Cultural Reflections (Asynchronous Session)
Non-Kinetic Resolutions: Explorations in Developing Cross-culturally Competent Naval Officers View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Clementine Fujimura
This paper focuses on the importance of integrating interdisciplinary approaches to training and education in the United States military. Because of the need for military troops to adapt in their ability to play a role in conflict resolution and peacebuilding, to mitigate and reduce conflict, and to lead in diverse human terrains, there is a need for officers to utilize non-kinetic methods for conflict resolution. For the education and training of midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy, for example, a new interdisciplinary major, the Area Studies Major, is an opportunity to prepare leaders who value diversity and create an ethical command climate, who are effective communicators in foreign languages, who are knowledgeable on regions of the world, who are adaptable by understanding and appreciating global and cross-cultural dynamics and who are critical and creative thinkers. In order to navigate new cultural landscapes, the ability to look beneath the surface and find meaning, that is, to uncover the often subconscious cultural narratives that people of diverse backgrounds live by. In this paper, I discuss the development of this new initiative by looking at midshipmen outcomes as well as problems in a multi-disciplinary focus.
Craving the Material: Art, Artists, and Theo-political Change View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Robin Willey, Carolyn Jervis
“Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don’t want it.” This quote, attributed to both the jazz musician Duke Ellington (1899-1974) and author Anthony Burgess (1917-1993), points out the relationship between art and social change. As such, this paper investigates the burgeoning relationship between visual art and religious innovation in Canadian Evangelical communities. We connect this experimentation with the arts to broader processes of religious “cosmopolitanization.” Thus, we will focus on what art is doing and has done to Evangelical communities and artists that have let art into their religious lives. This work is an extension of Robin Willey’s multi-sited ethnography that focused on Evangelical political practice, and makes use of an additional nine months of ethnographic observation and interviews in a large western Canadian city and Grand Rapids, MI.
The Impact of the Covid-19 Outbreak on Library Life on the Croatian Island Hvar View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Gordana Galic Kakkonen
The author examines cultural activities of libraries and the reading habits of their members in an isolated island community (island of Hvar, Croatia) in the extraordinary circumstances caused by the COVID-19 outbreak during 2020. The impacts of the situation on different segments of library life are analyzed, taking into account the difficulties encountered by the publishing industry, delivery of books (communication problems), organization of events such as literary evenings, book promotions, exhibitions, and other organizational constraints in an era of general restrictions, which have brought the island community into a particularly vulnerable position. In addition to such practical issues, the paper also addresses the way in which such changed living conditions are reflected in the reading habits and tastes and how they generally affect library attendance.
The Paradox Revisited: An Argument for Monism in Kierkegaardian and Levinasian Ethics
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Kiranjot Chahal
Soren Kierkegaard’s philosophical work in Fear and Trembling probes into the depths of the religious subject, or one could say, religious subjectivity as a concept. He does this by propagating the Judeo-Christian understanding of the patriarch Abraham and his decision to sacrifice his son Isaac. The perimeters of faith, concession to an ultimate and absolute moral authority as well as the confines of a certain kind of ethics are of utmost importance throughout this deeply metaphorical text. Emannuel Levinas has voiced his disdain for certain inclinations in Kierkegaard’s ideas, as they feature contentious thoughts on faith with regard to its particular and universal implications. Kierkegaard’s metaphorical literary style provides an opening for interesting academic avenues to be investigated. Therefore, by exploring the instances in which he propagates Abraham as an archetypal figure and a true ‘knight of faith’, we can begin to understand the ways in which Levinas and his acute criticisms of Kierkegaard have an ethical value that acknowledges a similar kind of moral weight. Both individuals were greatly concerned with religious ethics and can rightfully comment on the depths of religious subjectivity, or rather what it means to be a religious person in relation not only to God but the other or ‘neighbour’-to use their language. I explore how Kierkegaard and Levinas apprehend the ethical situation that Abraham, in his status as an important Judeo-Christian figure, creates for the general religious subject in relation to God, themselves, and the other in this moment of ‘passionate faith’.
The Almería Carnival during the First Two Years of the Second Republic: Analysis of the Letters Located in the Provincial Historical Archive View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mauricio Rodríguez López
The research article focuses on the arrival of the Second Republic and the implementation of its new cultural policies, which, in the case of Almería, resulted in a new air of freedom. Economic improvements, thanks to the increase in exports, together with the arrival of democracy, made the carnival of 1932 the most participatory of the period studied. The documentation located in the Provincial Historical Archive serves as a study base to analyze how murgas and chirigotas sang about freedom and the arrival of the Republic. The study is completed through the analysis of the primary sources and the news collected in the local press.
The Space of Masked Community in Hong Kong: Cultural Discourse of Masking People during Post-COVID-19 Era View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ki Chau Shek
Since 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has made a strong social reconstruction, particularly in human culture. This paper is considers how the reconstruction leads to the formation of different new cultures, especially new culture created by regional public health policy. In late 2020 of Hong Kong, the regulation of wearing of mask has implemented and has not been dismissed. The tension has strongly been created to affect the original daily routine of Hong Kong citizens. This paper argues that while people are forced to wearing of mask in most of the public areas and working places, new discourse has been created. The discussion is explored with ethnographic methods to review if the community is filling with all masking people, how is masked community representing its own social status, emotions and the relationship of the community. This paper argues that the discourse of people would be produced by the types of mask, the size of masks, and the way of presenting the mask. Further to this, if we noticed that Hong Kong citizens would identify someone who wears mask in yellow color as anti-government party, and the one who wears CuMask provided by Hong Kong government is upholding pro-government political stance. This tension has led to the discussion of why and how does a mask affect the discourse of the community. Finally, in this paper, we explore ways out when masked community has a high tension of conflict.
Consensus or Dissensus? The Performance "Orestes in Mozul" by Milo Rau View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Zafiris Nikitas
In 2019, the acclaimed theatre director Milo Rau directed the performance Orestes in Mosul. The performance used excerpts from Oresteia by Aeschylus and re-framed them in the context of Mosul, the first capital of the Islamic State’s caliphate. Themes of the tragedy such as endless chain of violence and revenge through an ʻeye for an eyeʼ mentality were revisited by Rau in order to explore the harsh reality of this violent city in Iraq which has become synonymous with bombing and abandonment. This free adaptation made clear parallels between the past and the present, by staging, for example, the death of Agamemnon outside a bombed-out arts building. Rau constructed a performance of ʻglobal realismʼ in collaboration with a multilingual ensemble of European and Iraqi actors. In the study at hand, I consider the adaptation of Oresteia by Milo Rau and focus on the strong political ʻdissensusʼ to use a term by Jacques Rancière, that is employed in the performance promoting a sense of social engagement. At the same time, I look into the adaptation of the tragedy by Aeschylus which leads to a ʻhypertheatreʼ that connects past and present. Finally, I explore the intermediality of the performance and its contribution to contemporary theatre(s) of engagement.
Regaining Identity in a Globalised Wolrd: A Journey of Rediscovery in Cairo View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yousef Aly
This dissertation explores the identity of the city and the forces of globalism that worked to alter the identity of cities worldwide creating an “international style” of architecture that induces a feeling of placelessness and alters the collective memory of both the people and the city. Cairo is successfully identified as a globalised megacity altered beyond recognition that is attempting to regain its identity. To regain the identity of Cairo a journey of rediscovery is established dissecting the Cairene identity and story highlighting the legends, figures and culture that shaped the city while analysing the architecture style of the dynasties. in order, to understand how modern forces came to reshape the city's identity and understanding of the abandonment of the vernacular is formed and the overarching effects on the collective memory of the locals and the city. Finally, an understanding of the unity of dynasties and forces of nationalism through architecture was used to showcase the unity and harmony of the Cairene identity. before reshaping the dystopian temple “Mogmaa el Tahrir” symbolic of the modern beliefs and identity of the city. liberating it of its modern identity to create a temple symbolic of the Cairene identity that focuses on the unity and harmony of the locals becoming a temple for all. The dissertation was successful in regaining the Cairene identity and capturing the identity at different scales, I believe that by forming a basic understanding of the steps taken through the dissertation the identity of cities worldwide can be regained.
Reasons and Impacts of Change in the Livelihood: The Role of Welfare Programs View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Vishal Kumar
Every community has its way of living, which depicts the culture, food, relations, religious understandings, etc. These spaces constitute their way of living; livelihood. Nowadays, the understating of livelihood is often narrowed to income. This paper is based on action research in the Amapra Village, Chhattisgarh. It is a Gond tribe populated area. It describes the changes over time in people's livelihoods, through the history and occurrence of changes in the old practices, which magnificently show the nuances, how the old ways of living are getting replaced by the new ways of living. Because of which the community is getting affected in terms of ecology, village relations, health, and nutrition, the role of welfare programs is very much essential in shaping the wellbeing of the community. Therefore, if they are done without the consciousness of the importance of diversity and decent exploration of the need, it may have repercussions. This paper will argue about the welfare programs under the light of the LAMPS (Large Area Multi-Purpose Society), PDS (Public Distributive System) and, the schemes under which the government buys the forest produces from the community. Further, it will critically examine how such programs impact the food diversity of the community, the interrelationship between the people, and the forest, agriculture - because of which the ecology is also being affected.
