Pantomath Ustinov College’s Scholarly Journal
The Evolving Scottish Arctic Policy and its Impact on National Identity page 12
Rethinking Desalination: Go-to Solution or Last Resort? page 18 Is Christian love utterly selfless? A short defence of St Thomas Aquinas’s conception of self-love page 20 Networks in Nature: Land Degradation in the Southwestern USA page 24
2023-24
The Pantomath
Ustinov College’s Scholarly Journal
Contents Introduction Principal’s Introduction
p4
President’s Letter
p5
Research Heathen and the Holy: Examining conjectural archaeological evidence of pagan or Christian practice at St.Baldred’s Cave
p 6-7
Antiquity’s forgotten heir – early medieval classical reception in the Eastern Slavic tradition
p 8-11
The Evolving Scottish Arctic Policy and its Impact on National Identity
p 12-15
How the Play and Musical Spring Awakening Transcend to a Religion for Depressed Teenagers
p 16-17
Rethinking Desalination: Go-to Solution or Last Resort?
p 18-19
Is Christian love utterly selfless? A short defence of St Thomas Aquinas’s conception of self-love
p 20-22
Academic Equality & Exploitation in China’s Higher Education System
p 23
Networks in Nature: Land Degradation in the Southwestern USA
p 24-25
Reimagining Colonialism and Empire: Creative Approaches to Marginalised Narratives at the Oriental Museum
p 26-29
English-medium Instruction in India
p 30-31
Ustinov Conference Ustinov Global Citizenship Programme Mini Conference
p 32-33
Editor’s Note Dear Readers, Welcome to the Pantomath 2023-2024 issue. The Pantomath is Ustinov’s own scholarly journal that aims to showcase the breadth and depth of research and scholarly activity within the Ustinov community. This edition features compelling studies, including “Antiquity’s Forgotten Heir,” which explores early medieval classical reception in Eastern Slavic tradition, and “The Evolving Scottish Arctic Policy,” highlighting the intersection of national identity and environmental policy. We delve into environmental challenges with “Rethinking Desalination” and “Networks in Nature,” and examine academic landscapes with “Academic Equality & Exploitation in China’s Higher Education System” and “English-medium Instruction in India.” I want to take the time to thank everyone who has submitted an article for The Pantomath providing fresh perspectives on historical, cultural, and scientific topics. I would also like to thank the reviewers within Durham University for their valuable time. Special thanks to Sarah and Sophie for their invaluable guidance and support. I hope you enjoy reading the journal as much as I loved putting it together for you.
Thank you, Afsana Afrin Esha Editor Ustinov Pantomath 2023-24 ‘The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of Ustinov College or Durham University’
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The Pantomath
Ustinov College’s Scholarly Journal
Principal’s Introduction Dear Ustinovians, In a postgraduate college, the breadth and depth of research is always impressive and inspirational in both its scope and achievement. It is a pleasure to be part of such a scholarly community, where innovation and curiosity are fostered, and excellence and commitment to your subject are celebrated. Students regularly share updates on their own specific areas of research and over many years, I have learned ‘a little about a lot’ which is a great privilege, and a true benefit of this college that I never take for granted. This edition of Pantomath is no exception as it features fascinating articles contributed by members of our Ustinovian community, each focusing on a specific,
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and very different, topic or theme. It is a significant undertaking to pull a journal like this together, and my thanks go to Esha, our student Editor, who has worked very hard to produce such an excellent edition. We welcome contributions from across our community and if you read this edition, appreciate it, and would like to be part of the next one, please do let us know as we would be delighted to hear from you! I trust that you enjoy reading the Pantomath and wish you all a peaceful and rejuvenating summer.
All good wishes, Sarah Prescott
Acting Principal
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The Pantomath
Heather and the Holy
Figure 1 Ground plans of St Baldred’s cave (Sligo, 1858, p.361)
Figure 2 Image of St Baldred’s cave, specifically the ‘alter’ (view from the interior outwards) (Sligo, 1858, p.357)
Heathen and the Holy: Examining conjectural archaeological evidence of pagan or Christian practice at St.Baldred’s Cave Amber Hunt doi:10.15128/r2n296wz17n
British early medieval caves are a neglected archaeological field, with most sites gaining attention due to Palaeolithic interest. Accordingly, many of these sites, which are now recognised for their later bibliographies and possible medieval utility, have much of their stratigraphy destroyed and dug through (Bergsvik and Dowd, 2018, p. 1). Focusing on these sites for their historic reuse and reverence throughout time can contribute greatly to understanding how people interacted with the landscape; it can also offer perspectives on the role these locations played in pre-Christian and Christian societies, as Marion Dowd has exemplified in Ireland (2018). To illustrate the importance of this overlooked field, the case study of St Baldred’s Cave is employed for its historical omission, possibly due to the change in names from Seacliff Cave to St Baldred’s (Layard, 1934, p. 400), and the failure of archaeologists and historians to revisit this site. The cave appears, hitherto, to have been last visited over 80 years ago by Nina Layard (1934), with excavations conducted over 160 years ago by George Sligo (1858) only being mentioned in passing. St Baldred’s Cave is located at the base of a rocky outcrop on the coast of Seacliff, Scotland. Its namesake is the 8th-century Northumbrian hermit, Saint Baldred (or Balther) of Tyninghame. St Baldred is a lesser-known saint with heroic tales of miraculously removing reefs that likely prevented seafarers from accessing the beach and hindering trade (Farmer, 2011, p. 34). This is more pertinent when considering Tyninghame from which he hailed in 756 and gave his name to the chapel there, also had an important
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monastery (HES, 1987) which likely took advantage of coastal trade. Sligo documented his encounter with the cave in 1831 when he hired workmen to clear the sand that had blown onto the grass banks from the beach, only then was the cave revealed (1858, pp. 353–354). The cave is 20ft at its highest point, receding backward, just over 29ft, to a height of 3ft with mostly paved ground (Sligo, 1858, pp. 354–355). Sligo speculates the cave’s soft sandstone had been altered to form an arched roof and entrance to the right of an altar that stands in the centre, towards the opening (see figure 2) (1858, pp. 354–355). The ‘alter’ (identified as ‘A’ in Figure 1) is formed from one stone (Sligo, 1858, p. 355); however, due to concerns about its weakened base, Sligo had one of the supporting rocks removed, intending to replace it with a larger stone, when to the north fell a skeleton of a 6 to 8-month-old infant (Sligo, 1858, p. 355; Layard, 1934, p. 400).
A second infant was found nearby (Sligo, 1858, p. 355), unfortunately, both sets of remains are updated, however, an assumption of their period can be theorised by reason of later prehistoric pottery found within the same context (Hume and Armit, 2024, p. 6). Sligo notes the workmen removing ‘quantities’ of bone and charcoal, indicating a subpar method of excavation compared to modern standards (1858, p. 354). Nonetheless, other human bones were found, accompanying horse, sheep, pig, and dog remains (Layard, 1934, p. 399). The only tools reported were an animal tusk used as a knife and red earthenware (Layard, 1934, p. 400). To surmise, a combination of the placename and associated saintly activity with the later prehistoric archaeological evidence, indicates the revival, reuse or ‘renegotiation’ of a once pre-Christian site into a location now renowned for its ecclesiastical connections with an early hermit (Semple, 2010, p. 40).
the landscape (Semple, 2010, p. 42); this, as Semple says, cultivates an essence of ‘legitimacy’ over a region or area (2010, p. 42). Sam Wilford also touches on this theory, specifying that coastal bay caves and other locations that constitute a feature in the landscape may symbolise a transitional area, or liminal zone, between the ‘familiar and unfamiliar’ (Wilford, 2016, p. 230); Wilford ties this into the overarching concept of a ‘communal identity’ where a ‘topophilic’ bond with a region materialises (Semple, 2010, p. 42; Wilford, 2016, p. 231). Accordingly, this theory may have been how this particular cave continued to hold relevancy in
This combination certainly attests to some form of reuse, whether intentional or not, and is purely speculative, however, St Baldred’s Cave seems to have conjured significance for different peoples and purposes. This is similar to what Sarah Semple has mentioned regarding temples and shrines, and how, sometimes, their archaeological evidence alludes to the ‘renegotiation’ of an area for a ‘successive audience’, thus accumulating different meanings and roles in their societies (2010, p. 40). This kind of reuse possibly resulted in what Semple calls a ‘communal identity’ whereby memories and an awareness of historic activity in a location have helped create an intrinsic connection between the surrounding inhabitants and
the minds of local societies throughout history, up until its introduction to Christianity. The conceivable knowledge, or even esoteric awareness, of the hereditary pre-Christian sacrality of St Baldred’s Cave, may have been what drew Christian attention to it. When researching caves in Ireland, many of which are also named after saints, Dowd theorises that the Church ‘saved’ caves known to be important in ‘pagan’ tradition (2015, p. 176). She notes how Christians found biblical relations to caves, likely through the practices of Egyptian desert fathers and their hermit lifestyle, or a saintly association, or a renowned event; therefore, Christians saw it as part of their conversion mission to enlighten these
pagan places and convert them into holy sites (Dowd, 2015, p. 176). Ergo, the caves Christians converted must have been known for their non-Christian reverence and activity, otherwise, they would not have been recognised. Subsequently, it is clear cave sites ought to be given more acknowledgment within the sphere of medieval archaeology due to their strong pre-Christian links that continued through the conversion period and into the later Middle Ages. With more concentration on these locations, more knowledge of pre and early Christian religion and topographic relations with society can be discovered.
...Sligo had one of the supporting rocks removed, intending to replace it with a larger stone, when to the north fell a skeleton of a 6 to 8-month-old infant...
The Ustinov Scholarly Journal
Bibliography Bergsvik, K. and Dowd, M. (2018) ‘Caves and Rockshelters in Medieval Europe’, in Caves and Ritual in Medieval Europe, ad 500-1500. 1st edition. Oxbow Books, Limited, p. 323. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ durham/detail.action?docID=5260116&pqorigsite=primo (Accessed: 4 November 2023).
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/durham/ detail.action?docID=5260116&pq-origsite=primo. Farmer, D.H. (2011) The Oxford dictionary of saints. New York, NY : Oxford University Press. Available at: http://archive.org/details/ oxforddictionary0000farm_d0b7 (Accessed: 16 June 2024). HES (1987) TYNINGHAME (GDL00380), Historic Environment Scotland. Available at: https:// portal.historicenvironment.scot/designation/ GDL00380 (Accessed: 16 June 2024). Hume, B. and Armit, I. (2024) ‘A Light in Dark Places: Later Prehistoric Mortuary Activity in Caves in Scotland and Northern England’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, pp. 1–19. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/ppr.2024.7. Layard, N.F. (1934) ‘Evidence of Human Sacrifice in Seacliff Cave, Scotland’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia, 7(3), pp. 399–401. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/ S0958841800026934. Semple, S. (2010) ‘In the Open Air’, in Signals of Belief in Early England : Anglo-Saxon Paganism Revisited. 1st edn. Oxbow Books, Limited, p. 229. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/ lib/durham/detail.action?docID=1165967. Sligo, G. (1858) ‘Notes on an Ancient Cave, &c., discovered at Aldham, now called Seacliff, in East Lothian, in 1831’, Archaeologia Scotica, 4, pp. 353–361. Wilford, S. (2016) Riddles in the Dark? The human use of caves during the 1st millennia BC and AD across the British Isles. Thesis. Durham University. Available at: https://etheses.dur. ac.uk/11905/1/Wilford_Riddles.pdf?DDD6+ (Accessed: 19 April 2024).
Dowd, M. (2015) The Archaeology of Caves in Ireland. Havertown, UNITED STATES: Oxbow Books, Limited. Available at: http:// ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/durham/detail. action?docID=2167185 (Accessed: 6 November 2023). Dowd, M. (2018) ‘Saintly associations with caves in Ireland from the early medieval period (AD 400-1169) through to recent times’, in Caves and Ritual in Medieval Europe, AD 500-1500. 1st edn. Oxbow Books, Limited, p. 323. Available at:
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Antiquity’s Forgotten Heir
The Pantomath
Antiquity’s forgotten heir – early medieval classical reception in the Eastern Slavic tradition Barbara Zboromyrska Poliakova doi:10.15128/r22f75r802b
Slavic classical reception in the early medieval period presents a fascinating case study that is not often subjected to thorough analysis. [1] However, an overview of the available material suggests great benefit from its analysis, providing the tradition with historical continuity through its constant awareness of the GrecoRoman legacy. Upon the territories of modern Ukraine, the classical past has been an ever-present cultural, social, religious, and military influence that shaped the lives of the Eastern Slavic population: as such, the example provided by Ukraine proves to be a source of great insight on classicism’s impact on later foreign traditions. Several archaeological reports from across the Ukrainian territories provide strong connections between the old Scythian lands and the Greco-Roman society. There is proof of trade with the Greek lands, with material evidence following the same multi-cultural pattern as found in other Greek colonies built in foreign territories: [2] in Olbia (Pontic region), Attic vases were discovered dating to the 5th century BC. [3] The Zmiinyi Island – also known as Snake Island – has been identified with the island of Leuke, an old site of worship for Achilles Pontarkes; likewise, fragments of an Attic vessel dated to the 5th century BC at Tyras and Nikonion (located in the Pontic region) present graffiti naming Achilles ‘Lord over Scythia’. [4] With settlements like Chersonesus establishing the direct impact of Greek colonisation and the coastal lands being later subjected to Roman rule, Ukraine presents a case of direct interaction with the classical past, its further links, thus, based on a close relationship dated to the ancient times.
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The impact of antiquity, however, did not cease with the fall of the Roman Empire. While the influence of Byzantium over the Eastern Slavic territories can be traced through economic and political exchange, these interactions were most prominent within the ecclesiastical tradition. The arrival of Orthodoxy to the Ukrainian lands marked the assimilation of the Byzantine culture into the Slavic literary tradition: [5] the Cyrillic alphabet was brought by two Byzantine monks, Cyril and Methodius, allowing for the writing tradition to prosper. This culture of translation did not only involve later Byzantine materials; [6] their acquisition marked the incorporation of antique literature as referential material within ecclesiastical writing. In the Life of Constantine and the Life of Catherine, one
Outside of religious texts, Greek translations into Slavonic have also had an impact on the historical accounts found in Old Slavonic archives. This way, the case of The Jewish War, written by Josephus around 75-79 AD, and translated into Slavonic presumably sometime in the 11th-12th century, [10] presents us with a detailed account of the Jewish rebellion between 67-73 AD. However, the scope of the literary texts is broadened by mentions of Roman contemporary affairs, including mentions of how Vindex’s revolt against Emperor Nero stood behind Vespasian’s intentions to end the Jewish War quicker, being the commander of the local Roman legions at the time. [11] The translation of such an account signifies an existent interest within the Eastern Slavic
Halcyone is seeking her husband Ceyx; kingfishers are painted over her head
observe descriptions and storylines calling back to known Greek myths. The case of Likho, the Slavic embodiment of bad luck, presents us with the physical description of a cyclops; the way to fight it alludes to Odysseus’ victory against Polyphemus, blinding the evil foe to escape fate. [14] Likewise, Dobrynia Nikitich and Marinka’s tale can be associated with the story of Circe, here, Marinka plays the role of a ‘wife-witch’. [15] The creature Alkonost can be tracked through different sources: associated with the Greek ἀλκυών, ‘kingfisher’, this half-woman, half-bird’s described behaviour has been identified with Aristotle’s and Pliny’s accounts of the kingfisher’s natural routine; [16] more so, the myth of Halcyone, transformed into a kingfisher after throwing herself into the sea, also bears great similarities to the female nature and breed choice for this sea creature. [17] The Slavic folklore, transformed by Christian and foreign influences, shows to have adapted to the multi-cultural input of trade and migration: even on general levels, the Slavic society never lost its connection to the Greco-Roman past.
On a social level, the common populace has also left evidence of classical knowledge. In this proof, primarily preserved through oral traditions and later recorded as Slavic folktales, one can observe descriptions and storylines calling back to known Greek myths. can find direct mentions of Homer, while the Life of Eustratius explores the nature of the pagan god Zeus. [7] Moreover, the Life of Constantine, as noted by Egunov, transforms the name into a noun, equalling the author’s name to Literature itself. [8] Between the formation of its alphabet and the implementation of classical references from the Greek past, the Slavonic language owes a great part of its development to Byzantium and ancient Greece. This tendency was later followed by Lomonosov’s classical reforms in the 18th century, finishing with Pushkin’s first poetic work in what is now known as Russian. [9] Therefore, the Greco-Roman past in Slavonic Church texts exists in continuity with later prominent linguistical incorporations.
community – here, meaning only the higher classes who could read them – for the historical annals of the Greco-Roman past. The knowledge of Roman monarchs also intertwines with Rurik’s claim of descent from Prus, a brother of Augustus; [12] both lay a strong foundation for Tsar Peter the Great’s later appropriation of classical imagery in the 18th century, when the mass importation of classical antiquity signalled for a more artificial and abrupt shift in the construction of the Slavic identity. [13] On a social level, the common populace has also left evidence of classical knowledge. In this proof, primarily preserved through oral traditions and later recorded as Slavic folktales, one can
The Ustinov Scholarly Journal
In conclusion, the case of Eastern Slavic reception, presented through a simple overview of Slavic, mostly Ukrainian, evidence, argues for the beneficial impact of this foreign tradition if included in reception studies. While perceived as something alien to the euro-centric focus of Western research, the Eastern Slavic culture is, in fact, another descendant with a claim on the ancient legacy, one whose continuous reception can broaden, diversify, and enrich the variety of examples already present in the field. Data Availability Statement: The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the listed bibliography.
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The Pantomath
Licho by Marek Hapon Licho is an embodiment of evil fate and misfortune in Slavic mythology
Antiquity’s Forgotten Heir
Notes 1. Modern academia presents a research tendency that is mostly concerned with later periods of Slavic reception, namely the 17th century onwards, while only brief mentions are dedicated to earlier periods. See Torlone 2014: 2-5, Kalb 2017: 470; Knabe 2000 takes the 14th-15th centuries as a starting point, while Egunov 1964 only dedicates part of Chapter 1 to earlier Homeric mentions.
4. As reported by Hind 1992-1993: 91 and Bilde et al 2007-2008: 129.
14. Ivanov and Toporov 1990: 314; Brockhaus and Efron 1896:851.
5. Terentyeva 1997: 6.
15. Old Russian poetry ed.1977: number 9; Sumtsova 1892 (2-3): 161.
2. For a discussion on the separation of ethnical and cultural material evidence found in such colonies, see Antonaccio 2003.
9. Gukovskyy 1962, 102; Knabe 2000, 113.
3. Hind 1992-1993: 91. The vases are now preserved as part of Odessa’s Archaeological Museum collection: http://archaeology.odessa.ua/eng/ struktura/drevnyaya-greciya/3.
11. Josephus 4.8.1.
6. Mesherskyy 1958: 58. 7. Life of Constantine, 228; Great Menaion Reader: Life of Catherine, 24th of November; Great Menaion Reader: Life of Eustratius, 13th of December. 8. Egunov 1964: 12.
16. Aristotle, Historia Animalium 5.7.2; Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia 2.47.76-77. Belova 2002: 20. 17. Ovid, Metamorphoses 11.410ff.; Tolstoi 1995: 100.
10. Tvorogov 1988, История Иудейской Войны Иосифа Флавия.
12. Knabe 2000: 100; Wortman 1995: 26. 13. Kalb 2017: 452; Knabe 2000: 104.
Bibliography Antonaccio, C. “Hybridity and the Cultures within Greek Culture” in: Dougherty, C. and Kurke, L. (eds.) The Cultures within Ancient Greek Culture. Contact, Conflict, Collaboration (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 57-76. Aristotle, Historia Animalium, in: Aristotle, Aristotle’s History of Animals in ten books, translated by Cresswell, R. (London: George Bell & Sons, 1887). Retrieved from Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59058/59058h/59058-h.htm#Pg101 (accessed 19.06.2024). Belova, O.V. “Alkonost” in: Tolstaya, S.M. (ed.) Slavic Mythology (Moscow, 2002), 20. – Белова, О.В. «Алконост» в: Толстая, С.М. (ред.) Славянская Мифология (Москва, 2002), 20. Bilde, P.G. et al “Archaeology in the Black Sea Region in Classical Antiquity 1993-2007”, Archaeological Reports, 54 (2007-2008), 115-173. Brockhaus, F.A. and Efron, I.A. Encyclopaedic dictionary, volume 7: Ледье-Лопаревъ (Saint Petersburg, 1896). – Брокгауз, Ф.А. и Ефрон, И.А. Энциклопедический Словарь, том 7: Ледье-Лопаревъ (Санкт-Петербург, 1896). “Dobrinya i Marinka” in: Evgenyeva, A.P. and Putilov, B.N. (eds.) Old Russian poetry, collected by Kirshey Danilov, number 9 (Moscow, 1977). – «Добрыня и Маринка» в: Евгеньева, А.П. и Путилов, Б.Н. Древние российские стихотворения, собранные Киршею Даниловым, номер 9 (Москва, 1977). Egunov, A. Homer in Russian translations in XVIIIXIX centuries (Moscow: Наука, 1964) – Егунов, А. Гомер в русских переводах XVIII-XIX веков (Москва: Наука, 1964). Gukovskyy, G.A. “Russian literary-critical thought in 1730-1750”, XVIII century, 5 (1962) 98-128. – Гуковский, Г.А. «Русская литературнокритическая мысль в 1730–1750-е годы», XVIII век, 5 (1962), 98–128. Hind, J.G.F. “Archaeology of the Greeks and Barbarian Peoples around the Black Sea (19821992), Archaeological Reports, 39 (1992-1993), 82-112. Ivanov, V. and Toporov, V. “Likho” in: Meletinskyy, E.M. (ed.) Mythological dictionary (Moscow: Советская энциклопедия, 1990), 314. – Иванов, В. и Топоров, В. «Лихо» в: Мелетинский, Е.М.
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Мифологический словарь (Москва: Советская энциклопедия, 1990), 314. Josephus, The Jewish War, translated by Y.L. Chertka (Saint Petersburg, 1900). – Иосиф Флавий, Иудейская Война, перевод Я.Л. Чертка (Санкт-Петербург, 1900). Kalb, J.E. “Classical Reception in Russia. An Introduction” in: LaCourse Munteanu, D., Torlone, Z.M. and Dutsch, D. A Handbook to Classical Reception in Eastern and Central Europe (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017), 451-456. “Homer in Russia” in: LaCourse Munteanu, D., Torlone, Z.M. and Dutsch, D. A Handbook to Classical Reception in Eastern and Central Europe (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2017), 469-479. Knabe, G. Russian Antiquity (Moscow, 2000) – Кнабе, Г. Русская Античность (Москва, 2000). Mesherskyy, N.A. “The art of translation in Kievan Rus” in: Lihachev, D.S. (ed.) Proceedings of the Department of Old Russian Literature / USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House), volume 15 (Moscow; Leningrad: Издательство Академии Наук СССР, 1958), 54-72. – Мещерский, Н.А. «Искусство перевода Киевской Руси» в: Лихачев, Д.С. Труды Отдела древнерусской литературы / Академия наук СССР. Институт русской литературы (Пушкинский Дом) (Москва; Ленинград: Издательство Академии Наук ССС, 1958), 54-72. Life of Catherine in: Great Menaion Reader, November, number 9, part II (Moscow, 1901). – Житье Екатерины в: Великие Минеи Четьи, Ноябрь, выпуск 9, часть 2 (Москва, 1901). Life of Constantine in: Life of the teacher and mentor of Slavonic language Constantine the Philosopher, book 2 (Moscow, 1864). – Житье Константина в: Житие учителя и наставника словеньску языку Константина Философа, книга 2 (Москва, 1864). Life of Eustratius in: Great Menaion Reader, December, number 11 (Moscow, 1901). Житье Евстратия в: Великие Минеи Четьи, Декабрь, выпуск 11 (Москва, 1901).
Ovid, Metamorphoses, translated by More, B. (Boston: Cornhill Publishing Co., 1922). Retrieved from Perseus Digital Library: http://www. perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/t?doc=Perseus%3At ext%3A1999.02.0028%3Abook%3D11%3Acard% 3D410 (accessed 19.06.2024) Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia in: Pliny the Elder, The Natural History of Pliny, volume 1, translated by Bostock, J. and Riley, H.T. (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855). Retrieved from Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ files/57493/57493-h/57493-h.htm (accessed 19.06.2024) Sumtsova, N.O. “Tale of Dobrinya and Marina and other familiar stories on witch-wives” in: Yaichuk, N.A. (red.) Etnographic Review (Moscow, 1892), 143-169. – Сумцова, Н.О. «Былина о Добрыне и Марине и родственныя им сказки о жене волшебнице» в: Яичук, Н.А. (ред.) Этнографическое Обозрение (Москва, 1892), 143-169. Terentyeva, N.A. The history of the world and national culture (Kyev, 1997). - Терентьева, Н.А. История мировой и отечественной культуры (Киев, 1997). Tolstoi, N.T. “Alkonost” in: Tolstoi, N.T. (ed.) Slavonic antiquities: ethnolinguistical dictionary, volume 1: A (Август) – Г (Гусь) (Moscow: Международные отношения, 1995), 100. – Толстой, Н.Т. «Алконост» в: Толстой, Н.Т. (ред.) Славянские древности: этнолингвистический словарь, том 1: A (Август) – Г (Гусь) (Москва: Международные отношения, 1995), 100. Torlone, Z.M. Vergil in Russia: National Identity and Classical Reception (Oxford, 2014). Tvorogov, O.V. “The Jewish War by Josephus Flavius” in: Lihachev, D.S. (ed.) Dictionary of scribes and bookishness of Ancient Rus, volume 2 (second half of the XIV – XVI centuries). Part 1: A–K (Leningrad: Наука, 1988). – Творогов, О.В. “История Иудейской Войны Иосифа Флавия” в: Лихачев, Д.С. (ред.) Словарь книжников и книжности Древней Руси, выпуск 2 (вторая половина XIV – XVI в.). Ч. 1: А–К (Ленинград: Наука, 1988). Wortman, Richard S. Scenarios of Power: Myth and Ceremony in Russian Monarchy, volume I (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995).
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Evolving Scottish Artic Policy
The Evolving Scottish Arctic Policy and its Impact on National Identity Joaquim A.P. Gaignard doi:10.15128/r1v118rd60v
The Scottish nation is considered by scholars as one of the earliest modern nations, these ‘imagined communities’ (Connor, 1990; Hobsbawm, 1992; Nairn, 2003; Anderson, 2006; Mycock, 2012). Yet, Scotland as a constitutive country of the United Kingdom is not a nation-state, with several devolved powers, allowing a certain autonomy to conduct some of its own affairs. This autonomy allows the Scottish Parliament and Government - reinstated in 1999 after nearly three centuries of discontinuity - to enact policies in certain areas (Parry, 2001; Horgan, 2004; Thompson, 2006; Himsworth, 2013). However, the UK Parliament and Government retain control over reserved matters, including defence, security, foreign and constitutional affairs. Scotland cannot conduct official diplomacy, or unilaterally separate from the rest of the UK (UK Government, 1998; Torrance, 2022). For the past half-century, political faultlines in Scotland have increasingly cut around independence. Many observers share the view that the discovery of offshore oil bonanza, in the North Sea during the 1970s, was the catalyst for the (re)activation of a latent nationalist movement aspiring to an independent Scotland (Nairn, 2003; Harvie, 2004; Campbell, 2019). In this context, it is surprising that Scotland developed its own Arctic policy, led by a Government’s Nordic and Arctic Unit, is regularly sending officials to Arctic events and forums, and installed Scottish offices abroad, like the one to Copenhagen’s Nordic Council. In many ways, they are manifestations of an unavowed diplomacy.
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For many, the Scottish Arctic quasidiplomacy conducted under the Scottish National Party (SNP) leadership (in government since 2007), is considered to be a tool to legitimise and strengthen their claims to independence (Johnstone, 2012, 2017; Powell, 2013; Kruse, 2016; Depledge and Dodds, 2017; Depledge, 2018; Escudé-Joffres, 2020). This is what scholars call identarian paradiplomacy: an un-official, de facto diplomacy conducted by an entity which is not a subject of international law; and with the ambition that it will help strengthen a distinct political identity, and possibly independence (Aguirre, 1999; Paquin, 2004; Cornago, 2010; Rioux Ouimet, 2015; Moreno, 2016; Jackson, 2018; Holmes, 2020).
2019a, 2019b). This exceptionalism was disrupted in 2022 when Arctic states paused cooperation with Russia over its invasion of Ukraine (Brańka, 2022; Kirchner, 2022; Zellen, 2022). Furthermore, in the last two decades, global warming has been on average three times faster in the Arctic (Deshayes, 2021) and assessments of resources (Bird et al., 2008; Tennberg, Lempinen and Pirnes, 2020) have triggered interest in mining, fishing, shipping, and tourism in the region. This has led to the multiplication of national strategies (Heininen et al., 2019), with the UK labelling itself the “Arctic’s nearest neighbour” (Depledge, 2018) and China a “near-Arctic state” (Lim, 2018). In this context, the 2019 Scottish policy, Arctic Connections, emulated this global
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, under Thatcher’s era, the height of deindustrialisation for Scotland, hopes and imaginaries of a brighter future for an independent Scotland have been pushed farther North. Scotland’s Arctic efforts are limited by both its sub-state status and the principle of circumpolarity. The principle of circumpolarity entertains that only states with territory above the Arctic circle (the 66⁰33” N latitude), are considered full stakeholders in Arctic politics. Only 8 states are recognised as Arctic states: Canada, Denmark (via Greenland), Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Russia and the USA (Steinberg et al., 2015; Keil and Knecht, 2016; Depledge, 2018). This is closely related to the notion of ‘Arctic exceptionalism’: an insulation from global (geo)politics, predominantly affected by endogenous dynamics (Ingimundarson, 2014; Burke,
movement, revealing an interest not simply due to cultural affinities, but also as part of a global trend. Yet, I consider the recent and consistent Scottish interest to take root from the discovery of offshore oil in the North Sea during the 1970s, which opened an imaginary of resource frontier, economic and (geo)political opportunities for Scotland, located on its Northern horizon (Nairn, 2003; Watts, 2019; Rioux, 2021; Hau, 2022). Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, under Thatcher’s era, the height of deindustrialisation for Scotland, hopes and imaginaries of a brighter future for an independent Scotland have been pushed
The Ustinov Scholarly Journal
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The Pantomath
farther North. The romanticised egalitarian social democratic welfare model of Nordic countries began to capture nationalists’ imaginations. These societies offered, it was argued, an alternative model to neoliberalism which left Scotland in a position further and further peripheral from the concentration of wealth in London. This Nordic alternative was crystalised in the catchphrase ‘Arc of Prosperity’ figuring in the SNP electoral manifesto for the Scottish parliament elections of 2007 (The Scotsman, 2006; Kelly, 2011; Rioux, 2021). In the SNP’s words, Scotland should join the ‘Arc of Prosperity’, spreading from Ireland “the Irish Tiger”, to the Scandinavian countries, ending with Finland. Few years later, this imaginary of Nordic, small independent yet prosper welfare states appear to have further evolved. Today, Scottish independentists are holding a discourse pointing the similarities between Scottish and Arctic societies and geographies, based on their histories, cultural heritages, economies, to nourish dreams of independent Arctic Scotland. The 2019 Arctic Connections cements this vision, perhaps first outlined in 2011 by Angus Robertson, then-MP for the SNP in Westminster in the New
Antiquity’s Forgotten Heir
Scotsman newspapers (Robertson, 2011). For instance, since at least 2015, a Scottish delegation, often accompanied by a highlevel official (minister, and a few times the First Minister), is sent to the Arctic Circle Assembly.1 However, Scandinavia, Nordics and Arctic(s) seem to be blurred persistently: all Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden) are Arctic, but not all Arctics are Nordics (Canada, Russia and the USA).
These societies offered, it was argued, an alternative model to neoliberalism which left Scotland in a position further and further peripheral from the concentration of wealth in London.
In sum, it is remarkable to note how vague, or imprecise is this reimagined geography. The shift in emphasis from the North Sea to the Arctic within the nationalist discourse since the 1970s’ oil discovery, appear to have opened a more general movement toward the Nordic and then the Arctic. Indeed, the journey of this discourse articulating the Scottish independent future with a Northern geopolitical space, shows that Scottish politicians can talk about the Arctic, whilst thinking about Northern Scotland and archipelago, Scandinavia, Nordics or indeed the Arctic. This modulation likely depends on the political circumstances and audiences. One aim of my research is to investigate whether this is done consciously, and for what purposes. Data Availability Statement: Data is mainly drawn from secondary sources (academic publications), and publicly available sources (acts, laws, speeches).
Bibliography Aguirre, I. (1999) ‘Making sense of paradiplomacy? An intertextual enquiry about a concept in search of a definition’, Regional & Federal Studies, 9(1), pp. 185–209. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13597569908421078. Anderson, B. (2006) Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. 2nd edn. London ; New York: Verso. Bird, K.J. et al. (2008) Circum-arctic resource appraisal: Estimates of undiscovered oil and gas north of the Arctic Circle, Circum-arctic resource appraisal: Estimates of undiscovered oil and gas north of the Arctic Circle. USGS Numbered Series 2008–3049. U.S. Geological Survey. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20083049. Brańka, T. (2022) ‘The End of Artic Exceptionalism? New Artic Approach after February 24, 2022’, Przegląd Strategiczny, (15), pp. 373–392. Available at: https://doi. org/10.14746/ps.2022.1.22. Burke, D.C. (2019a) ‘Club Diplomacy in the Arctic’, Global Governance: A Review of Multilateralism and International Organizations, 25(2), pp. 304–326. Available at: https://doi. org/10.1163/19426720-02502004. Burke, D.C. (2019b) Diplomacy and the Arctic Council. Campbell, A. (2019) ‘Extractive Poetics: Marine Energies in Scottish Literature’, Humanities, 8(1), p. 16. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/ h8010016. Connor, W. (1990) ‘When is a nation?’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 13(1), pp. 92–103. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.1990.9993663. Cornago, N. (2010) ‘On the Normalization of Sub-State Diplomacy’, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 5(1–2), pp. 11–36. Available at: https:// doi.org/10.1163/1871191x-05010102. Depledge, D. (2018) Britain and the Arctic. 1st ed. 2018. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-31969293-7. Depledge, D. and Dodds, K. (2017) ‘The United Kingdom, Scotland and the Arctic’, The Arctic Institute, 5 December. Available at: https://www. thearcticinstitute.org/united-kingdom-scotlandarctic/ (Accessed: 11 November 2021). Deshayes, P.-H. (2021) ‘Arctic warming three times faster than the planet, report warns’, phys.org, 20 May. Available at: https://phys. org/news/2021-05-arctic-faster-planet.html (Accessed: 22 May 2021). Escudé-Joffres, C. (2020) Coopération politique et intégration régionale en Arctique (1996-2019) : construction d’une région. Doctoral Thesis. Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. Available at: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-02980869 (Accessed: 25 February 2021). Harvie, C. (2004) Scotland and nationalism: Scottish society and politics, 1707 to the present. 4th ed. London: Routledge. Hau, M.F. (2022) ‘From Local Concerns to Global Challenges: Continuity and Change in Substate “Green Nationalism”’, Frontiers in Political Science, 3. Heininen, L. et al. (2019) ‘Artcic Policies and Strategies-Analysis, Synthesis, and Trends’. Available at: https://doi.org/10.22022/AFI/112019.16175. Himsworth, C. (2013) ‘The autonomy of devolved Scotland’, in S. Woodman and Y. Ghai (eds) Practising Self-Government: A Comparative Study of Autonomous Regions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Law in Context), pp. 349–382. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/ CBO9781139088206.012.
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Hobsbawm, E.J. (1992) Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality. 2nd edn. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Canto). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/ CCOL0521439612.
Parry, R. (2001) ‘Beyond Westminster: The New Machinery of Subnational Government: The Role of Central Units in the Scottish Executive’, Public Money & Management, 21(2), pp. 39–44. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9302.00259.
Holmes, A.R. (2020) ‘Multi-layered Diplomacy in a Global State’, in A.R. Holmes (ed.) MultiLayered Diplomacy in a Global State: The International Relations of California. Cham: Springer International Publishing (Studies in Diplomacy and International Relations), pp. 199– 208. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3030-54132-3_10.
Powell, R.C. (2013) ‘Subarctic Backyards? Britain, Scotland, and the Paradoxical Politics of the European High North’, Northern Review, (37), pp. 87–100.
Horgan, G.W. (2004) ‘Inter-institutional relations in the devolved Great Britain: quiet diplomacy’, Regional & Federal Studies, 14(1), pp. 113–135. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/135975604 2000245197. Ingimundarson, V. (2014) ‘Managing a contested region: the Arctic Council and the politics of Arctic governance’, The Polar Journal, 4(1), pp. 183–198. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/215 4896X.2014.913918. Jackson, T. (2018) ‘Paradiplomacy and political geography: The geopolitics of substate regional diplomacy’, Geography Compass, 12(2), pp. 1–11. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12357. Johnstone, R.L. (2012) ‘An Arctic Strategy for Scotland’, in Heininen, L., Exner-Pirot, H., and Plouffe, J., Arctic Yearbook. Akureyri, Iceland: Arctic Portal. Available at: https://arcticyearbook. com/arctic-yearbook/2012/2012-scholarlypapers/12-an-arctic-strategy-for-scotland (Accessed: 18 November 2021). Johnstone, R.L. (2017) ‘Respectful Neighbourliness: The United Kingdom’s Arctic Approach’, The Yearbook of Polar Law Online, 8(1), pp. 25–55. Available at: https://doi.org/10.116 3/22116427_008010005. Keil, K. and Knecht, S. (2016) Governing Arctic Change: Global Perspectives. Springer. Kelly, J. (2011) ‘How Scandinavian is Scotland?’, BBC News, 8 December. Available at: https:// www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16050269 (Accessed: 23 September 2022). Kirchner, S. (2022) ‘International Arctic Governance without Russia’. Rochester, NY. Available at: https://doi.org/10.2139/ ssrn.4044107. Kruse, E. (2016) ‘Is there Scope for Scotland to develop its own Arctic Policy and What Would it Look Like?’, in Heininen, L., Exner-Pirot, H., and Plouffe, J., Arctic Yearbook. Akureyri, Iceland: Arctic Portal (Briefing Notes), p. 12. Available at: https://arcticyearbook.com/arcticyearbook/2016/2016-briefing-notes/207-isthere-scope-for-scotland-to-develop-its-ownarctic-policy-and-what-would-it-look-like. Lim, K.S. (2018) ‘China’s Arctic Policy & the Polar Silk Road Vision’, Arctic Yearbook, pp. 1–17. Moreno, L. (2016) ‘Theory and Practice of Paradiplomacy: Subnational Governments in International Politics’, Regional & Federal Studies, 26(2), pp. 287–288. Available at: https://doi.org/1 0.1080/13597566.2016.1157072. Mycock, A. (2012) ‘SNP, identity and citizenship: Re-imagining state and nation’, National Identities [Preprint]. Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.1080/14608944.2012.657078. Nairn, Tom. (2003) The break-up of Britain : crisis and neo-nationalism. 3rd., expanded ed. Altona, Vic: Common Ground Pub. Paquin, S. (2004) Paradiplomatie et relations internationales: théorie des stratégies internationales des régions face à la mondialisation. Bruxelles ; New York: P.I.E.-Peter Lang (Collection ‘Régionalisme et fédéralisme’, no 3).
Rioux Ouimet, H. (2015) ‘From Sub-state Nationalism to Subnational Competition States: The Development and Institutionalization of Commercial Paradiplomacy in Scotland and Quebec’, Regional & Federal Studies, 25(2), pp. 109–128. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/ 13597566.2014.992886. Rioux, X.H. (2021) ‘Between the “Arc of Prosperity” and the Arctic: challenges and opportunities of Nordic Scotland’s paradiplomacy’, in Landriault, M., Payette, J.-F., and Roussel, S., Mapping Arctic Paradiplomacy. 1st edn. London: Routledge, pp. 173–194. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003131311-9. Robertson, A. (2011) ‘Angus Robertson: High time to join our friends in the North and face the Arctic challenge’, The Scotsman, 29 November. Available at: https://www.scotsman.com/news/ opinion/columnists/angus-robertson-hightime-join-our-friends-north-and-face-arcticchallenge-1652579 (Accessed: 18 November 2021) Steinberg, P.E. et al. (2015) Contesting the Arctic: Politics and Imaginaries in the Circumpolar North. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. Tennberg, M., Lempinen, H. and Pirnes, S.E. (2020) ‘The resourceful North: divergent imaginaries from the European Arctic’, in M. Tennberg, H. Lempinen, and S. Pirnes (eds) Resources, Social and Cultural Sustainabilities in the Arctic. Abingdon: Routledge (Routledge Research in Polar Regions), pp. 175–181. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429057366. The Scotsman (2006) ‘Salmond sees Scots in “arc of prosperity”’, The Scotsman, 12 August. Available at: https://www.scotsman. com/news/salmond-sees-scots-in-arc-ofprosperity-2470157 (Accessed: 31 March 2024). Thompson, N. (2006) ‘The Practice of Government in a Devolved Scotland: The Case of the Designation of the Cairngorms National Park’, Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 24(3), pp. 459–472. Available at: https:// doi.org/10.1068/c50m. Torrance, D. (2022) Reserved matters in the United Kingdom. Research Briefing. UK Parliament - House of Commons. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/researchbriefings/cbp-8544/ (Accessed: 28 June 2024). UK Government (1998) Scotland Act 1998. King’s Printer of Acts of Parliament. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/46/ schedule/5/enacted (Accessed: 28 June 2024). Watts, L. (2019) Energy at the End of the World: An Orkney Islands Saga. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Available at: http://ebookcentral.proquest. com/lib/durham/detail.action?docID=5626641 (Accessed: 21 January 2024). Zellen, B.S. (2022) ‘The Arctic Council Pause: The Importance of Indigenous Participation and the Ottawa Declaration’, Arctic Circle, 14 June. Available at: https://www.arcticcircle.org/journal/ the-importance-of-indigenous-participationand-the-ottawa-declaration (Accessed: 28 June 2024).
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Religion for Depressed teenagers
How the Play and Musical Spring Awakening Transcend to a Religion for Depressed Teenagers Mirran Morrison doi:10.15128/r2n296wz17n
What does spiritual identity mean for Generation Z and how can a fictionalised cohort of the Lost Generation begin to explain it?[1] Tackling the taboo issues of 19th-century Christian Germany through rock music, Spring Awakening explores teenage sexuality, abuse, academic pressures, and, most importantly for my work, mental health. I saw myself in these kids who transcended space and time to speak to the experience of young adults facing an attack on their positional normalcy: depression. By avoiding the trivialisation and diminishing of youth mental illness and crises, Spring Awakening provides a beneficial, and most importantly, safe outlet for ‘shameful’ emotions and experiences because, in the words of Journey, the writing ‘[seriously addresses] the concerns, anxieties, and preoccupations of children [... to the degree that] they might even constitute tragedy’ (Journey, 2015). Like all revolutionary action, Spring Awakening was deeply opposed in its early days, and I understand why; it is a musical that, to use a colloquialism, takes no prisoners. What we watch is a crisis slowly unfold, and what is so terrifying is that we are powerless to stop it. But this is also why this piece is unparalleled in its work on teenage mental illness. It shows us the darkest of what depression can be and, in doing so, gives us the tools, in more ways than one, to begin to tackle it and attest to the fact that no one is alone in their experiences (Shlufman, 2021). Mol’s work on the sacralisation of identity helped me realise just how much of a lifeline Spring Awakening had provided me and why this could be the case. This enabled me to lay the foundation for Spring Awakening to work with Mol to respond as an intervention to mental health as a crisis of identity. For Mol, religion is ‘the stable niche that man occupies in a potentially chaotic environment which he is therefore
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shapes my thesis that the musical Spring Awakening is a ‘religion’ for depressed and suicidal teenagers; Spring Awakening is the attachment. This allows academic conceptualisation of one ‘case study’ of depression whilst also studying a possible intervention. Just as sacred texts offer dogmatic direction and narrative, Spring Awakening can begin to act as a secular ‘doctrine’ (Davies, 2022, pp. 28-30). Sacralising identity is a two-way process (Davies, pp. 28-30). While most apprehensible in the relationship between a religious leader and adherent, it is not exclusive to this, quite the opposite. Spring Awakening poses a prime example where the teenager is transformed by innate representation visible in an influential text; that text is profoundly altered in its presentation and
Just as sacred texts offer dogmatic direction and narrative, Spring Awakening can begin to act as a secular ‘doctrine’ prepared vigorously to defend’ (Mol, 1976, p. 65). In other words, religion, regardless of how it presents itself, is the key to unlocking our identity in a society of bedlam and is capable of infusing that instability with security and asylum. This coping mechanism can only be understood as such because of an attachment that has become ‘ritually symbolic’ and sacralised and, when we perceive others as treating it with less dignity than we afford it, we begin to experience ‘defence.’ This can take many forms but, in this work, culminates in ‘symptoms’ of depression, ranging from self-harm to suicide. This
reception by its audience, the teenager. If only one of the two parties can exhibit awareness of the dynamic, it becomes a perceived relationship (Davies, p. 29), however, the concept becomes anthropomorphised in its capacity to conduct religious confession. Finally, Spring Awakening is, abstractly, not far removed from religious conversion (Powell, 2017, p. 33) in its mediating of the transition from ‘traditional’ religion or unhealthy coping mechanisms. There is a proven positive correlation between a lack of representation and the risk of teenage suicide. Alternatively, Gill
and colleagues show that an ‘increasing belongingness and [reduced perception] of being a burden on others may be an important intervention strategy for weakening the link between distress and suicide ideation’ (Gill et al, 2023). This is now the context in which Spring Awakening can step in as a coping mechanism and I will provide one textual example of this in the character of Moritz, with whom I most closely identify. Riddled with crippling anxiety, Moritz is convinced of his supposed insanity for his desires and attempts to grapple with human sexuality. He craves academic validation and acceptance and when these are not provided, he becomes trapped and, in terror, commits suicide. From 2014-2015, forty-three per cent of suicides in school-aged individuals (<20) are evidenced as having an academic trigger (Campbell, 2017). As both a personal and primary stressor of adolescents, academic trauma has a pull of connection that rises above fictional writing. This opens a communication line with the ‘participant’ in the ‘Eucharist’ of Spring Awakening that their struggles are not hopeless or irredeemable. Spring Awakening began as a murmur of rebellion. It ‘at first made people want to cross themselves’ but, with time, we began to see the Church doors being flung open and the ‘sinners’ accepting it as a priestly calling to listen ‘to the shameful and disturbing confessions of humanity’ (Ziolkowski, & Moore, 1967, p. 15). These are the words of Ziolkowski & Moore The Ustinov Scholarly Journal
Bibliography
There is a proven positive correlation between a lack of representation and the risk of teenage suicide. and a parallel between confession and Spring Awakening - an intentional parallel. Depression is not a purely psychosomatic illness, it is, of course, characterised by mental turmoil, but it goes far beyond this into embodied action, and this concept of ‘salvation’ exemplifies one aspect of this. At its core, religion is designed to soothe, and what does every teenager crave? Acceptance and belonging: comforting (Gill et al, 2023). So, what happens when conventional religion feels idealistic? The individual throws themselves at any means of short or long-term, safe or unsafe, self-soothing. Thus, I argue that Spring Awakening provides this safe outlet and transcends beyond ‘just a musical’ when ‘saviour and saved’ enter the realm of supernatural experience and existence. Spring Awakening is a religion.
Campbell, D., & editor, D. C. H. policy. (2017, July 12). Suicides by young people peak in exam season, report finds. The Guardian. https://www. theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/13/suicidesby-young-people-peak-in-exam-season-reportfinds Davies, D. J. (2022). Worldview religious studies (1st ed.), 28-30. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781003242437 Gill, P. R., Arena, M., Rainbow, C., Hosking, W., Shearson, K. M., Ivey, G., & Sharples, J. (2023). Social connectedness and suicidal ideation: The roles of perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness in the distress to suicidal ideation pathway. BMC Psychology, 11(1), 312. https://doi. org/10.1186/s40359-023-01338-5 Journey, E. (2015). Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening and the tragedy of adolescence. Theatre Symposium, 23, 20–30. https://go.gale. com/ps/i.o?p=AONE&sw=w&issn=10654917&v=2 .1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA430801740&sid=googleSc holar&linkaccess=abs Powell, A. J. (2017). Hans Mol and the sociology of religion (1st ed.). 33. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315228013 Shlufman, D. (n.d.). Sex and high school theater: A spring awakening review. The Echo. Retrieved 14 June 2024, from https://thetenaflyecho. com/15121/showcase/sex-and-high-schooltheater-a-spring-awakening-review/ Mol, H. (1976). Identity and the sacred: a sketch for a new social-scientific theory of religion, 65. Ziolkowski, T., & Moore, H. T. (1967). Twentiethcentury German literature. The German Quarterly, 40(4), 730, 15. https://doi.org/10.2307/402483 [1] This article began as a formative essay for Douglas Davies’ first-year module, Worldview, Faith, and Identity (Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University).
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Rethinking Desalination
Rethinking Desalination: Go-to Solution or Last Resort?
images right: Different worlds. Source: Afsana Afrin Esha, 2024
Afsana Afrin Esha doi:10.15128/r1qj72p724k
On April 20th, upon arriving at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka, I was informed that my flight to the UK had been cancelled. With 40 kilograms of luggage with me, I was lost, rethinking my entire plan and next steps. There were hundreds of passengers like me, many in worse conditions, stuck in Dhaka which would initially simply be an hour transit for them. I returned home with my family being more in awe than myself. That is when the severity of Dubai floods struck me and the recent experiments around cloud seeing came to my attention. The purpose of this paper is not to discuss cloud seeding, floods or climate change, but aims to draw attention to the materiality of infrastructure and the compounding effects it may have. Showcasing two cases in Saudia Arabia and Bangladesh, it explores the use and advancement of desalination plants amidst a water crisis. Public attention to precipitation enhancement by cloud seeding (Al-Hosari et al., 2021, Borenstein, 2024) brought about by the disastrous flood in Dubai and part of the Persian Gulf, has made the global water crisis more apparent. Given the rise of consumerism, and increasing population, adverse weather conditions, the water crisis is increasing. Given such stressful times, a number of alternative technologies such as desalination plants are on the rise.
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The Case of Sadia Arabia
The Case of Bangladesh
Conclusion
References
Saudi Arabia is a desert country with no permanent rivers or lakes, receiving an average of 114 mm of rainfall each year (FAO, 2003; Abdella et al., 2024, Chowdhury & Al-Zahrani, 2013). Water is derived from non-renewable groundwater sources, renewable surface and groundwater sources, desalinated water and treated wastewater (Chowdhury, S., & Al-Zahrani, 2015). The country has been tackling rising water demand successfully given its stable economy and prosperity (Abdella, 2024). Desalination is a popular practice in the kingdom producing the most desalinated seawater in the world, accounting for 22% of worldwide consumption (Abdella, 2024).
Bangladesh is a riverine country, but it would be restricted to assume that the country’s abundant rainwater and freshwater resources make it water secure. Rising sea levels, adverse weather events such as floods, cyclones, storm surges, challenges in management and distribution, especially in the dry season, often lead to water scarcity. The impacts are worse in the coastal areas of the country where saline water affects several areas.
Desalination predominantly concentrated in the Arabian Peninsula is growing in the Global South to address water challenges (Williams, 2022). Desalination holds the power to “continue to reshape the practices, politics and political economy of water throughout the 21st century” (William, 2022, p 194). Countries such as Bangladesh with limited technical and economic resources, mostly in the coastal region where water scarcity is high, need to be cautious in including the technology within communities. It may seem like a clean, easy alternative to fresh drinking water supply, but can have political and environmental consequences beyond anticipation, both during construction and operation. The discussed perspectives are not to banish desalination or dismiss it, it is simply to contour the differing contexts and expand our understanding.
Abdella, F. I., El-Sofany, W. I., & Mansour, D. (2024). Water scarcity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 1-12.
Liberal water use and careless water supply management coupled with unchecked population growth, irresponsible agricultural policies, and years of war have led to an unsustainable culture of water usage in Saudi Arabia (DeNicola et al., 2015). Desalination plants are popular, and well-known for their high energy consumption. High-income, wealthy communities drive desalination investments in Gulf countries such as Saudia Arabia. It is deeply connected to fossil fuel energy regimes where oil and gas resources are abundant (Williams, 2022). These energy-hungry technologies have the potential to increase fossil fuel consumption, increase greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), and exacerbate climate change if renewable energy sources are not used for freshwater production.
Small-scale desalination plants are on the rise powered using renewable, non-renewable or hybrid sources of energy (Kariman et al., 2023). This highly commodified mode of water production technologies (Williams, 2022) is usually brought about by donor-funded projects and private investments, recently witnessing a boom with 131 plants being mapped in Khulna district (Hoque, 2023). Many have failed in the region due to a stark mismatch in electricity bills and sales. Furthermore, these technologies are mostly in demand during the dry season, where lack of rain forces communities to look for alternative options. Over time the technology itself is becoming more feasible and affordable due to increased availability of parts. The income, and availability of resources such as fossil fuels to run such plants, are quite different for Bangladesh. However, the technology through which they are responding to the crisis is quite similar. Wastewater from desalination plants is also a concern. At present, there is no mechanism in place to treat discharge and are disposed of directly into nature. The arsenic poisoning tragedy caused by numerous tubewells throughout the country, calls for more apprehension and proceeding with caution. Just as tubewells aligned with the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to improve safe water access, the proliferation of RO meets target 6.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
The technology is predominantly for high-income and technologically advanced groups. Inequity in water provision is easier to happen in countries like Bangladesh with poor governance structures, stipulating more caution to the desalination approach. Highly salty and toxic, discharge water should also be taken into account. Desalination may seem like a straightforward implementable technology for many, especially to the development organizations working in Bangladesh to ensure water security. It is now also a lucrative business opportunity for coastal communities. However, this easy fix can be problematic since it holds the power to shift our view from sustainable alternative solutions which may be comparatively laborious, but nevertheless achievable.
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Al Hosari, T., Al Mandous, A., Wehbe, Y., Shalaby, A., Al Shamsi, N., Al Naqbi, H., & Farrah, S. (2021). The UAE cloud seeding program: A statistical and physical evaluation. Atmosphere, 12(8), 1013. Borenstein, Seth, 2024, Study says it’s likely a warmer world made deadly Dubai downpours heavier, Independent, Available online: Study says it’s likely a warmer world made deadly Dubai downpours heavier | The Independent, Accessed on 23rd July, 2024. Chowdhury, S., & Al-Zahrani, M. (2015). Characterizing water resources and trends of sector wise water consumptions in Saudi Arabia. Journal of King Saud University-Engineering Sciences, 27(1), 68-82. Chowdhury, S., Al-Zahrani, M., 2013. Implications of climate change on water resources in Saudi Arabia. The Arabian Journal of Science and Engineering (AJSE), in press. https://doi. org/10.1007/s13369-013-0565-6. DeNicola, E., Aburizaiza, O. S., Siddique, A., Khwaja, H., & Carpenter, D. O. (2015). Climate change and water scarcity: The case of Saudi Arabia. Annals of global health, 81(3), 342-353.
Rising sea levels, adverse weather events such as floods, cyclones, storm surges, challenges in management and distribution, especially in the dry season, often lead to water scarcity. The impacts are worse in the coastal areas of the country where saline water affects several areas.
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), 2003. Review of World Water Resources by Country, 2003. Water Report No. 23; FAO: Rome, Italy. Hoque, S. F. (2023). Socio-spatial and seasonal dynamics of small, private water service providers in Khulna district, Bangladesh. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 39(1), 89–112. Kariman, H., Shafieian, A., & Khiadani, M. (2023). Small scale desalination technologies: A comprehensive review. Desalination, 116985. Williams, J. (2022). Desalination in the 21st century: a critical review of trends and debates. Water Alternatives, 15(2), 193-217.
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Is Christian Love Utterly Selfless?
Antoni Viladomat, St. Thomas Aquinas, first half 18th century. Oil on canvas, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, Barcelona.
Is Christian love utterly selfless? A short defence of St Thomas Aquinas’s conception of self-love Stephanie Targett doi:10.15128/r18336h193j
‘Love yourself’ is a mantra often uttered in our present culture, referring to self-care, boosting one’s confidence, and self-acceptance. Yet selflove is seen by some as a moral vice – as nothing but self-centredness. The Christian conception of love is rooted in God, who is Love itself (1 John 4:8). Christian love is not self-centred but sees Christ’s act of loving sacrifice on the Cross as a model to imitate. However, the Christian command to “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31; Matthew 22:39) implies that some sort of self-love is involved in the love that Christians are called to. Medieval theologian St Thomas Aquinas suggests that self-love is necessary to love your neighbour, raising the question of whether Christian love is truly selfless, and suggesting the importance of the relation to the self in how one relates to others. In his Summa Theologica, Aquinas asks “Whether out of charity, man ought to love himself more than his neighbour?”.i Referring to the biblical command to “Love your neighbour as yourself”, Aquinas asserts that love of self is the model for love of neighbour. Since “the model exceeds the copy”, as a Christian, I should love myself more than my neighbour. For those seeking the rationale rather than the moral maxim in isolation, two things must be understood: the foundation of love, and the ‘order of charity’. For Aquinas, charity (synonymous with love in this context) has an inner unity, meaning that even if it is directed at different objects (e.g. God or neighbour), it is still the same virtue. This is because the sole basis and end of charity is the “goodness of God”.ii Unity is therefore important for Aquinas in determining how one is to love, since the basis of love is a unity. He claims that what is closer to me in unity is what I should love the most. This is where charity can be “secondarily” divided into different acts of love in the ‘order of charity’ – love of God, self, and neighbour. iii First, Aquinas claims that I should love God more than myself and my neighbour because I have a closer unity with God than I do with myself. My unity with myself derives its existence from my participation in God – it could not exist alone.iv Since
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Unity is therefore important for Aquinas in determining how one is to love, since the basis of love is a unity. He claims that what is closer to me in unity is what I should love the most. unity is the basis of love, and I am most closely united to God, I should love God more than myself or my neighbour. After God, I should love myself more than my neighbour, because I am closer to myself (by unity – I am one with myself) than I am to my neighbour (by union – I am united to them).v Hence the varying levels of unity I have with God, myself, and my neighbour determine the order in which I love. This ‘order of charity’ explains why self-love is the model for love of neighbour: since my unity with myself is better known to me, it is more apt a model to love others. This notion that I should love myself more than my neighbour is rebuked by some Christian writers. Indeed, on the surface
it is easy to misunderstand Aquinas’s words, seeing them as supporting self-centredness and egoism. Lutheran philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, writing in the nineteenth century, does not see selflove as exceeding neighbour-love,vi and is wary even of preferential love (loving one person more than another) as a form of selfishness.vii Furthermore, twentieth century Catholic theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar sees Christian love as a kenosis (self-emptying), manifested most truly in Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross. It is “precisely in – and only in – the kenosis of Christ, the inner mystery of God’s love comes to light”.viii Balthasar opposes “true love” with egoism and self-love.ix However, Aquinas is endorsing neither egoism nor self-centredness. True selflove is not putting my material needs before those of my neighbour. Drawing on the writings of St Paul (2 Corinthians 4), Aquinas claims that true self-love is prioritising the “inward man” (what is rational) over the “outward man” (what is corporeal).x When I prioritise my bodily desires over my rational desires, or over the needs of others, I am not loving myself. Therefore, there is only a conflict between “true love”, as Balthasar would claim, and “self-love”, if the latter is really a corruption of self-love, in which my outward self is prioritised.xi Aquinas is clear that I should love my neighbour more than my own body. Therefore, I should be willing to sacrifice my material needs and even my earthly life for my neighbour. This is no egoistic ethic. Nevertheless, my self-love, prioritising my inward self, means that I must prefer my own spiritual good even to my neighbour’s spiritual good. For example, if there were some situation where my committing a sin would prevent my neighbour from doing so, I must not do it. In the order of charity, I must love God first. To sin is not to love God, so sinning for the sake of my neighbour would violate this order of charity. Moreover, as stated previously, love has an inner unity. Aquinas
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writes that it is “the same act whereby we love God, and whereby we love our neighbour”.xii I love my neighbour “that he may be in God”. Therefore, to sacrifice my spiritual needs for my neighbour would not be loving my neighbour, because true neighbour-love involves love of God, which such an action would lack. The modern moral theologian Eberhard Schockenhoff posits that Aquinas’s understanding of the biblical command to love your neighbour as yourself overcomes the “opposition” of egoism and altruism.xiii It acknowledges the closeness of my relation to myself, which is to be used as a model for loving others. For Aquinas, loving my neighbour can never be without self-love, but it can be and should be completely unselfish. In a Christian worldview where it is good for me to love others, and where I must love my neighbour as myself, perhaps a truly selfless act is a misconception of what it means to love.
Lutheran philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, writing in the nineteenth century, does not see self-love as exceeding neighbour-love,vi and is wary even of preferential love (loving one person more than another) as a form of selfishness
Academic Equality
References [1] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, trans. by Fathers of the English Dominican Province (Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg, 2006), II-II, q.26, a.4. [2] Aquinas, II-II, q.23, a.5. [3] Eberhard Schockenhoff, ‘The Theological Virtue of Charity (IIa IIae, qq. 23-46)’, trans. by G. Kaplan and F. G. Lawrence, in The Ethics of Aquinas, ed. by Stephen Pope (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 2002), pp.244-258, (p.252). [4] Andrew J. Hayes, review of Anthony Flood, The Metaphysical Foundations of Love: Aquinas on Participation, Unity, and Union (2018), The Review of Metaphysics, 73 (2019), 366.
[7] Kierkegaard, Section IIB, p.53. [8] Hans Urs von Balthasar, Love Alone is Credible, trans. by D. C. Schindler (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2004), p.87. [9] Robert Miner, ‘Thomas Aquinas and Hans Urs von Balthasar: A Dialogue on Love and Charity’, New Blackfriars, 95 (2014), 504–524, (p.515). [10] Aquinas, II-II, q.25, a.7. [11] Miner, p.521.
Academic Equality & Exploitation in China’s Higher Education System Keping Ruan
[12] Aquinas, II-II, q.25, a.1. [13] Schockenhoff, p.254.
[5] Aquinas, II-II, q.25, a.4. [6] Søren Kierkegaard, Works of Love: Some Christian Reflections in the Form of Discourses, trans. by Howard Hong and Edna Hong (Cambridge, MA: Princeton University Press, 1995), Section IIA, p.23.
China’s higher education has expanded significantly, offering numerous opportunities but also revealing challenges such as inequality and workforce exploitation.
Academics face intense pressure to produce high-quality research, secure funding, and publish in top journals, leading to mental health issues and even suicide. Despite global studies on academic inequality, there’s a gap in research on China’s ‘Up or Out’ system and academic exploitation. This study investigates systemic issues in recruitment, research ethics, inclusion, and employability within China’s higher education system, focusing on the ‘Up or Out’ recruitment system, inappropriate authorship, and challenges faced by
women and minorities. Key research questions explore the system’s impact on staff retention, promotion, and inequality. Initial findings indicate increased academic output post-promotion due to more time for research, better funding, and additional support, though concerns about labour exploitation remain. The study aims to address these issues comprehensively by expanding the research scope and incorporating diverse samples, with the ‘Survey on Academic Equality and Researchers’ Well-being’ underway to explore these critical issues further.
Unfinished sketch of Søren Kierkegaard c. 1840 by his cousin Niels Christian Kierkegaard. page 22
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Networks in Nature: Land Degradation in the Southwestern USA Shubham Tiwari
Networks in Nature
In the vast arid landscapes of the Southwest USA, the balance between human activities and the natural world has been delicately maintained for millennia. Today, this balance is threatened by rapid climatic changes and human encroachment, putting the future of these ecosystems at risk. Drylands, by their nature, are environments of extremes: limited rainfall and high evaporation make life here a careful balancing act. These regions are not simply stretches of barren land; they are dynamic ecosystems where life hangs in a delicate balance. When that balance is disrupted by factors like prolonged droughts or land mismanagement such as overgrazing, the consequences can ripple through the ecosystem dramatically. Historically, indigenous agricultural practices in these areas were in harmony with the natural rhythms of the environment, supporting a mosaic of life forms. These methods were sustainable, and fine-tuned to the limits of what the land could bear. However, the advent of European colonization, coupled with modern agricultural practices and the increasing pressures of climate change, have disrupted this age-old balance. The signs of this disruption are clear: changing vegetation patterns, increased soil erosion, and declining land productivity scar the landscapes.
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My research at Durham University aims to dissect these issues using a novel scientific approach that integrates network science1 with ecogeomorphology—a study of how ecological and geomorphological processes mutually shape each other. Consider each process in the ecosystem— water movement, plant growth, animal grazing—as points in a network. These nodes are interconnected through their interactions, such as water flow or the movement of grazing animals. Understanding these connections illuminates how alterations in one node, like changes in vegetation in one area, can impact the entire network. For instance, heavy grazing in one season can significantly reduce plant cover. If a drought follows, the already weakened soil has less protection, leading to severe erosion. This isn’t just a problem for the next season; it’s a shift that can alter the landscape for years to come, affecting everything from water quality to wildlife habitats.
A core aspect of my study involves identifying “critical nodes”—key areas where targeted actions can mitigate these cascading effects. By modelling how overgrazing or a new dam can disrupt these nodes, we can predict and manage their impact on the ecosystem. This predictive capability is crucial for devising strategies that can withstand both current and future challenges posed by climate change and human activities. Looking forward, the lessons learned from the drylands of the Southwest USA could inform the management of similar ecosystems worldwide. By integrating traditional knowledge with advanced scientific research, we can forge a path toward sustainable land use that respects the intricate connections within our environment. Through this research, we not only aim to understand the present landscape but also to shape a more sustainable and resilient future. Acknowledgements This research is a part of the ‘i-CONN’ project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement number 859937.
Suggested Reading Tiwari, S., Brizuela, S. R., Hein, T., Turnbull, L., Wainwright, J., & Funk, A. (2024). Watercontrolled ecosystems as complex networks: Evaluation of network-based approaches to quantify patterns of connectivity. Ecohydrology, e2690. https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.2690
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Reimagining Colonialism and Empire
The Pantomath
Reimagining Colonialism and Empire: Creative Approaches to Marginalised Narratives at the Oriental Museum Sierra Kaag doi:10.15128/r1hx11xf299
My research focuses on the potential of creative texts for interpreting museum objects with complex or contested histories – for exploring the uncomfortable and the unknown in museum collections. As a writer of historical narratives who spent over a decade working in the museum sector, I have one foot firmly in the Creative Writing camp, with the other planted in Museum Studies. My project takes museum objects as the basis for creative interpretation and formal experimentation, moving beyond the label to delve into collections’ complex histories. In the first of three case studies, I examine two collections that were acquired by Durham University in the 1950s and form the core of the Oriental Museum today. The Northumberland Collection and the Malcolm MacDonald Collection illustrate key moments during the period of British colonial power. The fourth Duke of Northumberland began acquiring ancient Egyptian artefacts in the mid-1820s, a period during which competing French and British interests exacerbated political instability in the region. The British diplomat Malcolm MacDonald – son of Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, and later Chancellor of Durham University – amassed much of his collection of Chinese ceramics during the years following the Second World War, when his official role in East Asia afforded him access to treasures that flooded the art market as a direct result of the upheaval caused by the Chinese Civil War (MacDonald 2018).
Clearly, the circumstances under which these objects were collected are important to our understanding of the historical and political forces that have shaped and continue to shape our society. Yet conventional, fact-based interpretive texts cannot effectively grapple with the legacies of conflict and privilege in collections such as the Oriental Museum’s. Short-form texts, such as identification labels and wall panels, are restricted in their length and tone, and generally convey a maximum of three key messages in the interest of accessibility. Some forms of interpretation, such as museum collection catalogues, may provide greater detail, but also assume a high degree of specialist knowledge on the part of the reader, while oversimplified texts fail
The findings from this approach highlight key implications for personnel selection, in which potential candidates for jobs are screened and may be asked to answer questions related to their work ethic, efficiency, and productivity. page 26
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Figure: Seal (faience), Amenhotep III/ Amenophis III/Nebmaatre, EG6360, 10 x 5 x 15mm, Purchased from Hugh Percy, 10th Duke of Northumberland, https://iiif.durham.ac.uk/index. html?manifest=a6258&canvas=71905
to acknowledge contentious issues and sociohistorical contexts, frustrating those who wish to know more (Hooper-Greenhill 2000). In view of these limitations, I found myself asking: what other forms of interpretation might lend themselves to exploring marginalised narratives in museum collections? How can gaps in provenance highlight the ethical issues associated with British collecting during the imperial era? Although creative writing has long been used as a pedagogical tool in museum education programmes, I chose to approach object-based fictional narratives and creative nonfiction as museological practices in their own right. My textual experimentation on objects from the Northumberland and MacDonald collections builds on the work of Saidiya Hartman, who developed a practice of ‘critical fabulation’ during her research on the Transatlantic slave trade (Hartman 2008). Expanding upon scant historical documentation of these journeys, Hartman constructs imaginative counter-narratives that shift the focus from ships’ ledgers to the experiences of the enslaved, bringing context and nuance to archival data (Hartman 2016).
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Adapting and applying critical fabulation to objects at the Oriental Museum allows for an examination of colonial collecting practices, the multiple significances of objects, and the incomplete, inherently biased nature of much museum documentation. In one example of this approach, I wrote a piece based on a steatite seal from the reign of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III, which entered the Duke of Northumberland’s collection through channels unknown. In this text, I expand upon Nanouschka Bürstrom’s reframing of object biographies – frequently used in the field of archaeology to present an object’s history and trajectory – as it-narratives, a literary form that emerged in the 18th century in which an object-as-protagonist relates the plot from a nonhuman perspective (Bürstrom 2014). Moving through space and time, and from owner to owner, an object acts as a lens through which the reader views the world. By creating an it-narrative that weaves known facts (the seal’s place of origin, its status as part of the duke’s collection) with one of many possible trajectories, I highlight the changes in its function, value, and significance as a result of the transfer of ownership. As an extension of my own creative work and research on the Oriental Museum’s collections, I have run writing workshops
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for Museum and Artefact Studies and Creative Writing MA students with the aim of encouraging emerging museum professionals to engage creatively with complex object histories, and emerging writers to apply literary techniques to museum objects. The participants’ texts will be disseminated in cooperation with the Oriental Museum, creating a supplementary layer of interpretation that brings the resource of creative writing to our understanding of objects and their histories. In this case study, I foreground the limitations of conventional interpretation and promote a more pluralistic and authentic relationship with museum audiences through creative writing. By moving beyond ‘factual’ and shortform texts and applying the practice of critical fabulation to object histories, I encourage readers to remain open to the polysemic potential of objects. After all, an ancient Egyptian seal may be considered a devotional object, a commodity, a curiosity, an artefact, or any number of things, depending on one’s perspective. Creative texts embrace the interpretive potential of narrative, fostering a deeper and more nuanced engagement with the themes of colonialism, conflict, and institutional authority.
Bibliography
Figure: Alnwick Castle, seat of the Dukes of Northumberland
Burström, Nanouschka M., ‘Things in the Eye of the Beholder: A Humanistic Perspective on Archaeological Object Biographies’, in Norwegian Archaeological Review, 47.1 (2014), pp. 65-82, doi: 10.1080/00293652.2014.909877 Hartman, Saidiya, ‘The Dead Book Revisited’, in History of the Present, 6.2 (2016), pp. 208-215, doi:10.5406/historypresent.6.2.0208 Hartman, Saidiya, ‘Venus in Two Acts’, in Small Axe: A Journal of Criticism, 12 (2008), pp. 1-14, doi:10.1215/-12-2-1 Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean, Museums and the Interpretation of Visual Culture (London: Routledge, 2000) MacDonald, Malcolm J., The Pleasures and Pains of Collecting (Durham: The Friends of the Oriental Museum, 2018)
Figure: Installation view of objects from the Northumberland Collection on display at the Oriental Museum
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English-medium Instruction in India
English-medium Instruction in India Ashmita Bhattacharya
In India, English is often viewed as the language of power and prestige and one that offers upward socio-economic mobility. Consequently, numerous English-medium schools have since been established due to increasing demand for English. Existing research sheds light on how children who attend elite private English-medium schools in India often experience a dominant language submersion education and their mother tongue proficiency development becomes restricted. This means that English language learning and use are often consolidated at the cost of students’ mother tongue proficiency
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development at these schools. Therefore, this phenomenon has made sections of Indian society feel concerned about the potential of language loss. The aim of this study is to investigate whether elite private English-medium schools in Kolkata (India) offer such a dominant language submersion education at the cost of students’ native languages. If yes, then this study further aims to investigate how former students who attended these schools feel about developing greater proficiency in English than in their mother tongues and whether they experience a loss of cultural identity as a result of it.
... children who attend elite private Englishmedium schools in India often experience a dominant language submersion education and their mother tongue proficiency development becomes restricted
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Ustinov Conference
Ustinov Global Citizenship Programme Mini Conference
The Ustinov Global Citizenship Programme Mini Conference was an excellent opportunity for students to enhance their research outreach. It provided a platform for students to present their work, connect with a diverse audience, and engage in meaningful discussions that helped broaden the impact of their research. By participating in this event, students were able to develop valuable skills, gain feedback on their projects, and build networks that will support their future academic and professional endeavours.
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Ustinov College’s Scholarly Journal
Punishments in Camps: Exploring Stateless Rohingyas Living in Bangladesh Tahura Enam Naville discusses the various ways in which Rohingyas experience punishment in the Refugee camps. One way is “Jobdo” which is the confiscation of ID cards as non-spectacular punishments. Among spectacular punishments refugees face detention and physical torture by patrolling police APBn. There are also arbitrary arrests outside the camp by different law enforcement agencies. Punishment by AlYakeen/Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) are also consistent which are a militant group.
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A. ‘Jobdo’: the Confiscation of ID Cards as Non-spectacular Punishments B. Spectacular Punishments (Detention, Physical torture) by Patrolling Police APBn C. Arbitrary Arrests Outside the Camp by Different Law Enforcement Agencies D. Punishment by Al-Yakeen/ Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA)-a militant group
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Ustinov College, Sheraton Park, Durham. DH1 4FL Tel: +44 (0)191 334 5470 durham.ac.uk/ustinov.college CUR/09/24/398