No one wants to be lectured at by a woman – women and history on TV

No one wants to be lectured at by a woman – women and history on T

Analysing Timelines of National Histories across Wikipedia Editions: A Comparative Computational Approach

Portrayals of history are never complete, and each description inherently exhibits a specific viewpoint and emphasis. In this paper, we aim to automatically identify such differences by computing timelines and detecting temporal focal points of written history across languages on Wikipedia. In particular, we study articles related to the history of all UN member states and compare them in 30 language editions. We develop a computational approach that allows to identify focal points quantitatively, and find that Wikipedia narratives about national histories (i) are skewed towards more recent events (recency bias) and (ii) are distributed unevenly across the continents with significant focus on the history of European countries (Eurocentric bias). We also establish that national historical timelines vary across language editions, although average interlingual consensus is rather high. We hope that this paper provides a starting point for a broader computational analysis of written history on Wikipedia and elsewhere

Conceptual Modeling of Prosopographic Databases Integrating Quality Dimensions

International audienceProsopographic databases, which allow the study of social groups through their bibliography, are used today by a significant number of historians. Computerization has allowed intensive and large-scale exploitation of these databases. The modeling of these proposopographic databases has given rise to several data models. An important problem is to ensure a level of quality of the stored information. In this article , we propose a generic data model allowing to describe most of the existing prosopographic databases and to enrich them by integrating several quality concepts such as uncertainty, reliability, accuracy or completeness

The Ecology of Cultural Space: Towards an Understanding of the Contemporary Artist-led Collective

The importance of friendship has been under-researched in relation to artistic discourse. This lack of research becomes particularly acute when considering ambiguous formations of collective artistic activity. My thesis draws upon friendship as a socio-cultural phenomenon in order to situate the artist-led collective both historically and within the contemporary art continuum. Tracing an historiography of the personal relationships which blurred the boundaries between art and politics, from the re-imagining of the medieval artisanal guild in the nineteenth century to the development of Futurism in the early twentieth century, I argue that the contemporary artist-led collective is haunted by these ‘collectivisms past’ and the spectre of autonomy. Further, the contradictions located within the ideological notions of individualism, which pervade the neo-liberal capitalist hegemony, both deny collective agency and yet accept collective praxis in the guise of enterprise culture. It is this contradictory character that frames my thesis and provides the context for understanding the complex role which friendship plays in the genesis of the contemporary artist-led collective. In order to understand the implications of friendship as a vital component of the artist-led collective, I utilise Relational Dialectics Theory (RDT) developed by Leslie Baxter and Barbara Montgomery, as a conceptual framework. I employ in-depth case studies of the artist-led collective duo The Cool Couple and architecture collective Assemble, in order to explore how friendship informs artist-led collectives throughout their life cycles. I question how and why these social bonds, which constitute relationships and thus shape the collectives, interrelate with a multiplicity of forces in their specific cultural ecology. These interrelations are further explored through a mapping study of artist-led collective activity in Leeds, UK. This study problematises the dualistic perspective of resistance and co-option between artist-led collectives and institutions. I argue that the evolution of the artist-led collective is implicitly interrelated with the institution and thus the binary opposition of resistance and co-option becomes a dialectical knot of ever-changing relationships. Finally, I situate myself in the research through an auto-ethnographic study of the artist-led collective The Retro Bar at the End of the Universe, of which I am a founding member. This case study enables an internal view of the social bonds which formed The Retro Bar at the End of the Universe and provides an insight that would otherwise be impossible from an external perspective

The intentionally unseen: exploring the illicit drug use of non-treatment seeking drug users in Scotland

There is a perception that drug use is a serious and growing problem to be solved by medicine, social work and drug enforcement agencies. This thesis takes a critical standpoint again such populist views and interprets drug use as one of any number of normal activities that people engage. This qualitative research utilising a bricoleur ethnographic methodology focuses on the drug taking of non-treatment seeking illegal drug users. The data reveals that they manage several social identities and the potential stigma of being discovered as an illicit user of illegal drugs utilising several strategies to remain intentionally unseen. The thesis explores how and in what way socially competent drug users differ from visible treatment seeking drug users. In order to develop this understanding, several gatekeepers were identified and within their social networks the participants were recruited into this research. The participants (n=24) were recruited from a wide range of age groups (21-52) and geographical locations within Scotland. One to one interviews, a focus group, and several pair bonded partners were interviewed together providing rich sources of data. Interviews were transcribed and analysed thematically from a social constructionist perspective. The findings illuminate the ways in which the intentionally unseen identify and manage risks from drugs, drugs policy and the potential shame and stigma were their hidden social worlds revealed. The practical implications of the results of this thesis are explored and recommendations for future research are discussed

SLIS Connecting Volume 7 Issue 1

SLIS Connecting refereed open-access e-journal, Volume 7, Issue 1 (Spring/Summer 2018, Special Issue: British Studies

Relations in the Unseen : An Asexual Reading of Long Nineteenth Century British Literature

Media production will often sexualize their products, creating an encumbrance to asexual representation, all under the guise that “sex sells.” Because of that belief in the selling power of sexualization, there has been little asexual representation, preventing people from understanding asexuals or even realizing they are asexual. It wasn’t until the mid-twentieth century that asexuality came to mean feeling no, little, or conditional sexual attraction. Accepting that asexuality is, at least in some part, inherent and that aspects of life that lack the adequate language to be explicitly stated are still capable of being artistically expressed, then it follows that there are asexual characters and asexual stories that were created prior to the mid-twentieth century. This enables readers to find intersections between implicitly expressed asexuality and literature. My research is a re-imagining of established queer theory through the lens of asexuality. I then take that new critical framework and apply it to long nineteenth century British Literature, before the term “asexual” gained its meaning as we understand it today, and identify potentially asexual characters and narratives. The readings conducted discover new ways to read characters like Emma Woodhouse and Aurora Leigh. But, beyond that, these readings also explore new ways of being that are not bound by compulsory sexuality. The implications of this research are two-fold: first, to reclaim a compendium of lost texts as “asexual literature” in much the same way feminist literary theory did in the sixties and seventies; secondly, to dispel the modern notion that sex is integral to every person’s happiness and well-being and illustrate that asexual characters can be a core component to media that is compelling, popular, and profitable. By dispelling that myth, this research will encourage modern media production to reconsider asexuality in their work. Those works will contribute to making asexuality more visible so that the next generation of asexuals will not have to struggle for decades before they finally realize who they are

Ministers of ‘the Black Art’: the engagement of British clergy with photography, 1839-1914

This thesis examines the work of ordained clergymen, of all denominations, who were active photographers between 1839 and the beginning of World War One: its primary aim is to investigate the extent to which a relationship existed between the religious culture of the individual clergyman and the nature of his photographic activities. Ministers of ‘the Black Art’ makes a significant intervention in the study of the history of photography by addressing a major weakness in existing work. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the research draws on a wide range of primary and secondary sources such as printed books, sermons, religious pamphlets, parish and missionary newsletters, manuscript diaries, correspondence, notebooks, biographies and works of church history, as well as visual materials including original glass plate negatives, paper prints and lantern slides held in archival collections, postcards, camera catalogues, photographic ephemera and photographically-illustrated books. Through close readings of both textual and visual sources, my thesis argues that factors such as religious denomination, theological opinion and cultural identity helped to influence not only the photographs taken by these clergymen, but also the way in which these photographs were created and used. Conversely, patterns also emerge that provide insights into how different clergymen integrated their photographic activities within their wider religious life and pastoral duties. The relationship between religious culture and photographic aesthetics explored in my thesis contributes to a number of key questions in Victorian Studies, including the tension between clergy and professional scientists as they struggled over claims to authority, participation in debates about rural traditions and church restoration, questions about moral truth and objectivity, as well as the distinctive experience and approaches of Roman Catholic clergy. The research thus demonstrates the range of applications of clerical photography and the extent to which religious factors were significant. Almost 200 clergymen-photographers have been identified during this research, and biographical data is provided in an appendix. Ministers of the Black Art aims at filling a gap in scholarship caused by the absence of any substantial interdisciplinary research connecting the fields of photohistory and religious studies. While a few individual clergymen-photographers have been the subject of academic research – perhaps excessively in the case of Charles Dodgson – no attempt has been made to analyse their activities comprehensively. This thesis is therefore unique in both its far-ranging scope and the fact that the researcher has a background rooted in both theological studies and the history of photography. Ecclesiastical historians are generally as unfamiliar with the technical and aesthetic aspects of photography as photohistorians are with theological nuances and the complex variations of Victorian religious beliefs and practices. This thesis attempts to bridge this gulf, making novel connections between hitherto disparate fields of study. By bringing these religious factors to the foreground, a more nuanced understanding of Victorian visual culture emerges; by taking an independent line away from both the canonical historiography of photography and more recent approaches that depict photography as a means of social control and surveillance, this research will stimulate further discussion about how photography operates on the boundaries between private and public, amateur and professional, material and spiritual