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Liberal pluralism, postliberal genealogies and theological history
Get PDFThe postliberal genealogies of John Milbank, Brad Gregory, and Patrick Deneen refuse to disaggregate liberalism and thus denounce it wholesale. Likewise, these narratives are not sufficiently ambivalent in describing both modern liberalism and pre-modern politics. I respond to these narratives by disaggregating liberalism into various forms. I note how a certain version of political liberalism, rooted in the freedom of conscience, has important precedents in pre-modern Christianity. In view of this, I defend the plausibility of a historical interpretation positing a more positive, yet nonetheless ambivalent relation between important trends in Christianity and versions of modern liberalism, thereby calling into question the indiscriminate denunciation of liberalism posited as the ‘moral’ of these postliberal narratives.Peer reviewe
Simultaneous multi-resonant thermally activated delayed fluorescence and room temperature phosphorescence from biluminescent nitrogen-containing indolocarbazoles
Get PDFFunding: The authors thank the Quantum-Materials Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of St Andrews for funding. The authors acknowledge the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council of the UK for support through grants EP/P010482/1, EP/W007517/1, and EP/Z535291/1). E.Z.C. and M.C.G. acknowledge the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska Curie grant agreement No. 101073045 (TADFsolutions) and the EPSRC (EP/X026175/1) for funding. M.C.G. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon Europe Framework Programme/ERC Advanced Grant agreement No. 101097878 (HyAngle).Organic biluminescence, the simultaneous emission from both the singlet and triplet excited state manifolds, is a rare and incompletely understood emission process. However, biluminescent compounds have wide-reaching applications, such as in sensing, anti-counterfeiting, and optoelectronics, owing to the complex interplay of excited states having distinct spectral profiles and lifetimes. Herein, the biluminescence of a family of polycyclic aromatic heterocycles known as nitrogen-containing indolocarbazoles ( NICz ) is described. As 1 wt.% doped films in polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), these compounds exhibit dual fluorescence/room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) with λPL in the near-UV (≈375 nm) and green (≈500 nm), respectively, and remarkably long phosphorescence lifetimes extending into the multi-second regime. This RTP is shown to persist even at doping concentrations as low as 0.1 wt.%. Additionally, two of the emitters exhibit multi-resonant thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF)/RTP biluminescence, which, to the best of knowledge, would be the first examples of such behavior. Finally, insight is provided into the dependence of these competing emission pathways on the temperature and concentration, with supporting wavefunction-based computations.Peer reviewe
Voicing the mask : composing with found materials and digitally manipulated vocals in contemporary opera
Get PDFThis is a practice-based research project centred around the creation of a new opera, The Shadow Queen, which I composed in collaboration with the playwright Marek Horn. The score for that piece, three related pieces, and a commentary, explore the compositional application of found materials and digitally manipulated vocals, making a toolbox of dramaturgical strategies for the contemporary opera composer.
The opera in this submission was specifically composed with found materials that, in their original form, contain lyrics. To generate intertextual depth, this opera exploits the observed phenomenon of ‘binding’, when the lyrics of a known melody are remembered by the listener despite not being voiced. Although many opera composers have previously exploited techniques that relate to binding, this is the first time a composer has undertaken a conscious and structured exploration of the technique through an entire chamber opera.
This research project also provides a conceptual framework for composers to incorporate new technological elements into contemporary opera, not just as a method for practical application, but also as an approach to composition that results in those technological elements being imbued with dramaturgical purpose.
Composing with found materials and digital vocal manipulation are both analysed in isolated contexts and techniques, and also combined to highlight their cumulative potential. A workshop performance and recording of The Shadow Queen provides the main setting for this analysis
Christian identity in the works of Bede
Get PDFRecent trends in Bede studies have sought to integrate Bede the historian with Bede the theological exegete. Building upon these trends, this thesis provides a study of Bede’s construction of Christian identity in the historical context of the early medieval English Church of his day. Since Bede’s assumptions about Christian identity are not directly stated or otherwise made explicit in his writings and commentaries, this study approaches his understanding of Christian identity indirectly through his exegesis and the perspectives it offers on that identity, especially in the commentaries he completed during the last decade and a half of his life (AD 716 to 731). It does not offer what might be called a formal account of Bede’s understanding of Christian identity, nor a formal theory of identity per se, but a functional account of the theological assumptions that enter into the construction of Christian identity in his exegesis. The character of those assumptions and the contribution they make to Bede’s understanding of Christian identity find expression in his views of suffering and miracle, the ordering of time, ecclesiology, the two testaments of Scripture, and eschatology. Bede drew upon these perspectives to construct a salvation-historical model for distinguishing those who share in his vision for Christian identity (insiders) from those who do not (outsiders). He also used this interpretive model to make internal distinctions within the boundaries of Christian identity, distinguishing bishops who fulfil his ideals for Christian identity (Cuthbert and Aidan) from those who do not (Wilfrid). After examining Bede’s salvation-historical commitments and the Christian ideals they give birth to, this study concludes that the Incarnation and Resurrection are fundamental to Christian identity formation in Bede’s reading of history and the place of the Church within that history
Big Five traits predict between- and within-person variation in loneliness
Get PDFPast research has linked individual differences in loneliness to Big Five personality traits. However, experience sampling studies also show intrapersonal fluctuations in loneliness. These may reflect situational factors as well as stable individual differences. Here, for the first time, we study the relationship between personality traits and within-person variation in loneliness. In a one-week experience sampling study, n = 285 Nepali participants reported feelings of loneliness three times a day (3597 observations). We use Bayesian mixed-effects location scale models to simultaneously estimate the relationship between Big Five personality traits and (a) mean levels and (b) within-person variability in loneliness. We also test whether these relationships vary depending on whether participants were alone or in the company of others. More neurotic individuals felt lonelier, especially (but not only) when they were alone. These individuals also experienced greater intrapersonal fluctuations in loneliness. These findings extend the differential reactivity hypothesis, according to which individuals vary in loneliness due to differential reactivity to social situations, and accord with the conceptual view of neuroticism as hyperreactivity to social stressors. In addition, we document the role of personality and social context in people’s everyday experience of loneliness in a non-WEIRD population.Peer reviewe
Gossip and reputation in everyday life
Get PDFFunding: This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 635356 awarded to D.B. and grant agreement no. 771391 awarded to B.B.)Gossip - a sender communicating to a receiver about an absent third party - is hypothesized to impact reputation formation, partner selection, and cooperation. Laboratory experiments have found that people gossip about others' cooperativeness and that they use gossip to condition their cooperation. Here, we move beyond the laboratory and test several predictions from theories of indirect reciprocity and reputation-based partner selection about the content of everyday gossip and how people use it to update the reputation of others in their social network. In a Dutch community sample (N = 309), we sampled daily events in which people either sent or received gossip about a target over 10 days (n gossip = 5284). Gossip senders frequently shared information about targets' cooperativeness and did so in ways that minimize potential retaliation from targets. Receivers overwhelmingly believed gossip to be true and updated their evaluation of targets based on gossip. In turn, a positive shift in the evaluation of a target was associated with higher intentions to help them in future interactions, and with lower intentions to avoid them in the future. Thus, gossip is used in daily life to impact and update reputations in a way that enables partner selection and indirect reciprocity. This article is part of the theme issue 'The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling'.Peer reviewe
Providing support to increase adherence to self-isolation requirements during a public health emergency
Get PDFFunding: This work was supported by UK Research and Innovation /Economic and Social Research Council (ref. ES/V005383/1 ).Isolating infected individuals plays a crucial role in controlling highly infectious diseases. However adherence to self-isolation mandates can be low. This paper uses data from three studies (total N = 1002) conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic to examine how the provision of support to individuals can facilitate increased adherence to self-isolation measures. In two experimental studies we manipulated the levels of hypothetical support provided by the UK Government and the local community, and in a survey, we collected data on actual support received from family members while self-isolating. Taken together, our results indicate that providing support for self-isolation increases both self-isolation intentions and actual behaviour. However, the effects of support were dependent on the type of support offered, the type of self-isolation required (either between households or within the household), the source of support, and the ways that all these addressed participants’ personal circumstances (in particular, caring responsibilities). For support for self-isolation to be most effective in future pandemic management, therefore, it should be tailored to address specific barriers individuals face when required to self-isolate.Peer reviewe
The vow of stability : an ethnography of monastic life
Get PDFThough monastic life is often imagined to be a flight from the world, Benedictine monks take on the intense social commitment of life in close community. Drawing on long-term anthropological fieldwork in a Catholic English Benedictine monastery, this book traces the monks’ daily lives as they confront the eternal in the fabric of the everyday. Bringing into focus the vow of stability – a lifelong commitment to the monastery and its community – this ethnography explores the rhythms and architecture that sustain shared life in a world of movement and fleeting interaction. At the same time, it analyses those social processes that damage and undermine the monastic institution and those in contact with it – in particular the harm caused by sexual abuse. Engaging with the everyday dynamics of life in close community while paying close attention to the time-depth of monastic history, this is a study of how religious institutions endure and change through generations
Honesty-humility, beliefs, and prosocial behaviour : A test on stockpiling during the covid-19 pandemic
Get PDFIncreasing evidence links personality to prosocial behaviour. HEXACO Honesty-Humility, in particular, has been linked to prosocial behaviour when it comes with a personal cost. Yet, evidence for such a link is mostly limited to the laboratory, although social dilemmas abound in daily life. Emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic pose salient conflicts of interests between individual and societal welfare. One example is the run on many basic goods in anticipation of lockdowns. Such social dilemmas afford the expression of personality traits associated with individual differences in prosocial behaviour. Indeed, across two studies (N = 601), Honesty-Humility was positively, albeit weakly associated with refraining from stockpiling in the past and intentions to do so in the future. Causal mediation analysis shows that this was not due to differences in beliefs that others would refrain from stockpiling. Instead, results suggest that faced with a social dilemma, individuals high in Honesty-Humility may have been willing to forego individual benefit. This provides rare evidence on the relationship between Honesty-Humility and prosocial behaviour in a field setting.Peer reviewe
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