Nieuwe aanwinsten Geesteswetenschappen: jan - mrt 2025

Do the ancient Greek classics of politics and philosophy arouse interest among the Chinese? The answer, according to Shadi Bartsch, is a resounding yes. Works by Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, and to a lesser extent Cicero and Vergil, generally unknown to China during the millennia-long dynastic system, have shown themselves "good to think with" in contemporary China, both at moments of crisis and revolution, and at moments of increasing confidence and nationalism. Even as classical studies wane in Europe and America, the Chinese believe they are indispensable to an understanding of Western culture. First treated as relevant to China's problems of modernization, now more likely to be invoked in discussions of what the Chinese feel is the loss of a moral compass of contemporary Europe and the United States, the Western classics are treated as more relevant than the west has ever treated the Confucian tradition. In this book, based on her 2018 Martin Lectures given annually at Oberlin college, Shadi Bartsch aims to tell the long history of reception of classics in China. It follows an arc in time from the mid-16th century, when the Jesuits first brought classical texts to China, to the events of the tumultuous 20th century-a time of reform, revolution, and repression-and the present day. Although the book is rooted in this history, its major concern is the contemporary situation in China. Bartsch reflects on Chinese intellectual responses to a number of different "classical" topics: Athenian democracy, Plato's "noble lie," the western emphasis on Socratic rationality, the use of Leo Strauss's non-democratic interpretation of these texts, and the struggle to reappropriate the heritage of the West in favor of China's current form of government. These studies help us to see ourselves as "other," reflected in the eyes of a different culture that believes in the value of all the ancients, European and Chinese, but that is decidedly more skeptical toward the modern west"-- Provided by publisher."The surprising story of how Greek classics are being pressed into use in contemporary China to support the regime's political agenda. As improbable as it may sound, an illuminating way to understand today's China and how it views the West is to look at the astonishing ways Chinese intellectuals are interpreting-or is it misinterpreting?-the Greek classics. In Plato Goes to China, Shadi Bartsch offers a provocative look at Chinese politics and ideology by exploring Chinese readings of Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, and other ancient writers. She shows how Chinese thinkers have dramatically recast the Greek classics to support China's political agenda, diagnose the ills of the West, and assert the superiority of China's own Confucian classical tradition.In a lively account that ranges from the Jesuits to Xi Jinping, Bartsch traces how the fortunes of the Greek classics have changed in China since the seventeenth century. Before the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the Chinese typically read Greek philosophy and political theory in order to promote democratic reform or discover the secrets of the success of Western democracy and science. No longer. Today, many Chinese intellectuals use these texts to critique concepts such as democracy, citizenship, and rationality. Plato's "Noble Lie," in which citizens are kept in their castes through deception, is lauded; Aristotle's Politics is seen as civic brainwashing; and Thucydides' criticism of Athenian democracy is applied to modern America.What do antiquity's "dead white men" have left to teach? By uncovering the unusual ways Chinese thinkers are answering that question, Plato Goes to China opens a surprising new window on China today.

From climate change to COVID-19 to reproductive justice, there has been deep political polarization around science. Labs of Our Own provides a unique entry point into these twenty-first-century science wars by focusing on our affective relationships to science. The book delves into various sites where scientists, teachers, artists, and activists claim to create more democratic access to science--from DIY biology community labs to feminist classrooms to activist science practitioners. The reader will find that these claims for and attempts at democratic sciences not only impact what counts as science and who counts as a scientist but reconfigure who is included in the proper public. Instead of arguing for a knee-jerk defense of science against right-wing attacks, Labs of Our Own builds the case for a feminist, antiracist, decolonial, queer science tinkering practice that intentionally, politically, and ethically acts to produce new challenges to the definition and boundaries of the human.

A startlingly original work that demonstrates how and why genocide studies has so far failed to sufficiently engage with settler colonialism, ecocide and capitalism as key drivers of genocides."In this highly controversial and original work, Damien Short systematically rethinks how genocide is and should be defined. Rather than focusing solely on a narrow conception of genocide as direct mass-killing, through close empirical analysis of a number of under-discussed case studies - including Palestine, Sri Lanka, Australia and Alberta, Canada - the book reveals the key role played by settler colonialism, capitalism, finite resources and the ecological crisis in driving genocidal social death on a global scale.

This book is an invaluable resource for understanding the profound connections between culture, healthcare, and mortality. In a world where healthcare professionals ꟷ doctors, nurses, clients, patients, and staff ꟷ are increasingly engaging in cross-cultural interactions, this text equips readers with essential insights to navigate diverse beliefs and expectations surrounding health and treatment, particularly in moments of stress and vulnerability. While healthcare is often grounded in Euro-American belief systems, this book broadens the reader's perspective, offering essential tools to enhance intercultural understanding during health crises and end-of-life care. It empowers both patients and practitioners to adapt and collaborate, fostering better treatment outcomes by bridging cultural divides. Gaining this multicultural lens is not only crucial for healthcare and cross-cultural psychology but also for confronting the universal experience of mortality ꟷ our own and that of our loved ones.

The Bible is teeming with monsters. Giants tromp through the land of milk and honey; Leviathan swims through the wine-dark sea. A stunning array of peculiar creatures, mind-altering spirits, and supernatural hitmen fill the biblical heavens, jarring in both their strangeness and their propensity for violence--especially on God's behalf. Traditional interpretations of the creatures of the Bible have sanded down their sharp, unsavory edges, transforming them into celestial beings of glory and light--or chubby, happy cherubs. Those cherubs? They're actually hybrid guardian monsters, more closely associated with the Egyptian sphinx than with flying babies. And the seraphim? Winged serpents sent to mete out God's vengeance. Demons aren't at war with angels; they're a distinct supernatural species used by Satan and by God. The pattern is chilling. Most of these monsters aren't God's opponents--they're God's entourage. Killer angels, plague demons, manipulative spirits, creatures with an alarming number of wings (and eyes all over)--these shapeshifters and realm-crossers act with stunning brutality, each reflecting a facet of God's own monstrosity. Confronting God's monsters--and the God-monster--may be uncomfortable, but the Bible is richer for their presence. It's not only richer; the stories of the monsters of the Bible can be as fun, surprising, and interesting as any mythology. For anyone interested in monsters, myths, folklore, demons, and more, God's Monsters is an entertaining deep dive into the creaturely strangeness of the Bible.

Birds have always been gods and messengers of gods. More than symbols, birds gained divine status by guiding people to water and food, replanting forests after ice ages and fires, and settling into farming and urban life. Wings of the Gods explores the relations between birds and humans from an evolutionary perspective, starting with the roles of birds in creating the world. The narrative then moves through legends, rituals, costumes, wars, and spiritual disciplines to the current ecological crisis. Since the Industrial Revolution, birds have become the only wild animals that most people ever come to know. Wings of the Gods urges that humans listen to birds and watch the movements and populations of birds to find solutions to climate change, epidemics, pollution, and famine. Just as birds led our prehistoric ancestors out of Africa and across Siberia to populate the world, so birds can lead us away from heat death and mass extinction to an era of harmony with nature. Every religion recorded in history teaches reverence for birds. Now we need a new religion, a religion of nature that regards birds and other animals as equal citizens of Earth. Saving even a fraction of the beauty and wonder that has inspired belief in God will depend on this new religious attitude. Fortunately, humans have been developing that new religion for centuries, and the last chapters of Wings of the Gods describe that development.

After the Flying Saucers Came' is a comprehensive account of the stories, the people and the strange events that went into making the fascination with UFOs and aliens a worldwide phenomenon among believers, skeptics and the simply curious. It traces how an odd sighting of 'flying saucers' by an American pilot in 1947 inspired governments, the media, scientists, writers and the general public to consider the possibility that extraterrestrials were visiting earth.

This book provides a short and accessible introduction to how we use gesture in communication. Gestures are those actions made with the human body that accompany spoken or signed language; they are found in every human community that has language, but are far more heavily context dependent than the linguistic elements of communication. In this book, Lauren Gawne explores the different categories of gesture, showing that their use varies across cultures and languages, and even across specific interactions. Further chapters cover the acquisition of gesture, where it lives in the brain, and its role in both the origins of language and the future of communication. Written in an engaging style and compact format, and suitable for readers for all backgrounds, the book demonstrates the importance of gesture in understanding how we communicate.

De verhalen die we elkaar vertellen laten zien wie we zijn. En ook de manier waarop we ze vertellen verraadt aspecten van onze persoonlijkheid. Zo heb je veelvormige, weelderige doolhoven van verhalen als 'De vertellingen van Duizend-en-een-nacht', waar de lezer maar al te graag in verdwaalt, het "oosterse" archetype. Daartegenover staat het westerse: verhalen uit één stuk over een held op weg naar zijn einddoel, zoals de 'Odyssee' of Vergilius' 'Aeneis', waarin de hoofdplot moeiteloos van alle zijpaden te onderscheiden is. In 'Arachne en de imams' houdt David Rijser de ontstaansgeschiedenis van dit soort contrasten tussen West en Oost tegen het licht door het prisma van kunst, cultuur en geschiedenis in de mediterrane wereld. Hij traceert de verhalen en hun vertellers tot in de oudheid en komt tot verrassende conclusies over de oorsprong van beide culturen. David Rijser (1956) doceert klassieke talen aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam en is bijzonder hoogleraar op de leerstoel Recepties van de Klassieke Oudheid aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Van zijn hand verschenen 'Een telkens nieuwe Oudheid' (2016) en diverse artikelen in de media over de klassieke oudheid.

De trouwjurk is veel meer dan alleen een bijzondere jurk voor een heel speciale dag. Door de eeuwen heen weerspiegelt dit kledingstuk op een geheel eigen manier het steeds veranderende modebeeld. Niet alleen vertelt de jurk over tijdgeest, welvaart en emancipatie, maar ook over smaak, sociale klasse, rijkdom en opvattingen van de draagster zelf. Aan de hand van persoonlijke verhalen over bruiden en hun bruidskleding wordt in dit boek een beeld geschetst van de ontwikkeling van de trouwjurk in Nederland in de laatste 250 jaar. Ja, ik wil! brengt een heel uiteenlopend beeld van verschillende bruiden en prachtige jurken. Van achttiende- en negentiende-eeuwse kleurrijke japonnen, crèmekleurige robes met ruisende slepen en zwarte jurken, tot naoorlogse creativiteit, beeldige prinsessenbruiden en rebelse Provo- en hippiejurken uit de twintigste eeuw. De opkomst van budgetvriendelijke jurken in de afgelopen decennia komt aan bod met de Zeeman-trouwjurk en de bruidsjurk van Viktor&Rolf voor H&M. Ook de creaties van hedendaagse Nederlandse ontwerpers ontbreken niet, zoals die van Edwin Oudshoorn, Tess van Zalinge, Claes Iversen en Jan Taminiau.

This interdisciplinary edited volume explores the notion of queenship as it has manifest from antiquity to the present, in contexts ranging from political acts to art production. Featuring the work of scholars, educators, curators and artists, this book gathers temporally and geographically distinct ideas about queenship into a single discursive space. Invigorating the conversation around powerful historical women and their legacies, the contributors discuss 'queenship' as a concept with contemporary urgency-from North America to Africa, and Europe to Asia-foregrounding critical methodologies and creative interventions that address the gaps within archives and current cultural and socio-political representation.

De geschiedenis van homoseksuele mannen in ons land is zo nauw verbonden met de stad Utrecht dat ze eeuwenlang Utrechtenaren werden genoemd. Toch bleef de Utrechtse queer geschiedenis tot nu toe grotendeels ongeschreven. Dit boek brengt daar verandering in.Het laat zien hoe mannen en vrouwen die zich niet hielden aan de dominante seksualiteits- en gendernormen en ondanks wettelijke en maatschappelijke discriminatie hun plaats veroverden in de Utrechtse samenleving: van de achttiende-eeuwse kalkdrager Gillis van Baaden tot lesbisch icoon Sylvia Bodnár, transgender schrijfster en kunstenaar Dirkje Kuik en voorvechter van gemeentelijk lhbt-beleid Jan Vesters. De auteurs verbinden die persoonlijke verhalen met de ontwikkeling van de Nederlandse queer emancipatiebeweging als geheel. Op die manier onthullen ze een geschiedenis - in beeld gebracht met vele unieke illustraties - die het lokale belang verre overstijgt.

Medieval prayer books held not only the devotions and meditations of Christianity, but also housed, slipped between pages, sundry notes, reminders, and ephemera, such as pilgrims' badges, sworn oaths, and small painted images. Many of these last items have been classified as manuscript illumination, but Kathryn M. Rudy argues that these pictures should be called, instead, parchment paintings, similar to postcards. In a delightful study identifying this group of images for the first time, Rudy delineates how these objects functioned apart from the books in which they were kept. Whereas manuscript illuminations were designed to provide a visual narrative to accompany a book's text, parchment paintings offered a kind of autonomous currency for exchange between individuals--people who longed for saturated color in a gray world of wood, stone, and earth. These small, colorful pictures offered a brilliant reprieve, and Rudy shows how these intriguing and previously unfamiliar images were traded and cherished, shedding light into the everyday life and relationships of those in the medieval Low Countries. 

Written in the wake of the far-right populist turn in Europe, the US, and beyond, What We Do Is Secret addresses aesthetic and intellectual affinities between recent art and conspiracy, proposing a theory of conspiracy that is not primarily concerned with conspiracy theory. This inquiry takes shape across chapters on the politics of post-internet art aesthetics; the sublime and possessive individualism in recent ?critical? art; Cady Noland?s security fences, and silkscreens of the Symbionese Liberation Army; and mutuality, secrecy, and improvisation in the work of Ima-Abasi Okon. Larne Abse Gogarty discusses the relationship between culture and contemporary politics, following on from David Lloyd?s proposition that through its compensatory qualities, the aesthetic sphere naturalizes forms of life lived under the rule of property. What kind of art can work against this? Can art exist as a conspiracy capable of corroding that rule?