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Introduction: The Arab World And Middle East In An Age Of Dynamism And Change, Eslam Elbahlawan, Mawa Mohamed, Ron Pagnucco

The Journal of Social Encounters

On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel began a massive joint military attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran to which Iran has responded. At the time of the publication of this issue, the fighting continues and could become more widespread; the ultimate outcome of the conflict is unknown.  This conflict highlights the importance of a deeper understanding of the region.

In the shadow of these events, people of the Middle East once again find their lives reordered by decisions taken far above their heads and far beyond their borders. The current war not only devastates cities, infrastructure, …

The Anthropology Of Life: An Interview With Perig Pitrou, Perig Pitrou, Tomas De Oliveira, Maddalena Canna

Transatlantic Forum

This interview focuses on the proposal for an "anthropology of life" developed by Perig Pitrou. The conversation traces the origins of this framework to fieldwork with the Mixe of Mexico, where rituals involving the metaperson "He Who Makes Being Alive" revealed a crucial distinction between "the living" (living beings) and "life" (the causes that make them alive). This separation underpins a comparative model examining how societies socialize two fundamental dimensions: the power to generate life and the fragility of individual existences. Methodologically, the approach draws on the anthropology of techniques, employing the concept of "agentive configurations" to analyze how humans …

Changing Mercy In Aotearoa New Zealand, Anna Nicholls Victoria University Of Wellington

Journal of Global Catholicism

This paper examines the evolving expression of Catholicity within the Mercy organization in Aotearoa New Zealand. It explores the impact of Vatican II, demographic shifts, and societal changes. Through interviews with lay leaders in Whānau Mercy Ministries, the religiosity, inclusive approach, and the tension between traditional Catholic identity and pluralism in the organization are explored. A pertinent discussion concerns how the organization uses a more secular portrayal of Catherine McAuley as a unifying figure for the religiously diverse audience. The author argues that while secularization influences the organization, it fosters human flourishing and community engagement, offering opportunities for growth rather …

Ancestral Rites And Tablets As A Site Of Contestation Between Confucian Filial Piety And Catholicism: The Cases Of Chinese Confucian Yan Mo And Korean Catholic Yun Ji-Chung, Mideum Hong

Journal of Global Catholicism

This essay examines how the Confucian practice of filial piety, particularly as expressed through ancestral rites and tablets, became a focal point of contention in the encounters between Confucianism and Catholicism. Focusing on the cases of the Chinese Catholic Yan Mo and the Korean Catholic martyr Yun Ji-chung, I argue that the different historical and cultural contexts in China and Korea significantly shaped how each figure understood and responded to the practice of ancestral rites. While Catholicism spread globally, local converts developed distinct theological interpretations rooted in their respective cultural traditions. Although Yan Mo and Yun Ji-chung reached divergent conclusions …

Opening And Closing Doors: Internationalism In The Norbertine Missions To Settler And Indigenous Populations In Wisconsin, Alex Gruber

Journal of Global Catholicism

In this essay, I argue that the Premonstratensian or Norbertine Order located in Berne Abbey in the Netherlands responded strongly to a call for international ministry by going to northeast Wisconsin for Walloon settlers from Belgium and their descendants in 1893. However, these priests and brothers fell much farther short of internationalism in the mission to the Oneida Nation reservation they received in 1898. I will make my case by detailing these two missions and analyzing how the Norbertines acknowledged their international nature and practiced or failed to practice internationalism in them. Diving into the mission histories requires discussion of …

The Paradox Of Appropriation: A History Of Media Technology And Propaganda In Rwanda, 1900–1964, Claudia Brown

Journal of Global Catholicism

Scholars of the 1994 Rwandan genocide agree that media technology and propaganda played a role in mobilizing ordinary Rwandans in 1994 to commit genocide. Underappreciated in these inquiries is the history of the introduction of media technology and propaganda in Rwandan society by missionaries, technologies Rwandans later appropriated and applied to a pursuit of self-determination, but also in support of perpetrating genocide. A close examination of the social and political context of Rwanda’s colonial era and Catholic evangelism reveals a variety of motives for adopting propaganda as a strategy for evangelizing and rallying support for decolonization. This article casts light …

The Untameability Of The Sacred: Votive Traditions At Notre Dame De Lourdes And El Santuario De Chimayó, Gabrielle Bibeau

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article compares divergent votive practices at Notre Dame de Lourdes in France and El Santuario de Chimayó in New Mexico. Lourdes’ embrace of modern aesthetic values—simplicity, order, and functional clarity—has led to the removal and tight regulation of most ex-votos. By contrast, Chimayó’s roots in Latin American Baroque aesthetics, with its emphasis on abundance, drama, and hybridity, create space for a vibrant proliferation of offerings. Drawing on Jacques Rancière’s theory of aesthetics and politics as the “distribution of the sensible,” the article shows how aesthetic judgments intertwine with clerical power to curate, constrain, and authorize pilgrims’ access to the …

“Enslavement By Unbridled Passions:” Catholic Magisterial Institutional Attitudes Toward Homosexuals In Poland Between 1945 And 1989, Agnieszka Laddach

Journal of Global Catholicism

During Communism, the Polish bishops presented a narrative about (homo)sexuality with in order to create the image of a righteous moral and social life that was to influence the Catholics. In my research I conduced a thematic analysis of this narrative. I highlight the doctrinal and Polish social-religious context to foreground tendencies in the formation of Church teaching about homosexuality as well as the importance of the Church in Poland to its formation. Then, I show the factors that characterize the episcopal discourse’s content and language about homosexuality, recognizing that components of episcopal discourse suggest a specificity of Church potential …

Overview & Acknowledgments, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

This Introduction overviews the work of contributors from the Graduate Symposium sponsored by the Journal of Global Catholicism and the McFarland Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture.  The Introduction also highlights the independent peer reviewed submission from Dr. Agnieszka Laddach of the University of Warsaw.

Craft, Love, And Loathing: Anthropology Of Hair Art In The Twenty-First Century, Eugene Kauffman

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

When hair is cut off and used in art, many people find it disgusting, but when attached, hair is seen as beautiful. Over time, these ideas have changed; in the Victorian Era, people had more tolerance and appreciation for different types of hair art, such as sculptures and accessories. In order to analyze these changes and why hair is seen as repulsive, we must look at theories of disgust and abjection. In addition, we must look at the history of bodily art and the connections it had to death and mourning. The understanding and recognition of abject mediums such as …

Sheikh ḤIlu: The Late Ottoman Ceramic Assemblage, Anna De Vincenz

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

A small assemblage of ceramic artifacts, dating to the late Ottoman period, was recovered from excavations at Sheikh Ḥilu. The assemblage is typical of the period, including locally produced vessels made of Black Gaza Ware and other coarse wares, as well as a few items of imported glazed tableware. The ceramic smoking pipes, characteristic of the Ottoman period, span from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century and could have been made locally or imported from one of the many pipe-making workshops in the Ottoman Empire.

Sheikh Ḥilu: The Medieval Pottery Assemblage, Elisabeth Yehuda

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

This article examines the pottery assemblage unearthed during the excavations at Sheikh Ḥilu. It comprises a variety of local and imported vessels, including unglazed and glazed bowls, frying pans, cooking pots and jugs. These vessels range in date from the twelfth century to the early Mamluk period but converge during the thirteenth century, thus testifying to a settlement at Sheikh Ḥilu during the late Crusader period.

Sheikh Ḥilu: A Crusader Structure And Additional Remains From The Iron Age And Late Ottoman Period, Yoav Arbel, ‘Abed A-Salam Sa‘Id

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

Excavations at the site of Sheikh Ḥilu in Ḥadera revealed the remains of a possible manor house or farm dating from the Crusader period. The partially exposed two-phase complex is a rare example of a settlement from this period in the Sharon plain. Careful planning and relatively high construction quality attest to its significance; however, apart from its solid architecture, there is no evidence of fortification. The site underwent a non-violent abandonment at the end of the Crusader period, after which it was temporarily settled by squatters. In the late Ottoman period and the early twentieth century, this was the …

The Collective Impact Of Physical Activity, Somatic Therapy, And Nature-Based Spirituality (Pastans) On Individuals Recovering From Substance Use Disorders (Suds), Sara R. Maddox

University Honors Theses

This correlation research study explores the collective impact of physical activities, somatic therapies, and nature-based spirituality (referred to as PASTANS, a term created by the researcher) on individuals recovering from substance use disorders (SUDs). The study aimed to evaluate how these practices enhanced emotional regulation and fostered community development, thereby supporting sustained recovery and overall well-being. PASTANS interconnected to alleviate cravings and rewire brain reward pathways, promoting cultural connections through activities that resonated with pre-colonial traditions and were accessible to atheists and agnostics.

Participants engaged in movement and somatic practices in natural settings, including yoga and hiking. Somatic therapies are …

Super-Resolution Remote Sensing Datasets For Application To Caral–Supe Archeological Sites Employing Sar And Dems, Jungrack Kim, Ramesh P. Singh

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Publicly accessible spaceborne remote sensing datasets often lack the spatial resolution required to reliably distinguish archeological features from their surrounding geomorphological contexts. In this study, we assess the potential of super-resolution (SR) products derived from multiple public-domain remote sensing datasets for a systematic archeological survey in the Caral–Supe region. We focus on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and topographic datasets—including Sentinel-1, Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR), and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs)—because of their capacity to detect subtle surface expressions and shallow subsurface structures obscured by vegetation or sediment cover. Using state-of-the-art deep learning algorithms, …

Khirbat Shumeila: Buildings From The Persian And Hellenistic Periods And Installations In Their Surroundings / ח'ירבת שומילה: מבנים מהתקופות הפרסית וההלניסטית ומתקנים בסביבתם, Elena Kogan-Zehavi

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

Salvage excavations at Khirbat Shumeila identified four strata spanning the late Persian, early Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods. The primary remains comprise two structures: Building 25, which features two distinct construction phases dating to the late Persian and early Hellenistic periods, and Building 6, dating to the Hellenistic period. These buildings, along with the installations uncovered within and around them, indicate intensive agricultural activity, suggesting their function as farmsteads. Their proximity to additional adjacent farmsteads implies their integration into a regional agricultural network established during the fourth-century BCE Persian administrative reorganization—a configuration that continued uninterrupted into the early Hellenistic period. …

Numerals And Other Means Of Expressing Plurality In Language And Thought: A Developmental Perspective Across Cultures., Giovanni Giuseppe G.G. Nicosia Prof.

Numeracy

Several ancient languages use linguistic structures to differentiate between singular, dual, and plural forms that are used when one, two, or many objects are referenced. (Some languages go further, adding a trial form to differentiate two from three.) In many modern languages, numerals are used to convey precise number. After reviewing a range of ways languages express number (including the interesting case of Pirahã which does not express precise number), the paper concludes with a proposed developmental path for the expression of quantity in languages.

Designing Visibility: Addressing The Hidden Curriculum For First-Generation Cal Poly Students Through Graphic Communication, Issac Enrique Cervantes

Graphic Communication

First-generation college students often encounter invisible barriers in higher education, including unspoken terminology, institutional practices, cultural norms, and academic expectations that are rarely made explicit but are essential for student success. While this information is frequently transmitted informally through family networks or prior exposure to higher education, first-generation students, particularly those from historically marginalized communities, often lack access to these channels. As a result, students may experience confusion, a reduced sense of belonging, and inequitable academic outcomes.

This senior project investigates and addresses this gap using inclusive graphic communication and user experience (UX) design principles. Through semi-structured interviews with stakeholders …

An Intersectional Framework For Effectively Mentoring Latinas In Stem Fields, Rosalynn A. Vega

Anthropology Faculty Publications

While Latinas are underrepresented across all areas of academia, this problem is especially severe in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. This chapter offers a “best practices,” step‑by-step guide for how to effectively mentor Latinas in STEM fields—drawing from interdisciplinary concepts, culled from critical race studies, statistics, and anthropology—and personal experience as a Latina in STEM, mentor, and mentee. Crenshaw’s (1989) theory of intersectionality, Farmer’s (1999) notion of structural violence, and multivariate statistical modeling is used to demonstrate that intersectional inequality can be traced back to social structures. Multi‑gender and multiethnic mentoring by individuals who are motivated to …

Attentional Blindness Of The Clinical Gaze, Lily Anderson-Chavarria

Clinical Research in Practice: The Journal of Team Hippocrates

This article presents the case of Mr. C, a patient who received over 65 imaging tests without any pathology ever being found. The case is well-explained by a social science concept known as the clinical gaze, a socio-cognitive process of assigning pathological explanations to diseased bodies. This article provides some historical context for the concept and applies it to the case of Mr. C. When viewed through a social science lens, the excess imaging underwent by Mr. C transforms from something seemingly irrational to an almost inevitable outcome of the modern medical diagnostic process.

February 23, 2026 Nagpra And Tribal Relations Committee Meeting Minutes, Bryan Morey

University NAGPRA and Tribal Relations Committee

February 23, 2026 minutes for the WKU NAGPRA and Tribal Relations Committee meeting. Meeting conducted via Zoom.

Groove Goes The Distance: An Initial Inquiry Into Jazz Music In Egypt, Farida Gohar

Theses and Dissertations

Jazz music has been a historically contentious site of social, cultural, and political signification. From the violent subjugation that characterized its origins and aspirational freedom that animated its practice, to its transformation into a distinctly “American” music instrumentalized by the US State Department to counter Soviet influence, jazz’s capacity for the inscription of meaning is vast and regularly cause for debate. The particular configuration of jazz music in Egypt is no less complicated although seldom studied. This thesis ventures an initial mapping of the dynamics and negotiations that historically defined the initiation of “Egyptian” jazz, as well as the ones …

An Ethnographic Exploration Of The Lived Experiences With Gynecologic Cancers, Norma Naser Aldeen

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This thesis stays close to conversations with nine women who spoke about living with and through gynecologic cancers, from moments of finding out, through treatment, and into what follows. These encounters unfolded primarily through digitally mediated exchanges across Baalbek, Beirut, and other translocal settings shaped by distance and movement. Rather than approaching illness as a bounded biomedical event, this thesis attends to how gynecologic cancer is narrated as something that lingers—pressing into everyday life through bodily sensations, altered rhythms, and ongoing recalibrations of care, responsibility, and what remains possible.

Across these encounters, care rarely appears as a stable system …

Journeys Of Emancipation, Struggle, Or Both? Accounts From Professional Egyptian Migrant Women In Germany, Adam Eddouss

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the migration experiences of a group of professional Egyptian migrant women living in Germany. By employing a qualitative approach, primarily through semi-structured interviews, and guided by migration literature, this research attempts to move away from the oversimplistic approach that migration is an ‘either or’ reality. Mainstream migration scholarship, specifically that focusing on migrant women, tends to focus on depicting migration within an emancipation-struggle binary, presenting migrant women either as victims or as heroines. This work, antithetically, describes how migrant women experiences can be complex, highlighting, both instances of strength and struggle. Grounded in the words of the …

A Matter Of Detail: An Interview With Andrew Brandel, Sandra Laugier, And Perig Pitrou, Andrew Brandel, Sandra Laugier, Perig Pitrou, Gloria Fall, Tomas De Oliveira, Anna Wood, Maddalena Canna

Transatlantic Forum

This interview centers on A Matter of Detail, a collaborative volume that brings anthropology and philosophy into conversation through a shared concern with the concept and practice of detailing. Structured in three movements, the discussion begins with broad, conceptual questions about the aims of the book, including its refusal of a teleological and Eurocentric history of “detail” and its proposal to approach detail not as a fixed object but as a dynamic mode of attention. The editors reflect on how detailing operates across disciplines, not as the accumulation of facts, but as a way of articulating what matters and to …

Can Palm Logs Float? Evaluating The Physical Viability Of Raft Transport For Rapa Nui Moai, Carl Philipp Lipo, Terry L. Hunt

Anthropology Datasets

Recent suggestions that palm log rafts may have transported moai statues on Rapa Nui require evaluation of whether fresh palm wood can provide sufficient buoyancy for multi-ton cargo. This analysis integrates experimental flotation tests, structural analyses of palm stem anatomy, and buoyancy calculations using modern palm analogs to reconstruct the extinct Rapa Nui palm. Fresh palm logs sink when placed in water because of their internal structure: stems consist of approximately 20% liquid by volume, contained within thousands of water-filled vascular tubes, surrounded by a thin, brittle cortex. This yields effective densities of 800-1,200 kg/m³ that approach or exceed seawater …

Yafo, Ha-Te‘Uda Ha-Aduma Street: The Military Finds / יפו, רחוב התעודה האדומה: ממצא צבאי, Alexander Glick

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

The excavation on Ha-Te‘uda Ha-Aduma Street in Yafo uncovered fourteen military items, including two cannonballs and twelve small-caliber bullets. A correlation of these finds with historical sources and with modern and eighteenth–nineteenth-century maps suggests that the military items uncovered in the excavation were related to one or more of the historical sieges of Yafo: the siege laid by Muhammad Beq Abu-Dahab in 1775–1776, during which a siege battery was constructed within the area of the present excavation; or Napoleon’s siege in 1799, whose batteries were likewise positioned within the excavation area.

Yafo, Ha-TeʻUda Ha-Aduma Street: The Glass Finds, Brigitte Ouahnouna

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

The excavation at Ha-Te‘uda Ha-Aduma Street in Yafo yielded about fifty glass items dating from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries CE. These include imported and locally produced medicine, cosmetic and beverage bottles, as well as bracelet fragments of common types that first appeared in the Mamluk period and remained in use through the Ottoman period and into recent times. The finds reflect a modest repertoire associated with local daily life at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Yafo, Ha-TeʻUda Ha-Aduma Street: Late Ottoman Porcelain And Ceramics, Anna De Vincenz

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

The salvage excavations on Ha-Teʻuda Ha-Aduma street in Yafo yielded a small Late Ottoman ceramic and porcelain vessel assemblage. Porcelain and hard-paste vessels were imported from Europe, whereas glazed earthenware vessels were imported from Europe and Turkey. Among the locally made vessels were Black Gaza Ware and other coarse ware vessels. Many roof tiles, complete and fragmentary, as well as bricks, were imported mainly from Marseille, France. Only a few smoking pipes and narghile were found; these were either locally produced or originated in Turkey.

Yafo, Ha-Te‘Uda Ha-Aduma Street: Remains Of The Al-Hureish Neighborhood From The Late Ottoman Period And British Mandate Era / יפו, רחוב התעודה האדומה: שרידי שכונת אל־הורייש משלהי התקופה העות'מאנית וימי המנדט הבריטי, Ayelet Dayan, Yoav Arbel

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

The excavation at the corner of Yehuda Ha-Yamit and Ha-Te‘uda Ha-Aduma Streets in Yafo uncovered remains dating to the eighteenth–twentieth centuries CE, including those of the late Ottoman and British Mandate neighborhood of al-Hureish. The earliest construction remains at the site, dated to the second half of the nineteenth century CE, suggest agricultural activity in the area or early residential structures with channels installed for drainage. This construction was later disrupted by a wall, possibly part of the eastern wall of the al-Hureish neighborhood, built in a subsequent phase. The main significance of the excavation was the al-Hureish neighborhood, founded …