Homotopy groups of homotopy fixed point spectra associated to E_n

We compute the mod(p) homotopy groups of the continuous homotopy fixed point spectrum E_2^{hH_2} for p>2, where E_n is the Landweber exact spectrum whose coefficient ring is the ring of functions on the Lubin-Tate moduli space of lifts of the height n Honda formal group law over F_{p^n}, and H_n is the subgroup WF^x_{p^n} wreath product Gal(F_{p^n}/F_p) of the extended Morava stabilizer group G_n. We examine some consequences of this related to Brown-Comenetz duality and to finiteness properties of homotopy groups of K(n)_*-local spectra. We also indicate a plan for computing pi_*(E_n^{hH_n} smash V(n-2)), where V(n-2) is an E_{n*}-local Toda complex.Comment: This is the version published by Geometry & Topology Monographs on 29 January 200

The Politics of Religion: Women, Islam and Politics in Saudi Arabia

In this essay I focus on women in Saudi Arabia, who live in perhaps one of the most socially conservative countries when it comes to women’s rights. For example, Nimrod Raphaeli describes the daily lives of Saudi women in the following way, “women can not work without the permission of a responsible man in the family, cannot drive a car, and cannot go to a restaurant alone,” he goes on to descried how these rules are enforced by the “Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue Police,” commonly referred to as the “religious police” (Raphaeli 2005, 526). Nevertheless, in the following paragraphs I demonstrate that women have found a way to navigate a religious and political climate that attempts to control most aspects of their daily life; and now with a growing push for social reform women in Saudi Arabia have begun to fight back against the religious, political, and social norms that limit them and reclaim both politics and Islam for themselves. I content that despite the existing assumptions and evidences that in Saudi Arabia women’s rights are circumscribed, Saudi Arabian women actively challenge these existing gender inequities, and are engaged in reclaiming their identity and defining their own lives on their own terms

Purity in Seclusion: Exploring the Anchoritic Lifestyle through an Archaeological Lens

This paper uses both archaeological and ethno-historical data to cross-examine theoretical explanations for understanding the anchoritic lifestyle, which are grounded in gender and feminist theory, sexuality and queer theory, as well as theories of personhood and permeability. For interpretations related to gender and feminist theory, I will crossexamine case studies involving other circumstances of ordained seclusion in Christianity. These case studies include the monjeríos, or the separate living quarters built for unmarried indigenous women of Spanish colonial California, as well as seclusion of “wayward women” by the Magdalen Society of Philadelphia. In addition, I examine archaeological studies conducted by Roberta Gilchirst and Michelle Sauer, who interpret aspects of the anchoress’ worldview through the lens of sexuality and queer theory. I offer a critique of these various theoretical frameworks and also consider theories of personhood, particularly the notion of permeability, as a more productive theoretical approach for understanding the lifestyle and choices of the medieval anchoress. The physical remains of the anchoress’ lifestyle and archaeological analysis provide a new lens with which to imagine the anchoritic worldview, a subject which has only been explored using literature written by men from this time. By exploring the anchoritic lifestyle in this way, we can let the anchoresses, who wrote very little, speak a little more for themselves

The Value of the Dead: The Commodification of Corpses in Western Culture

Since the 19th century, the deceased human body and its parts have been increasingly dehumanized, objectified, and commodified in Western culture. Thus, in a relatively short period of time, the corpse became, and continues to be, a highly valuable source of both economic and cultural capital for scientific and medical researchers, numerous industries, and much of society

Olympic Landscapes: A Global Event on a Local Landscape

Recently, cities around the globe have become involved in a competition for obtaining the title of the most “powerful” city in the world. Hosting mega-events, like the Olympics allow for these cities to restructure the entire floor plan of their metropolis. The Olympic games are well-known global events that occur within a smaller scale local landscape; therefore, the landscape undergoes many changes due to the drastic measures the games entail, as well as the goals for the landscape, economy, and residents post-Olympics. While looking at these landscapes, it is important to remember that the individual shapes the landscape, while the landscape itself influences and shapes the individuals who reside there (Tilley 1996:162). The landscape of the Olympics is structured around human desires and political interests, while in turn, the reconstructed landscape, reshapes the memories, meanings, and conceptions the residents associate with the area itself. The built landscape of the Olympic can be understood as a conceptual, ideational, and a constructed landscape through the instilled memories, political associations, aesthetic appeal, and the outcomes of the newly shaped area. In this paper I analyze the Olympics in terms of its effects on a city by using analytical categories of conceptual, ideational, and a constructed landscape. I consider the desirability of becoming host city, the transformation of the land not only to support the event itself, but also in relation to the functioning use of the land post-Olympic, as well as how monuments, places, and cohesive events instill a stronger sense of social solidarity and unity through emotional connections