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The politics of immorality in Ancient Rome, Second Edition
No full textThe question this book addresses is not how immoral the ancient Romans were, but why the literature they produced is so preoccupied with immorality. The modern image of immoral Rome derives from ancient accounts which are largely critical rather than celebratory. Far from being empty commonplaces, these accusations constituted a powerful discourse through which Romans negotiated conflicts and tensions in their social and political order. This study proceeds by a detailed examination of a wide range of translated ancient texts, exploring the dynamics of their rhetoric, as well as the ends to which they were deployed. Roman moralising discourse, Edwards suggests, may be seen as especially concerned with the articulation of anxieties about gender, social status and political power. This revised edition contains a substantial new Introduction which engages with critical and scholarly developments in the study of Roman culture since the original publication
Africa, the EU and the Samoa agreement: exploring African agency amid the 'New Scramble'
No full textBook synopsis: This edited volume provides a timely and critical analysis of Africa‑EU Relations in the new Samoa Agreement phase of the long‑standing ‘Eurafrican’ relationship.
Drawing on a range of critical perspectives and contributions it moves beyond Eurocentric visions of policy co‑operation on development to highlight three core themes that frame the analysis within this volume: the new scramble for Africa, Europe’s ontological security and the securitisation of development and African agency. In doing so, it assesses EU actors’ engagement with African institutions in relation to key areas of policy collaboration, including trade, development, health, migration and security. In this context, it examines whether the ‘partnership’ offers African states and regional institutions a genuine pathway to ‘development’ or whether historical power asymmetries remain entrenched – and perhaps even exacerbated – through the new Africa‑EU Agreement.
This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners involved in Development Studies, EU studies, Africa‑EU Relations, African politics and International Relations and more broadly to International Political Economy and Comparative Regionalism
‘Am I ever going to get back to being how I was before?’: the experience of emergency laparotomy for older people living with frailty
Get PDFIntroduction; Older people living with frailty are at high risk of adverse clinical outcomes following emergency
laparotomy, including functional deterioration, hospital readmission, and death. Despite this, there is a paucity of
literature exploring patient experience in this group, and little is known about what factors influence recovery. As a
result, there is limited information to guide the development of robust post-operative care pathways that support
optimal recovery and improve the overall experience.
Methods; Twenty older people, aged≥65 years, with a Clinical Frailty Scale score of ≥4 and who had undergone
emergency laparotomy were recruited from eight hospital sites over an eight-month period. Semi-structured
interviews were undertaken approximately one month after surgery to explore the peri-operative and early recovery
experience. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.
Results; Participants described their experience of undergoing emergency laparotomy over five temporal themes,
starting at the experience around the time of surgery, followed by the early recovery period and ending with
reflections of the overall experience: feeling out of control in the acute phase, memory and understanding of the surgery,
physical and psychological implications, transitional care needs, reflecting on recovery.
Conclusion; Undergoing emergency laparotomy appears to be a significant and potentially life-changing event
for older people living with frailty, but one that they expressed gratitude to have experienced to remain alive. Our
findings highlight the challenges encountered by this group across the perioperative and early recovery period,
indicating that adaptations to service delivery may improve this experience and facilitate recovery
The Janus face of personal data agency in public and private use applications
No full textWide-spread (personal) data collection and use through digital apps and platforms raises questions around the ability of citizens to both keep some of their information private as well as have agency in how this information is used for public and private services. We contrast the digital ‘fingerprints’ and design of personal apps, such as digital identifiers to use public services or civil society for organizing collective action, with the information of use and privacy citizens have. There is an assumption that the use by citizens of various apps in their personal, private spaces as consumers creates a different relationship in terms of regulation and agency over data, as compared to those apps and digital platforms created through policymaking for access to public services. Here, we are defining data agency as a cross of awareness and informed levels of data to be collected and for what purposes with the level of control over the data once collected – in terms of use, reuse, and sale. The goal of this research is to build a framework for understanding data agency of citizens in relation to data sharing practices
An introduction to the poetry of Emily Dickinson
No full textThis text is derived from a lecture I gave to first-year undergraduates about a decade ago (in 2013). It was languishing on my computer and I thought it better to put it out there for general educational benefit, in case it helps anyone starting out with her poetry. I am, of course, by no means a Dickinson specialist, but this may prove a mode condensed introduction than, say, the excellent Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson, which was a guide to everything that is here. I also note that the formatting of the poems may be “off” here. I would recommend finding the originals for study alongside this
Shaping film festivals in a changing world: practice and methods
Get PDFThis volume is a collective attempt on the part of a community of academics, film festival curators, and archivists to come to terms with practical and intellectual challenges of the pandemic and post-pandemic realities affecting cultures of film festivals. The collection draws contours of critical inquiry orienting current film festival research and practice to explore new directions in archiving and decolonizing practices and big data analysis in the post-Covid-19 context and beyond. The four-part study gathers the voices of academics and practitioners who engage in a dialogue to articulate critical areas for both study and practice of film festivals, and identifies conceptual tools to address them: “Archival Turn,” “Decolonizing Film Festival Studies,” “Post-Covid-19 and Film Festival Studies” and “Data Visualization and Film Festival Research and Practice.
Thirty-five years of research on attitudes to punishment
No full textThis chapter discusses my collaboration with Professor Julian V Roberts KC (Hon) (hereafter Julian) stretching across thirty-five years of researching public attitudes to crime. It consists of four sections. The first is a personal account of working with Julian, and describes the origins of our collaboration, the key projects that we worked on, the ‘fit’ of our working styles, and how our programme of research developed over time. The second part is a more conventional academic summary of our work together, summarising key themes, and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the work. The third section considers the political context within which much of the work was done, and aims to describe its impact on sentencing policy and practice. The fourth section describes the setting up of the Sentencing Academy, in which Julian has played a central part
Erin Pritchard and Delyth Edwards (eds), Sexual Misconduct in Academia: Informing an Ethics of Care in the University, New York: Routledge, 2023; 261 pp., 9781032277516 (hardback)
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Guests, strangers, and those in need: cosmopolitanism as hospitality and making relations in High Medieval Armenia
No full textThe Silk Road is often viewed as a precursor to contemporary globalization, the merchants who traversed it as early agents of cultural exchange. Missing are the lives of the ordinary people who inhabited the route and contributed as much to its development as their itinerant counterparts. This chapter takes the highlands of medieval Armenia as a case study for examining how early globalization and local life intertwined along the Silk Road. In thinking about Silk Road cosmopolitanism as framed within practices of hospitality, it explores the capacities for ‘making worlds for others to live in’ within local traditions, at the same time raising the question of the ambiguity at the heart of such practices of welcoming, housing, and feeding strangers. Ultimately, the chapter frames cosmopolitanism-as-hospitality as a local praxis of globality and agency within the new worlds of the Mongol thirteenth century
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