Impact of Flooding on Mine Action in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia

Devastating floods swept through Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia in May 2014. The destructiveness of the floods, landslides and sediment torrents on minefields resulted in significant environmental and security issues. These three countries’ mine action centers launched a joint project cofunded by the Republic of Croatia’s Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs to develop effective and efficient methods and technologies that might improve the situation. Their research seeks to provide reliable assessments of the flood damage to minefields and generate accurate implications for potential hazardous areas

Knowledge Utopias: An epistemological perspective on the convergence of museums, libraries and archives

Since 2005, convergence of museums, libraries and archives has emerged as a prominent trend in both the international and Australia collection sectors, made manifest through the development of digital platforms that allow integrated access to diverse collection databases, as well as collaborations and mergers of bricks-and-mortar cultural institutions to incorporate various types of collections and professional disciplines. The convergence phenomenon has led to significant investments in technology and infrastructure, provoking considerable scholarly and professional discourse across collecting domains. Yet, the existence of only a handful of empirical studies reflects a nascent field of study where the majority of research is characterised by inventory-style attempts to quantify and classify types of collaborative projects. This thesis extends current research by examining convergence through a dual commitment to both theory and fieldwork. Focussing on the interpretation of museum collections within converged institutions, I combine conceptual analysis of the epistemological implications of convergence with five detailed case studies of converged organisations in Australia and New Zealand. In a museological context, the research explores ways in which the integration of collecting institutions influences understandings of objects through its impact on museum practices. The findings suggest that convergence not only produces a new institutional framework for museum practice, but also that the integration of collecting institutions has the potential to reshape fundamental understandings of identity, place, heritage and culture

Knowledge Utopias: An epistemological perspective on the convergence of museums, libraries and archives

Since 2005, convergence of museums, libraries and archives has emerged as a prominent trend in both the international and Australia collection sectors, made manifest through the development of digital platforms that allow integrated access to diverse collection databases, as well as collaborations and mergers of bricks-and-mortar cultural institutions to incorporate various types of collections and professional disciplines. The convergence phenomenon has led to significant investments in technology and infrastructure, provoking considerable scholarly and professional discourse across collecting domains. Yet, the existence of only a handful of empirical studies reflects a nascent field of study where the majority of research is characterised by inventory-style attempts to quantify and classify types of collaborative projects. This thesis extends current research by examining convergence through a dual commitment to both theory and fieldwork. Focussing on the interpretation of museum collections within converged institutions, I combine conceptual analysis of the epistemological implications of convergence with five detailed case studies of converged organisations in Australia and New Zealand. In a museological context, the research explores ways in which the integration of collecting institutions influences understandings of objects through its impact on museum practices. The findings suggest that convergence not only produces a new institutional framework for museum practice, but also that the integration of collecting institutions has the potential to reshape fundamental understandings of identity, place, heritage and culture

Some details of Mari historical phonology

Mari historical phonology was broadly worked out during the twentieth century and summarized in classic works by Gruzov and Bereczki. Nevertheless, subsequent Uralic and Mari reconstructions were published with ramifications for historical phonology, and a vast trove of new data appeared in Mari dia­lectal dictionaries published since the turn of the millennium. The article examines four aspects of Mari historical phonology where this newly available data either leads us to posit new reconstructions at the Proto-Mari stage, or supports or overturns reconstructions published elsewhere: 1) Eastern Mari evidence for Ante Aikio’s reconstruction of Proto-Mari reduced labial vowels; 2) regular lowering of *i before sonorants in Eastern Mari and irregularities sometimes suggesting that a vowel other than *i must be reconstructed; 3) palatalized ŕ in the Krasnoufimsk dia­lect and the environment for this palatalization; and 4) the reconstruction of all three possible voiced sibilant + velar clusters in Proto-Mari, i.e. *‑zγ‑, *‑žγ‑ and *‑źγ‑. Additionally, a loan etymology of Mari užγar ‘tool’ from Alanic *zγar ‘metal object’ (cf. Ossetic zγär id.) is proposed

Living with Water: Adaptation processes, heritage conservation, and conflicting values

Heritage sites are constantly changing due to natural and social processes. Climate change research and predictions indicate that the pace will only accelerate in the future, especially in the coastal areas. Living with current weather conditions involves adapted lifestyles of communities that are linked to actions of individuals, societies and governments worldwide. The historic preservation community is now presented with complex issues of considering and adapting to climate change and its lasting effects, which will significantly influence decision-making and heritage policies. These issues raise important questions about the role that individual and societal values play in adapting to climate change: How do adaptation measures taken by some affect the values of others? In the case of value conflicts, whose values should be prioritized? What are the challenges and limits to adaptation processes in the context of culture and livelihoods? Ultimately, it is important to identify adaptation strategies that acknowledge and address a spectrum of values with governance based on shared cultural practices, ethics, justice and equity considerations. The object of this thesis is to examine how an understanding of past impacts on heritage-related livelihoods from rising waters and erosion can help design and operationalize future interventions in the era of climate change. It looks at adaptation as a social process with implications for economic and political stability as well as culture, among many other things; with a specific focus on traditional knowledge systems and governance. This is developed through an examination of a primary case study on Majuli, a river island in Assam, India. There is a difference between how heritage is defined and how it is protected, and this thesis is about realizing that in communities like Majuli there is not only a tradition of dealing with threats, but also about dealing with fluctuating weather and water conditions. It deals with a history of adaptation, and skills and traditions that have built and evolved in response to harsh weather conditions. In the era of climate change, there has been a static approach when deciding what heritage is, though in reality it is dynamic. This thesis aims at exploring how to reconcile these incompatible concepts of adaptation traditions

Chinese Glass Paintings in Bangkok Monasteries

Reverse glass paintings, a form of Chinese export art, were extensively traded in the nineteenth century. Several examples are on display in prominent Thai Buddhist monasteries in Bangkok. King Nangklao of Siam, Rama III, encouraged Sino-Siamese trade that brought Chinese objects and images to nineteenth-century Siam. The ideals of accretion and abundance characteristic of Thai Buddhism and the sinophilia of Rama III facilitated the construction of “Chinese-style” Thai temples. Glass paintings with scenes of the Pearl River Delta, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, auspicious objects, and bird-and-flower compositions were installed in temples and inspired new directions in Thai mural painting

'Integration', Vietnamese Australian Writing, and an Unfinished Boat Story

This article contributes to the critical commentary on boat narratives through a reading of an early and little-known example of a Vietnamese Australian boat story: ‘The Whitish-Grey Dove on the Disorientated Boat’, a serialised novella which was published in Integration: The Magazine for Multicultural and Vietnamese Issues from 1994 to 1998. Focusing on this novella and the magazine in which it appeared serves two objectives: the first is to make the argument that Vietnamese Australian writing has a longer and more active history than may be commonly recognized or acknowledged and that ‘the boat’ is a significant figure in this body of writing from its beginnings; the second is to situate the novella in the context of the diverse range writing found in Integration and to argue that the literary content of this community magazine constitutes a significant body of Vietnamese Australian writing that, for both literary scholars and other interested readers, is well worth exploring