bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
AKT1E17K Activates Focal Adhesion Kinase and Promotes Melanoma Brain Metastasis
Authors: Kircher David A. , Trombetti Kirby A. , Silvis Mark R. , Parkman Gennie L. , Fischer Grant M. , Angel Stephanie N. , Stehn Christopher M. , Strain Sean C. , Grossmann Allie H. , Duffy Keith L. , Boucher Kenneth M. , McMahon Martin , Davies Michael A. , Mendoza Michelle C. , VanBrocklin Matthew W. , Holmen Sheri L.
Published: May 2019

Alterations in the PI3K/AKT pathway occur in up to 70% of melanomas and are associated with disease progression. The three AKT paralogs are highly conserved but data suggest they have distinct functions. Activating mutations of AKT1 and AKT3 occur in human melanoma but their role in melanoma formation and metastasis remains unclear. Using an established melanoma mouse model, we evaluated E17K, E40K, and Q79K mutations in AKT1, AKT2, and AKT3 and show that mice harboring tumors expressing AKT1E17K had the highest incidence of brain metastasis and lowest mean survival. Tumors expressing AKT1E17K displayed elevated levels of focal adhesion factors and enhanced phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK). AKT1E17K expression in melanoma cells increased invasion and this was reduced by pharmacologic inhibition of either AKT or FAK. These data suggest that the different AKT paralogs have distinct roles in melanoma brain metastasis and that AKT and FAK may be promising therapeutic targets.

Implications:

This study suggests that AKT1E17K promotes melanoma brain metastasis through activation of FAK and provides a rationale for the therapeutic targeting of AKT and/or FAK to reduce melanoma metastasis.
Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Biomarker Modulation Study of Vitamin D Supplementation in Premenopausal Women at High Risk for Breast Cancer (SWOG S0812)
Authors: Crew Katherine D. , Anderson Garnet L. , Hershman Dawn L. , Terry Mary Beth , Tehranifar Parisa , Lew Danika L. , Yee Monica , Brown Eric A. , Kairouz Sebastien S. , Kuwajerwala Nafisa , Bevers Therese , Doster John E. , Zarwan Corrine , Kruper Laura , Minasian Lori M. , Ford Leslie , Arun Banu , Neuhouser Marian , Goodman Gary E. , Brown Powel H.
Published: May 2019

Observational studies have reported an inverse association between vitamin D intake and breast cancer risk. We examined whether vitamin D supplementation in high-risk premenopausal women reduces mammographic density (MD), an established breast cancer risk factor. We conducted a multicenter randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial in premenopausal women at high risk for breast cancer [5-year risk ≥ 1.67%, lifetime risk ≥ 20%, lobular carcinoma in situ, prior stage 0–II breast cancer, hereditary breast cancer syndrome, or high MD (heterogeneously/extremely dense)], with a baseline serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] ≤ 32 ng/mL. Participants were randomized to 12 months of vitamin D3 20,000 IU/week or matching placebo. The primary endpoint was change in MD from baseline to 12 months using the Cumulus technique. Secondary endpoints included serial blood biomarkers [25(OH)D, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (1,25(OH)D), insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1, IGF-binding protein-3] and MD change at 24 months. Among 208 women randomized, median age was 44.6 years, 84% were white, 33% had baseline 25(OH)D < 20 ng/mL, and 78% had high baseline MD. Comparing the active and placebo groups at 12 months, MD changes were small and did not significantly differ. Mean MD changes at 12 and 24 months were −0.3% and −1.2%, respectively, in the active arm and +1.5% and +1.6% with placebo (P > 0.05). We observed a mean change in serum 25(OH)D of +18.9 versus +2.8 ng/mL (P < 0.01) and IGF-1 of −9.8 versus −1.8 ng/mL (P = 0.28), respectively. At 12 months, MD was positively correlated with serum IGF-1 and IGF-1/IGFBP-3 (P < 0.01). This trial does not support the use of vitamin D supplementation for breast cancer risk reduction.
Do not Miss Rare and Treatable Cause of Early-Onset Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome: Cobalamin C Deficiency
Authors: Topaloglu Rezan , İnözü Mihriban , Gülhan Bora , Gürbüz Berrak , Talim Beril , Coşkun Turgay
Published: May 2019

The most common disorder of vitamin B12 metabolism is methylmalonic aciduria and homocystinuria type cobalamin C (cblC), which accounts for most of the cases is referred to as cblC deficiency. Cobalamin deficiency is one of the causes of early-onset hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Here, we present the cases of 2 infants with cobalamin deficiency who presented with early-onset HUS. The first patient was a 5-month-old female who was admitted to the hospital with seizure, pallor, and yellow-colored diarrheal stools. Initial laboratory examination showed direct Coombs test-negative hemolytic anemia. Later, she developed acute kidney injury and thrombocytopenia. Bone marrow aspiration showed megaloblastic features, and urinary examination showed elevated levels of methylmalonic acid (MMA), ­methyl citrate, and 3-hydroxypropionic acid. Methionine-restricted diet, parenteral hydroxocobalamine, folinic acid, carnitine, and betaine were initiated. Hemolytic activity was ­controlled with this treatment. Genetic screening showed homozygous mutation on the MMACHCgene (p.R161*[c.481C>T]). The second patient was a 3-month-old male infant who was admitted to the hospital with malaise and diarrhea. Laboratory examination showed direct Coombs test-negative hemolytic anemia with leukopenia. Later he developed acute kidney injury and thrombocytopenia. Bone marrow aspiration revealed megaloblastic changes. Urine organic acid test showed increased levels of MMA. Parenteral hydroxocobalamine, folinic acid, carnitine, and betaine were initiated. He died due to respiratory failure and cardiac arrest. Direct sequencing of MMACHC identified homozygous mutation, c.271dup A. CblC deficiency is an important cause of early-onset HUS and prompt diagnosis will provide specific treatment modalities.
Catheter-Based Splanchnic Denervation for Treatment of Hypertensive Cardiomyopathy
Authors: Zhen Zhe , Liao Song-Yan , Zhu Zi-Yi , Sijia Sun , Au Ka-Wing , Lai Wing-Hon , Tsang Anita , Hai JoJo S.H. , Tse Hung-Fat
Published: May 2019

Emerging preclinical data suggest that splanchnic sympathetic nerve activation may play an important role in the pathophysiology of hypertension. We sought to determine the potential therapeutic application of catheter-based splanchnic denervation in a clinically relevant large animal model of hypertensive cardiomyopathy (hCMP). Sustained elevated blood pressure was induced in adult pigs using a combination of intravenous infusion of Ang II (angiotensin II) and subcutaneous implantation of deoxycorticosterone acetate pellets to establish a large animal model of hCMP. Serial changes in cardiac echocardiographic and invasive hemodynamic parameters and neurohumoral biomarkers were investigated in animals with hypertension alone (n=9) and hypertension with catheter-based splanchnic denervation (n=6). Another 6 pigs without hypertension induction served as controls. At 10 weeks, hypertensive animals developed sustained elevated blood pressure and phenotype of hCMP with significant systolic and diastolic dysfunction, and left ventricular remodeling and hypertrophy as determined by invasive hemodynamic and echocardiogram assessments, respectively, and increased venoarterial norepinephrine gradient over the myocardium, kidneys, and splanchnic organs compared with baseline. Catheter-based splanchnic denervation decreased the venoarterial norepinephrine gradient over the splanchnic organs associated with the reduced splenic sympathetic nerve innervation; attenuated the elevated blood pressure, left ventricular remodeling, and hypertrophy; and preserved left ventricular systolic and diastolic function at 20 weeks in pigs with hCMP. Our results provide novel mechanistic insight into the role of splenic sympathetic nerve innervation in hypertension and important proof-of-principle data for the therapeutic application of catheter-based splanchnic denervation in a large animal model of hCMP.
Sculpting Masculinities in 19th- and 20th-Century Physical Culture: The Practiced Life of Stanley Rothwell
Authors: Chow Broderick D.V.
Published: May 2019

The performance of physical transformation poses a methodological challenge for historians of 19th- and 20th-century physical culture: it is primarily the still image that evidences a dynamic, embodied practice. The archive of Stanley Rothwell (1904–1986) — British miner, artist’s model, bodybuilder, boxer, wrestler, writer, and physical educator — reveals the sculpted masculine “ideal” as a performance of becoming, in which the image is constantly trained, constructed, and rebuilt through repetition, allowing for the possibility of difference.
Citizen Action: Political Performance after Yugoslavia
Authors: Rounthwaite Adair
Published: May 2019

Post–2000, the space of what was formerly socialist Yugoslavia saw the rise of politicized performance practices that interrogate the nation and national identity. The performance works of Grupa Spomenik (The Monument Group), Slaven Tolj, and the three artists who changed their names to Janez Janša all ask what it means to be a citizen, specifically by engaging with commemoration as a paradigmatic act of citizenship.
Dubbing the Dead: Der Dybbuk 1937–2017 at the Jerusalem YMCA Hall
Authors: Stern Zehavit
Published: May 2019

Can one bring an 80-year-old film to life? Can one resurrect a dead culture? Der Dybbuk 1937–2017, a live performance based on the 1937 Yiddish film Der dibuk raises these questions, juxtaposing past and present through live Yiddish dubbing, live music, and contemporary editing.
Spared Perception of the Structure of Scenes after Hippocampal Damage
Authors: Urgolites Zhisen J. , Hopkins Ramona O. , Squire Larry R.
Published: May 2019

To explore whether the hippocampus might be important for certain spatial operations in addition to its well-known role in memory, we administered two tasks in which participants judged whether objects embedded in scenes or whether scenes themselves could exist in 3-D space. Patients with damage limited to the hippocampus performed as well as controls in both tasks. A patient with large medial-temporal lobe lesions had a bias to judge objects in scenes and scenes themselves as possible, performing well with possible stimuli but poorly with impossible stimuli in both tasks. All patients were markedly impaired at remembering the tasks. The hippocampus appears not to be essential for judging the structural coherence of objects in scenes or the coherence of scenes. The findings conform to what is now a sizeable literature emphasizing the importance of the hippocampus for memory. We discuss our results in light of findings that other patients have sometimes been reported to be disadvantaged by spatial tasks like the ones studied here, despite less hippocampal damage and milder memory impairment.
Scribes, Assistants, and the Materiality of Administrative Documents in Qin-Early Han China: Excavated Evidence from Liye, Shuihudi, and Zhangjiashan
Authors: Ma Tsang Wing
Published: May 2019

As a result of the increasing administrative needs in the early imperial period, the profession of scribes was liberated from being the exclusive reserve of traditional hereditary families and opened to aspirants from non-hereditary families. Based on the excavated legal and administrative texts from Liye, Shuihudi, and Zhangjiashan, this paper explores the complementary nature of the scribes and assistants to understand the opening of the scribal profession. This paper also coins a concept of “administrative literacy,” which suggests that the materiality of written surfaces is a significant factor in understanding the literacy of administrative officials in early imperial China. 

Du fait des besoins croissants de l’administration aux débuts de l’époque impériale, la profession de scribe a cessé d’être l’apanage des familles qui traditionnellement en avaient l’accès exclusif, et a été ouverte à des candidats venus d’autres familles. En se fondant sur les documents administratifs et juridiques exhumés à Liye, Shuihudi et Zhangjiashan, cet article explore la nature complémentaire des rôles de scribe et d’assistant, en vue de comprendre une telle ouverture de la profession de scribe. Ce faisant, il propose le concept de “compétence administrative” et suggère que la matérialité des supports d’écriture était un facteur important pour comprendre les niveaux de compétence des fonctionnaires de l’administration aux débuts de l’ère impériale.
To Know the Enemy: The Zei qing huizuan, Military Intelligence, and the Taiping Civil War
Authors: Meyer-Fong Tobie
Published: May 2019

This article highlights the strategies and institutions that were mobilized in order to collect information during the Taiping Civil War (1851-1864). Through a close reading of the Zei qing huizuan 賊情彙纂 (Compendium of Rebel Intelligence), the article reveals that the Qing and its allies understood the Taiping as a political entity constituted on a familiar (dynastic) model and also in ethnographic terms (linguistic, sartorial, religious, regional). The article also demonstrates how individuals made use of their access to information to obtain patronage and employment within the pro-Qing camp. Finally, by spotlighting the political and moral language used by the authors of the Zei qing huizuan, the article makes obvious the deep relationship between intelligence and ideology.
Writing Landscapes into Civilization: Ming Loyalist Ambitions on the Mekong Delta
Authors: Ang Claudine
Published: May 2019

After the collapse of the Ming dynasty, a group of Ming loyalists settled in Hà Tiên (located on the Vietnamese side of the modern border between Cambodia and Vietnam) on the Mekong delta. On those frontier lands, they built a settlement around a port that maintained close connections with Guangdong and Fujian. This article examines an eighteenth-century literary project that took as its focus ten scenic sites in Hà Tiên. The poems were distributed via the coastal trading network to poets in Vietnam and the Chinese mainland, who composed matching poems and returned them with the next sailing season. These poetic compositions functioned as a medium through which the originator of the project rendered his domain civilized by giving pattern (wen 文) to Hà Tiên’s natural environment. Moreover, he encoded in them messages that urged dispersed Ming loyalists to make Hà Tiên their new capital. Close study of the ten original poems uncovers the motivations of a second-generation Ming loyalist, who composed landscape poetry to create a new home outside the Chinese mainland.
Vedic Heritage for Environmental Stewardship
Authors: Dwivedi O.P.
Published: May 2019

An ethic of environmental stewardship can find valuable support in the world's existing cultural and spiritual traditions. This paper emphasises the Vedic heritage for eco-care, citing as examples numerous passages from Hindu sacred writings, including the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. These scriptures demonstrate an early understanding of the need to temper our material appetites, and most importantly, to treat the earth with care and respect.
Arne Naess and the Norwegian Nature Tradition
Authors: Witoszek Nina
Published: May 2019

The current debate on the sources, meaning and implications of Arne Naess's Deep Ecology often refers to Spinoza, Gandhi and Socrates as the main inspirations of his vision. This essay explores the less familiar, Norwegian sources of Næss's thought and its rootedness in the Scandinavian Enlightenment. The context of the native tradition illuminates both the underlying central values of Deep Ecology - and its famous inconsistencies.
Earth's Insights ... and Inadequacies
Authors: Eaton Heather
Published: May 2019

The ecological wisdom from cross-cultural and religious insights provides needed historical references, guidance and ethical ideals for the ecological crisis. However, while supporting the project undertaken in Earth's Insights, this article challenges the tools used to develop a postmodern worldview. The lack of adequate discussions about the postmodern discourses, the new science, a 'universal' postmodern worldview, and the infusing of cross-cultural ecological ethics into such a worldview, leave the project vulnerable and utopian.
Earth's Insights: A Geographer's Perspective on its Rationale and Method
Authors: Proctor James
Published: May 2019

J. Baird Callicott's argument in Earth's Insights that a global conservation ethic resonant with Leopold and postmodern science is emerging emanates from a particular point of departure and method of justification. I provide a perspective on Callicot's rationale and method as a way of critically examining this argument's underlying basis, and in the spirit of fostering greater interaction between geographers and others with an intellectual interest in environmental ethics.
Gandhi's Khadi Spirit and Deep Ecology
Authors: Torchia Adela Diubaldo
Published: May 2019

Although Mohandas K. Gandhi died before ecological concern was a pervasive issue, his ethical and religious approach to the treatment of all fellow creatures. was founded on an identification with all that lives. Such an identification is a prerequisite to the understanding of the profound biological and spiritual interconnectedness advocated by the modem deep ecology movement. For Gandhi the broad ideal of ahimsa, or non-injury, was out of reach without such an awareness of the interdepency of all of life. And ahimsa was also impossible without 'self-purification', a largely ascetical life of renunciation of material and physical indulgence. Gandhi was an early pioneer of both the more-with-less approach to ecologically-sound living, and deep ecology's perspective of the oneness of all elements of the biosphere, and their spiritual link.
Between Self-showing and Withdrawal: Heidegger’s Question of Being Reconsidered
Authors: Yang Guang
Published: May 2019

This article focuses on two Platonic concepts, δύναµις and χώρα, and Heidegger’s interpretation of them in his lecture courses on Greek philosophy. I try to demonstrate that these two concepts offer us insights into the dynamic movement of Being between self-showing and withdrawal. The aim of the article is to show that Being, as one of the greatest kinds in the Sophist, and the elusive χώρα in the Timaeus can open up new perspectives on the Heideggerian question of Being.
Myth, Primitive Sign, Poetry: From Cassirer to Heidegger
Authors: Leib Robert S.
Published: May 2019

Cassirer is important in 20th Century philosophy for the attention he gives to the fundamental relationship between myth and language. For Cassirer, myth is a non-subjective form of discourse wherein the origin of language coincides with both the human-divine encounter and the event of being itself. In this article, I trace the disagreement between Cassirer and Heidegger on the nature of the magical (or “primitive”) sign, which is at the heart of mythical discourse. While Heidegger initially argues that this form of sign is structurally impossible on the basis of his accounts of signs and language in Being and Time, he later comes to recognize that he had not properly accounted for its possibility within his phenomenological deduction. I conclude by describing how Heidegger’s notion of poetry eventually comes into alignment with the way Cassirer describes the function of myth and the magical sign.
Foreign Policy and Human Rights: Eritrea in the Post Algiers Period
Authors: Venkataraman Manickam , Gebrezgiabiher Thewodros Aregay
Published: May 2019

The interconnection between foreign policy and human rights is increasingly recognized both at academic and practice levels owing largely to the increasing internationalization and pre-eminence of human rights in global politics. In fact, human rights and democracy promotion have secured a place in foreign policy agendas and has gained significance in conflict resolution and peace work as well. Also, human rights norms and principles are recognized and enshrined in international laws and endorsed in regional treaties and national constitutions and has gained prime importance in international relations. As a result, internal and external dynamics of states have been effectively intertwined. This article analyses Eritrea’s foreign policy dynamics and its implications on human rights particularly in the aftermath of the Algiers Peace Agreement of December 2001 that concluded a three years border conflict with Ethiopia. This is done by enquiring whether the conflict and failure to implement the Algiers agreement has anything to do with the gross human rights violations that is witnessed in that country. The article proceeds to analyse the issue in a descriptive and analytical manner by using both secondary and primary sources, including treaties, official statements of public bodies, peace accords and un Drafts,1 and it concludes that the ongoing human rights violations is a product of the stalemate with Ethiopia that has provided a mechanism for continued repression and authoritarian rule in the country.
The Pedagogies of Preaching
Authors: Reinhardt Bruno
Published: May 2019

This article investigates Pentecostal preaching from a pedagogical angle, more exactly from the point of view of its transmission to apprentice pastors in a Ghanaian seminary or Bible school. My concern is the reproduction of a specific preaching style in this institution, an “international” one, governed by explicit and implicit norms. I revisit ethnographically some of these norms as they are conveyed and embodied through lectures about preaching, devotional routines, and student services. I call attention to the emic notion of “flow”, arguing that it lends good legibility to how Pentecostals articulate the multivalent status of preaching as a mimetic skill, a contingent performance, and an authentic expression of charisma. By doing so, flow also provides an interesting entry into the pedagogical dimension of the power assembling and expanding this organization transnationally.
Spanish Books in Michiel van Hamont’s Bookshop (1569): A Case Study of the Distribution of Spanish Books in Sixteenth-Century Brussels
Authors: Adam Renaud
Published: May 2019

This paper is dedicated to the study of the dissemination of Spanish books—books written in Spanish—during the 16th century in Brussels. This study is based on an inventory of the bookseller-printer Michiel van Hamont made in 1569, at the request of the authorities searching for heretical books. This is the first survey conducted on this subject. Spanish books that have effectively circulated within the Southern Netherlands, have generally been neglected by scholars. They mainly focused their attention on local production (which books were printed by whom) and export to the Iberian World (Kingdom of Spain and Americas). They studied the rise of Antwerp as a major centre of Spanish vernacular editions and its role in the dissemination of Spanish books. The first findings in this paper show that the distribution of Spanish books in Brussels in the mid-sixteenth century is merely a marginal phenomenon.
The Origins of Printing in Spanish in Antwerp
Authors: Gonzalo Sánchez-Molero José Luis
Published: May 2019

The city of Antwerp occupies a special place in the history of relations between Spain and the Netherlands during the centuries of the modern period. Hispano-Netherlandish relations in the centuries of the modern period have been studied from many different points of view. On this occasion we propose to delve into the origins of the very important links created around books and to deal, in particular, with the beginnings of the production of books in Spanish in Antwerp. Our intention here, therefore, is not to make a new listing of the editions printed at that time but a quite different one: to analyse the way in which this interesting publishing phenomenon developed in its origins and within a very specific period of time: the years prior to Christophe Plantin’s great publishing success.
Printing Spanish Books in the Southern and Northern Netherlands, 1520-1700
Authors: Wilkinson Alexander S.
Published: May 2019

Exploiting the most recent bibliographical information available, this article surveys Spanish-language printing in the southern and northern Netherlands from its tentative beginnings in 1520 to 1700. The anni mirabiles (1543-1560) have done much to shape perceptions of the trade in Spanish books. Yet, these were relatively short-lived. Overall, production grew steadily before 1701 with Antwerp then Brussels and Amsterdam becoming market leaders. A staggering 350 printers and publishers are known to have been involved in producing these works, although for almost all of them, printing in Spanish was never the main part of their output. The character of these works changed over the two centuries, with religious texts growing in importance. While every book had its own history, and intended market, it seems clear that Spanish-language books were not being produced exclusively or even predominantly to target the market in Spain itself—at least not directly.
Is Feminism Still Another Dirty “F” Word?
Authors: Smith Leslie Dorrough
Published: May 2019

The concept of “code-switching” is often used to designate the communicative transgression of some sort of symbolic boundary of identity, often for various social purposes. Progressive activists and scholars alike have used the concept to point out the contradictions and idiosyncracies of groups like Concerned Women for America (CWA), a longstanding member of the Christian Right, as it portrays itself as both anti-feminist and pro-feminist simultaneously. Using CWA’s various positions on feminism as a case study, this essay considers not just how this instance of code-switching rhetorically operates, but also examines how the concept is used in the critiques lodged by progressive voices against conservative Christian groups.
A Freedom beyond Conflict: The Logic of Internal Conflict and the Free Will in Maximus the Confessor
Authors: Lourié Basil
Published: May 2019

Maximus’ idea of appropriation of the divine will by deified humans, in any consistent interpretation, would mean their deprivation of their own freedom – exactly in the same manner as it could be in the case of servitude to sin. Maximus’ own logic, however, was paraconsistent when applied to the case of deification (whereas not to the opposite case of the servitude to sin). A recourse to a paraconsistent deontic logic was not a uniquely Maximian tool even in the Middle Ages and could serve as an inspiring example for logicians today.
Apocryphal Tradition and Slavonic Pilgrimage Literature
Authors: Garzaniti Marcello
Published: May 2019

Slavonic pilgrimage literature is an interesting example of the widespread knowledge of apocryphal literature not only through the written tradition, but also through the mediation of the Palestine liturgical tradition and oral legends. The collective memory of Slavia Orthodoxa was formed, therefore, not only on the basis of familiarity with the Holy Scriptures, but also through liturgical tradition and oral legends attested in a complex of “holy books” where the apocryphal and legendary motifs enrich and complete the understanding of sacred history characters and events.
The Cambridge Intellectual History of Byzantium, edited by Anthony Kaldellis and Niketas Siniossoglou, 2017
Authors: Chernoglazov Dmitry , Benevich Grigory , Choufrine Arkadi , Goncharko Oksana , Schukin Timur
Published: May 2019

This review article is a collective work of five scholars who have written their reviews and/or responses to the twelve chapters of the recently published Cambridge Intellectual History of Byzantium. These reviews discuss such issues as institutional settings, classical scholarship, rhetoric, political theory, literary criticism, historiography, logic, and philosophy in Byzantium. They also deal with the reception of the Neoplatonic ideas in Byzantium as well as with some individual figures such as Maximos the Confessor and Michael Psellos.
Making a Home in Poland: Photographic Education and Practices in the Landkentnish Movement
Authors: Pasternak Gil , Ziętkiewicz Marta
Published: May 2019

This article studies the photographic methods that the Poland-based Landkentnish (Yiddish for “knowing the land”) movement employed in the interwar period to promote Jewish culture and Poland as a home for the Jewish people. The movement wished to increase the exposure of Polish Jews to Poland’s diverse landscapes in order to strengthen their connection to the Polish land. It also aspired to create archives of local Jewish cultural heritage to attest to the long history of Polish Jewry and to the contributions that Jews had made to Polish society. After tracing the movement’s origins, the article explores the concentrated efforts that it made to provide its members with photographic knowledge and education. Analyzing the photographic sources and resources that the movement created, the exhibitions that it put on display, and its employment of snapshots, the article demonstrates how photography assisted the movement in realizing its key aims and objectives.
Where Have You Gone, Father Roland de Vaux?
Authors: Weiss Haim
Published: May 2019

In 1960 a bundle of letters, written by Shimon Bar-Kosibah (Bar-Kokhba), was discovered during an archaeological dig in Nahal Hever. This archaeological dig was led by Professor Yigael Yadin, former Israel Defense Forces’ chief of staff and an archaeologist at the Hebrew University. In order to comprehend the cultural meaning of this event I would like to mention another figure, Father Roland de Vaux, an archaeologist and Dominican priest who was the first to find scrolls sent by Bar-Kosibah, and who Yadin chose not to mention. I believe that this omission sheds profound light on Yigael Yadin’s role as mythmaker.
Ghost Cities: Aaron Zeitlin’s Post-Holocaust Poetry
Authors: Masor Alyssa
Published: May 2019

There are two cities that are featured in Zeitlin’s poetry composed in America during and after the Holocaust, one real and one remembered. Zeitlin is physically in New York and often refers to the city of his real time; however, the author and his poems are possessed by the ghosts of Jewish Warsaw. The-Warsaw-that-is-no-more is often transposed on the geography of New York. Warsaw becomes New York’s ghostly twin, and Zeitlin, a walking shadow whose body is in New York, but whose spirit has gone up in flames with the murdered Jews of Warsaw. In this paper, I demonstrate how Zeitlin creates a paranormal rhetoric of ghosts, astrals, phantoms, and shadows in order to navigate an eradicated world. Various landmarks in New York become portals to this lost world, and crossing the street can become a metaphor for connecting with the deceased.
An Alternative Version of Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles of Faith
Authors: Rubinstein Tanja
Published: May 2019

The subject of this article is an early socialist pamphlet in the form of a parody on Maimonides’ Thirteen Principles of Faith. The pamphlet was written by Morris Winchevsky in Hebrew and first published in London in 1885. The text is regarded as the first in a series of socialist and anarchist satirical pamphlets that were written in the period 1885–1910. In 1903 the text was republished in another pamphlet, together with a Yiddish translation. The main focus of this article will be on this second version and the differences between the original Hebrew text and its Yiddish translation.
Upon a Certain Place: On the Dialectics of Transmitting Tradition in the Work of Haim Be’er
Authors: Marienberg-Milikowsky Itay
Published: May 2019

Haim Beʾer is recognized by Hebrew literary criticism as a writer who conducts a profound dialogue between ancient Jewish texts and modern Jewish-Israeli culture. This article offers a critical appraisal of this view. Through a reading of Beʾer’s novel Lifnei ha-makom (Upon a Certain Place, 2007), the article offers a new way of looking at how Beʾer sees the relation between old and new. Instead of mediating between tradition and modernity and translating the old for a generation that has partly severed ties with it, Lifnei ha-makom undermines the very mediation that is so much identified with Beʾer’s work. Beʾer’s novel boldly examines what it means to live a Jewish life almost devoid of books. The role of tradition, in this scheme, is to be present in the world of the new generation without undergoing interpretation. The article links between this attitude and deep processes in contemporary Israeli culture.
Meir ben Simeon ha-Meʿili on Protracted Pregnancy
Authors: Roth Pinchas
Published: May 2019

Since antiquity, many people have believed that the length of human gestation is variable, ranging from seven months to ten or even twelve months. The significance of this belief is not confined to the medical sphere, since it has important legal ramifications. If pregnancy could last for an extended period, a mother could claim that her offspring was legitimately conceived from her husband even if she had not had physical contact with her husband for more than nine months prior to the birth. After surveying the history of the belief in prolonged pregnancy in ancient Greek and Talmudic literature, this article presents a new rabbinic discussion of the topic from medieval Languedoc, a hitherto unknown passage from Rabbi Meir ben Simeon ha-Meʿili’s work Sefer ha-Meʾorot.
From Orientalism to Homonationalism: Queer Politics, Islamophobia and Europeanization in Kosovo
Authors: Rexhepi Piro
Published: May 2019

This paper investigates the convergence of European Union enlargement strategies and queer politics in the production of Islamophobia in Kosovo. Through a reading of recent homophobic attacks in Kosovo, it examines how the incorporation of lgbti politics into the eu enlargement assemblages generate a representational praxis of queer communities in Kosovo under threat by Muslim extremists. This paper proposes that the Europeanization of lgbti rights depoliticizes queer communities and singles them out for protection as victims of Islamic fundamentalism by creating binary and exclusionary Queer/Islam divisions that prevent the emergence of intersectional solidarities and subjectivities such as queer and Muslim. In this context, European financed ‘coming out’ projects gain a new meaning in Kosovo, one where the promotion of visibility for certain queer subjects works simultaneously to expose Muslim ‘extremists’. Queer acceptance in Islamophobic times, then, becomes the ultimate test of who can and cannot become European citizen.
Capturing Contested States
Authors: Džankić Jelena
Published: May 2019

This article argues that external state contestation and internal ethnic divisions have resulted in a high degree of state capture in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro, thus providing structural mechanisms for the reproduction of power of political elites. The article focuses on two dominant forms of state capture – party membership in public administration and the privatization process. First, by examining the extent to which party membership influences the composition of public administration, the article explains the solidification of the link between electoral preferences and job security. Second, by looking at the privatisation of state assets, the article shows how state capture facilitated the elites’ accumulation of private wealth. The latter developed into subsidiary networks for financing political parties, offering resources for corruption, clientelism and patronage that are key to the reproduction of political power in captured states. The article concludes by exploring the implications of the link between state contestation and state capture in the Western Balkan states.
La-fala:lac’a ħĭčʾey
Authors: Faust Noam
Published: May 2019

This paper presents and discusses a text in the Tigre language, delivered by a speaker of the Samhar dialect. The accompanying notes indicate several grammatical issues that arise from the text and are either specific to this dialect or have never been discussed explicitly in the Tigre literature. Among these are: receding vowel harmony in rounding, length in closed syllables, the two-syllable stress window, the purposive əgəl in the infinitive construction and in object marking, the connectives yɛni and ende, negation, focus and direct and indirect speech.
The Origins of Andalusi-Moroccan Arabic and the Role of Diglossia
Authors: Ouhalla Jamal
Published: May 2019

This article aims to make a contribution to the debate concerning the origins of the Moroccan Arabic genitive preposition d(yal) and its implications for the emergence of Moroccan Arabic recently reignited in Heath (2015). The latter sources the preposition to a combination of Late Latin allative dē and pronouns in the context of a language shift that took place in Roman cities in the Maghreb. This hypothesis is shown to be inconsistent with both the linguistic and historical evidence, which favour the alternative hypothesis that the preposition arose from merger between the Old Romance genitive preposition de/i and the Classical Arabic definite article (ʔ)al (Ouhalla 2009a&b). This development took place in the context of Andalusi Arabic, which emerged in Spain in the ninth and tenth centuries and subsequently spread to Morocco by migration. In addition to outlining further linguistic evidence for the hypothesis, the article highlights the role of diglossia in the emergence of Andalusi Arabic, where Classical Arabic was the High variety that accounted for much of the vocabulary and Iberian Old Romance as the Low variety that accounted for the syntax base.
The Pronominal Copula in Arabic
Authors: Choueiri Lina
Published: May 2019

The literature on the syntax of verbless predication in Arabic is rich, but little attention has been given to the ‘pronominal copula’, PRON. Its main characteristics are well-known: it only takes the form of third person independent pronouns; it is limited to equational sentences, in which the predicate is a definite noun phrase; and it must always occur between the subject and the predicate nominal. A standard view (e.g. Eid 1991, and more recently, Ouhalla 2013) has been to assume that PRON, like its verbal counterpart KN, realizes subject agreement in T. In this paper, I examine the syntax of PRON and review its characteristics in contrast with those of KN. I show that the complex distribution of PRON challenges the standard view and supports an alternative analysis. I propose that equational sentences are underlyingly more complex than predicational verbless sentences: they project an extra functional head F between T and the small clause structure, PredP, in which the non-verbal predicate and its subject are generated. PRON is in FP, while KN is in T. I argue that, because equational sentences involve two elements of the same category, i.e. DP, they are subject to the Distinctness Condition of Richards (2010). FP provides the Spell-Out domain boundary necessary to avoid a Distinctness violation. Finally, I suggest that FP is always headed by a pronominal element that functions as a linker (Philip 2012, Franco et al. 2015), a syntactic head which marks an existing grammatical relation, namely predication, between two DPs. More broadly, my account is in line with the view that the identity/predicational divide in copular sentences corresponds to a difference in syntactic structure.
Semantic Gender Diversity and Its Architecture in the Grammar of Arabic
Authors: Fassi Fehri Abdelkader
Published: May 2019

The article argues that Gender expresses a multitude of meanings including individuation, collectivity, abstractness, quantity, size, evaluation, perspectivization, in addition to the most known sex-animacy. In contrast to the dominant view in the literature, which sees Gender as essentially (a) a nominal class marking device, (b) semantically sex-based, and (c) syntactically reflected in gender agreement through sexed-animate controllers, we propose a constructional multi-layered architecture that takes into account its polysemous nature, and provides room for more ‘unorthodox’ syntactic distributions. The analysis is implemented in a Minimalist Distributed Morphology model of Grammar.
Implications of Queer Theory for the Study of Religion and Gender: Entering the Third Decade
Authors: Schippert Claudia
Published: May 2019

This essay explores the conceptual and contextual shifts in queer theoretical work as it is entering into its third decade of articulation. The essay reviews important recent themes in, and examines implications of, queer theoretical scholarship for the study of religion and gender. I suggest that among the implications are a more un-disciplined study of religion (and secularism) that takes seriously shifts resulting from transnational and diasporic queer scholarship, as well as shifts in conceptions of agency and resistance resulting from analyses and critique of homonormative positions, and that can critically intervene in homonationalism and Islamophobia.
Male Headship as Male Agency: An Alternative Understanding of a ‘Patriarchal’ African Pentecostal Discourse on Masculinity
Authors: Van Klinken Adriaan S.
Published: May 2019

In some Christian circles in Africa, male headship is a defining notion of masculinity. The central question in this article is how discourses on masculinity that affirm male headship can be understood. A review of recent scholarship on masculinities and religion shows that male headship is often interpreted in terms of male dominance. However, a case study of sermons in a Zambian Pentecostal church shows that discourse on male headship can be far more complex and can even contribute to a transformation of masculinities. The main argument is that a monolithic concept of patriarchy hinders a nuanced analysis of the meaning and function of male headship in local contexts. The suggestion is that in some contexts male headship can be understood in terms of agency.
‘Is the Headscarf Oppressive or Emancipatory?’ Field Notes from the Multicultural Debate
Authors: Bracke Sarah , Fadil Nadia
Published: May 2019

This essay examines the discursive contours of the multicultural debate in Europe, and the ways in which it is cast in gendered terms. It does so by investigating one particular albeit highly contentious issue, notably the headscarf controversy. In recent years, this sartorial practice has turned into an important object of debate and controversy in various Western European countries, often structured around the question ‘is the headscarf oppressive or emancipatory?’. Rather than engaging substantially with this question, or with the various meanings or significations of hijab as a sartorial practice, we seek to reflect upon the performative effects of this question, and do so more specifically in the Belgian context. What kind of imaginaries does the headscarf debate in general, and this question in particular, limit or shape? And what kinds of speeches and actions does it enable or conceal? We argue that the headscarf debate is functional to the constitution of a specific idea of ‘neutrality’ on the one hand, and of an ‘emancipated gender identity’ (agency) on the other, which is primarily grasped in liberal and secular terms (through the language of ‘rights’). More than simply tracing the performative effects of this discussion, we also try to account for the possibilities of overcoming these discursive conditionalities and the capacity of rendering other forms of agency intelligible.
Masculinity, Homosexuality and the Defence of Islam: A Case Study of Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s Media Fatwa
Authors: Kugle Scott , Hunt Stephen
Published: May 2019

This paper analyses how Islamic Neo-traditionalists perceive gender constructs through a distorted view of religious texts and cultural conventions. It explores the ramifications of these constructs for attitudes towards same-sex orientations and relationships. These themes are discussed with reference to a case study of a TV talk show on 5 June 2006 by one conservative scholar-activist, Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, whose teachings have an impact in the Middle-East and on Muslim minorities in the West. The paper will demonstrate how al-Qaradawi articulates his views of homophobia as part of an agenda to reinforce perceived threats to Muslim masculinity.
The Bible Student’s Sacrifice: Gender Fluidity and Consecrated Identity in Evangelical America, 1879-1916
Authors: Noddings Timothy Robert
Published: May 2019

American feminist scholars have often represented gender in nineteenth-century evangelical Protestantism as a binary conflict between oppositional ‘male’ and ‘female’ categories of identity and experience. Drawing on the theoretical work of Jeanne Boydston, this article argues that gender within evangelical religion is better understood as a ‘system of distinctions’ that could be articulated in a variety of ways, some of which violated the gendered division of masculine/feminine. The American Bible Student movement, as a fervent millennialist organization, demanded that its members sacrifice their individuality to become ‘harvest workers’ for Christ. This sacrifice temporarily provided Students with a degree of freedom to construct spiritual identities that combined ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ signifiers, destabilizing the binary meaning of gender. After 1897, a series of internal challenges and schisms re-solidified the gender line, associating stability with the limiting of women’s power within both church and home.
‘She Read Me a Prayer and I Read It Back to Her’: Gagauz Women, Miraculous Literacy and the Dreaming of Charms
Authors: Kapaló James
Published: May 2019

This paper explores the polyvalent and gendered nature of the relationship between the practices of reading and charming and the Mother of God in the dream narratives of Gagauz women in the Republic of Moldova. The most widespread healing text used by this Orthodox Christian minority, The Dream of the Mother of God, is paradigmatic of this relationship being the principle ‘site’ where images of and beliefs about healing and dreaming meet with women’s reading and writing practices. Women’s knowledge of reading and charming constitutes dangerous knowledge and their dream narratives of literacy and healing represent an important way in which gender and identity are performed by this group of women. I argue here that although dreams with the Mother of God and her text represent transgressions of patriarchal religious boundaries, their ability to contribute to the reimagining or renegotiation of gendered social roles for these women is limited.
Women on the Fault Lines of Faith: Pussy Riot and the Insider/Outsider Challenge to Post-Soviet Orthodoxy
Authors: Shevzov Vera
Published: May 2019

This article examines the explosive reaction to ‘Punk Prayer’ as a religious act. It argues that the power of the performance as iconoclash resulted from the fact that it tapped, resonated with and disturbed Russia’s Orthodox culture through its appropriation of Orthodox sound, space and symbols – namely, the image of Mary, the Mother of God. The perceived position of its performers as insiders or outsiders to Orthodoxy, the evaluation of the sincerity of Punk Prayer as prayer and the paradoxical role that gender played in shaping these perceptions contributed to the tumultuous response.
Mater Nostra: The Anti-blasphemy Message of the Feminist Punk Prayer
Authors: Volkova Elena
Published: May 2019

In this essay I develop a blasphemy counter-discourse arguing that it was ecclesial and state authorities who committed blasphemies, which were condemned by Pussy Riot’s Punk Prayer. Thus, the performance in this respect may be interpreted as an anti-blasphemy protest. The blasphemy list includes the collaboration of the church with the authoritarian state, known as heresy of Sergianism; Caesar and Temple idolatry, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Virgin Mary and Folly for Christ’s sake. The Punk Prayer may be interpreted as a feminine version of the Lord’s Prayer – Mater Nostra. Several corporeal narratives in the background – women’s dress code and rape debates, Virgin Mary’s belt, and its alleged miraculous ability to help women to deliver a baby – may be seen as allegories of feminist versus patriarchal opposition in Russian religious and political culture.