An Academic Civilization?,
2026
Tel-Hai University
An Academic Civilization?, Inbar Gotlib-Rivkin, Uri Cohen
Comparative Civilizations Review
Can institutions of higher education be defined as constituting a civilization that has emerged from modern civilization? This theoretical study defines a new concept of academic civilization and demonstrates how prominent characteristics that define the collective identity of modern civilization are manifested in institutions of higher education. The study focuses on six specific characteristics: expansion, flexibility and diversification, center-periphery relations, academic culture, autonomy and academic freedom, and the monopolization of professional training and the professional middle class. The conceptual analysis presented here provides a significant addition to sociological discourse, offering a refined conceptualization of civilizations. The goal is to expand …
Artificial Intelligence And African Studies,
2026
Central Connecticut State University
Artificial Intelligence And African Studies, Gloria Emeagwali
Comparative Civilizations Review
African Studies is a conglomerate of multidisciplinary academic fields that include paleontology, history, literature, linguistics, philosophy, African Traditional Religion and theology, art, and Afrofuturism, as well as African Indigenous Knowledge Systems. This paper focuses on the latter, namely African Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS), and African Studies, in general, from the viewpoint of two chatbots, namely, ChatGPT-4, and DeepSeek v.3. Do these models make a break with Eurocentrism and prevent unbiased information on AIKS? Are the underlying conceptual issues underpinning AIKS fully grasped, and if so, what are some relevant examples of this accomplishment? How do these programs respond to specialized …
Table Of Contents,
2026
Brigham Young University
Civilizational Nationalism And The Rise Of The Civilization State: A Response To Stephen Satkiewicz,
2026
Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University
Civilizational Nationalism And The Rise Of The Civilization State: A Response To Stephen Satkiewicz, Nicholas Morieson
Comparative Civilizations Review
The previous issue of this journal discussed the phenomenon of civilization-states. As several authors observed, over the past two decades leaders from Beijing to Moscow, from New Delhi to Ankara, have increasingly portrayed the nations they govern as civilization states, or heirs to and continuations of great civilizations (Greenfeld 2025; Cross and Okunev 2025; Alalykin-Izvekov 2025; Satkiewicz 2025). In doing this, they often summon deep time, speaking of thousands of years of cultural continuity, and present their states as guardians of cultural traditions in an age of immense social change.
Books Of Interest Spring 2026,
2026
Brigham Young University
End Matter,
2026
Brigham Young University
Extending Norbert Elias: Adjacency And The Dynamics Of Civilizations,
2026
Brigham Young University
Extending Norbert Elias: Adjacency And The Dynamics Of Civilizations, Arthur Michelino
Comparative Civilizations Review
Civilizations have rarely been approached as systems of interdependence and strain. Most modern theories have oscillated between cyclical visions of rise and fall and static conceptions of blocs defined by cultural essence. Both perspectives have offered sweeping interpretations, but both also detached civilizations from the environments of pressure and interaction in which they have always existed. To reframe civilizations as relational processes requires both recognition of their internal dynamics and attention to the external conditions that compel their transformation.
Un-Determining The Overdetermined Body: Anorexia Nervosa And Selfhood In What I Lost By Alexandra Ballard,
2026
Bucknell University
Un-Determining The Overdetermined Body: Anorexia Nervosa And Selfhood In What I Lost By Alexandra Ballard, Maddalena (Maddy) R. Grieco
Honors Theses
This thesis examines the intersection between young adult fiction and anorexia nervosa through the lens of Alexandra Ballard’s 2017 novel, What I Lost. The fictional space of the novel interacts with the larger trends of American culture and society, forming a connection between the external world and the protagonist’s personal experience with anorexia nervosa. Specifically, this thesis explores three external forces–the fashion industry, the transmission of generational ideals and habits, and the institutional recovery center–that are mapped onto the site of the female body, resulting in the expression of anorexia nervosa. The following chapters detail each external influence, respectively, …
Visual Semiotics And Cultural Hybridity In Orión, El Atlante: Negotiating Global Comic Codes And Mexican Identity,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Visual Semiotics And Cultural Hybridity In Orión, El Atlante: Negotiating Global Comic Codes And Mexican Identity, Jaime Cruz-Ortiz
The Coastal Review
This article examines the 1980s Mexican comic series Orión, el Atlante through the lens of visual semiotics and cultural hybridity, drawing on Roland Barthes’s theory of polysemy and Néstor García Canclini’s concept of hybridization. While Mexican historietas have long been understudied, Orión offers a compelling case for understanding how Latin American comics negotiate global superhero tropes and local cultural imaginaries. The analysis foregrounds the historieta’s layered visual codes and narrative strategies, revealing how its retrofuturistic Atlantis blends Greco-Roman aesthetics, advanced technology, and indigenous symbolism to construct a mythic space that evokes both precolonial grandeur and modern aspiration. Orión’s characterization—rooted …
Analyzing Early Medieval Perspectives Of Fetal Development,
2026
University of Central Florida
Analyzing Early Medieval Perspectives Of Fetal Development, Nivedha Srinivasan
Honors Undergraduate Theses
This thesis examines early medieval perspectives of fetal development by analyzing two manuscripts: British Library, Cotton Tiberius A III and Leiden University, Vossianus lat. Q69. This study will investigate how knowledge of pregnancy was shared throughout England before the establishment of universities. Interest in medieval reproductive language has piqued in importance in recent years, especially due to modern legal debates surrounding reproductive rights. By examining descriptions of the nine months of fetal development in these two manuscripts, as well as in widely known earlier medical texts like Pliny’s Natural History and Vindicianus’ Gynaecia, this research explores how monastic writers in …
Models Of Emulation: Representations Of Foreign, Indigenous, And Accented Speech In Early American Literature,
2026
University at Albany, State University of New York
Models Of Emulation: Representations Of Foreign, Indigenous, And Accented Speech In Early American Literature, Elaina A. Frulla
Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)
“Models of Emulation: Representations of Foreign, Indigenous, and Accented Speech in Early American Literature” explores how American writers used depictions of “nonstandard” English and accented English language speech, traditionally described as “literary dialect,” as a way to negotiate identity, power, and political belonging in the formative years of nation building after the American Revolution. Beginning with Noah Webster’s mission to establish a standardized pronunciation of the English language that would simplify and purify spoken American-English and definitively differentiate it from what he saw as the corrupted, cosmopolitan British-English model, each of the three chapters examines literary representations of nonstandard emulated …
Mystics, Oracles, And Bones: Spiritual Resistance For Justice, Healing, And Resolution,
2026
Penn State University
Mystics, Oracles, And Bones: Spiritual Resistance For Justice, Healing, And Resolution, Leah Hollis
Comparative Civilizations Review
This conceptual essay examines the enduring human impulse to seek meaning, justice, and healing through mystical traditions in response to suffering and harm. When traditional solutions through grievance, the law, or mediation fails, some individuals may turn to spiritual practices not as superstition, but as embodied strategies of survival, reclamation, and clarity. Comparing diverse traditions from a variety of cultures, including oracle bone divination in ancient China, the Oracle at Delphi in Greece, West African Ifá, Benin’s Voudou, diasporic Hoodoo, Celtic Druidic law, and Sufi mysticism, this paper explores how mystics have long served as interpreters of suffering and perceived …
Front Matter,
2026
Brigham Young University
Immigration, “Literary Value”, And The Logic Of Late Capitalism In Piersandro Pallavicini’S Il Mostro Di Vigevano (1999),
2026
Stony Brook University
Immigration, “Literary Value”, And The Logic Of Late Capitalism In Piersandro Pallavicini’S Il Mostro Di Vigevano (1999), Simone Brioni Dr.
Department of English Faculty Publications
According to Fredric Jameson’s Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1991), postmodern culture functions as an expression of the logic of late capitalism, manifesting in stylistic pastiche, the dominance of spectacle, a waning of historical consciousness, and a corresponding erosion of affect. Central to Jameson’s critique is the contention that postmodernism forecloses the possibility of imagining alternatives to capitalism. This article argues that Piersandro Pallavicini’s Il mostro di Vigevano (1999) exemplifies some of these features, and it shows how its description of immigrants to Italy as ingenuous, innocent, and simple-minded insinuates that they come from backward places …
When To Bite Back: Queerness, Resistance, And Reclamation Of The Monstrous Identity In Andrew Joseph White’S Hell Followed With Us,
2026
Clark University
When To Bite Back: Queerness, Resistance, And Reclamation Of The Monstrous Identity In Andrew Joseph White’S Hell Followed With Us, Aster J. Mehigan Mx.
English
Who gets the right to define morality? Who gets to define what is monstrous? Frankenstein’s Creature, the vampires of Lost Boys, The Craft’s head witch Nancy Downs; these characters follow a pattern through the decades of those alienated from society, in this case being written with queer subtext, being deemed as monstrous. These queer monsters become the villains of the story, causing chaos, death and destruction in their wake, seeking revenge against a world that ostracizes them. The 2022 dystopian YA horror of Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White challenges the villanized monstrous identity through its transgender protagonist …
The Making Of Jewish-American Progress In Gertrude Stein’S, The Making Of Americans: Being A History Of A Family’S Progress,
2025
Duquesne University
The Making Of Jewish-American Progress In Gertrude Stein’S, The Making Of Americans: Being A History Of A Family’S Progress, Rochel L. Gasson
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation provides a comprehensive reading of Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans (TMOA), situating the novel at the intersection of literary modernism, Jewish American identity, and feminist thought. It argues that Stein reconceives American progress not as linear advancement but as a recursive, relational, and culturally grounded process. Through experimental form, repetitive syntax, and a sustained present tense, TMOA dramatizes the psychological and social complexities of immigrant families navigating assimilation while maintaining heritage. Characters such as the Old Man, his son, and the Dehning and Herland families reveal generational tensions, moral labor, and the ambivalences of upward …
Best Integrated Writing Fall 2025 - Complete Edition,
2025
Wright State University
Best Integrated Writing Fall 2025 - Complete Edition, Wright State University School Of Humanities And Cultural Studies, Tracy Smith, Kristie Mckiernan
Best Integrated Writing
Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University.
Guillaume Dustan's Ethico-Politics Of The Body,
2025
University of New Mexico - Main Campus
Guillaume Dustan's Ethico-Politics Of The Body, Noah Mertz
Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs
In this MA Thesis, I lay out a synthetic overview of polemical French writer Guillaume Dustan's (1965-2005) political philosophy. He is criticized first as irresponsible and dangerous for his defense of barebacking (sex without condoms) in the midst of the AIDS epidemic, and then, after his death, as a neoliberal/anarcho-capitalist for his focus on individual liberty. My overview touches on Dustan's Freudian belief that repression is the root of all social ills, his functional ethics of self-responsibility, the revaluation of heteronormative Judeo-Christian morality towards 'virtusex,' and his social contract that minimizes repression. Dustan’s goal is for you to autonomously subjectify …
Lost In Translation: Navigating Cultural And Linguistic Barriers For Indian Learners In Tesol Classrooms,
2025
University of San Francisco
Lost In Translation: Navigating Cultural And Linguistic Barriers For Indian Learners In Tesol Classrooms, Shivam Jaynarayanbhai Gohel
Master's Projects and Capstones
ABSTRACT
This thesis examines the cultural, linguistic and emotional issues of the Indian multilingual students in the U.S. TESOL classroom and explains the value of decolonized and culturally responsive pedagogies to ameliorate foreign language anxiety and create equitable education. Based on the frameworks of Culturally Responsive/Sustaining Pedagogy and Affective Filter Theory, the study integrates existing and existing research to investigate the role of colonial heritage in influencing TESOL practice, the undermining effect of anxiety on academic achievement and the empowering effect of instructions that are inclusive and responsive. Chapter I presents the problem, including how multilingual and multicultural identities of …
Immeasurable Halls And Dreamlike Forms: Tracing The Caves Of Cheddar Gorge Throughout Tolkien’S Legendarium (And Beyond),
2025
Central Connecticut State University
Immeasurable Halls And Dreamlike Forms: Tracing The Caves Of Cheddar Gorge Throughout Tolkien’S Legendarium (And Beyond), Kristine Larsen
Journal of Tolkien Research
Cheddar Gorge (Mendip Hills, Somerset County, southwest England) is home to extensive cave systems carved into ancient limestone. Two of the most picturesque, Gough’s Cave and Cox’s Cave, are among the most important geological tourist attractions in England. Among the caves’ many enthusiasts was J.R.R. Tolkien, who first visited the site in 1916 while on his honeymoon and later in 1940 on a family vacation during his early work on The Lord of the Rings. As he noted in a 1971 letter these two visits (in particular, his earlier memories of the caves before their unfortunate commercialization) spawned the …
