiency was the second contributor to grain yield after harvest index, highlighting the importance of integrating it into pearl millet breeding programs. Future research on TE in pearl millet should focus (i) on investigating the causes of its plasticity i.e. the GxE interaction (ii) on studying its genetic basis and its association with other important physiological traits.