Victorian Bodily Fluids Forum: An Introduction

The records of the Administrative Staff Council (UA-022) are available in print in the Center for Archival Collections

E.T.A. Hoffmann's opera manifesto: romantic philosophy and musical semantics in early German Romantic opera

In the wide array of scholarship on music and Romanticism, in-depth studies on early German Romantic opera remain limited. Those that do exist are often characterised by the troubles surrounding its development in comparison to the international success of Italian and French opera (Meyer, 2003; Markx, 2016). Despite a flourishing of German opera in the early nineteenth century, questions remain surrounding what stimulated this sudden profusion and how the works of this period laid the foundations for later figures such as Wagner. In order to achieve a better understanding of early German Romantic opera, I have chosen to explore E. T. A. Hoffmann’s literary output in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. Through four publications – 'Ritter Gluck' (1809), 'Don Juan' (1813), 'Der Dichter und der Komponist' (1813), and 'Kreisleriana' (1814) – Hoffmann explored what he believed to be a true Romantic opera, creating what I will call an opera manifesto. This thesis explores how the ideas Hoffmann presented in his manifesto underpin and unite milestones in early German Romantic opera. Grounded in contemporary Romantic philosophy, his ideas contributed to the formation of a national style. Specifically, I will show how his radical aesthetics encouraged composers to use the orchestra as an agent to express the drama, as well as to convey the Romantic quest for the Absolute. To demonstrate how Hoffmann’s ideas were realised, I will consider musical semantics in Weber’s 'Der Freischütz' (1821), Marschner’s 'Der Vampyr' (1828), and Wagner’s 'Die Feen' (1834). I will explore how these three composers used a range of signifiers, including musical topics and symbols, key associations, and diegetic music, to denote different aspects of the drama through the voice of the orchestra. This thesis also demonstrates how Hoffmann’s literary output laid important foundations for Wagner’s own aesthetics of opera, thereby showing how Hoffmann’s influence is traceable throughout the nineteenth century

Black-spruce-lichen woodlands growth and carbon drawdown potentials as revealed by mature stands

The afforestation of widely distributed boreal open woodlands such as lichen woodlands (LWs) could provide both a restoration of the closed-crown forest structure in the boreal forest and a mitigation measure against global warming. By comparing natural, mature stands of LW with their dense counterparts — black-spruce–feathermoss stands as a plantation surrogate — this study aims to validate the long-term LW growth support capacity for a high tree density and their carbon sequestration potential after afforestation. Our results reveal that the site potential of LWs can be either lower or equivalent to that of dense stands. This finding contradicts the paradigm of systematic lower tree growth in LWs. The site potential of LWs can be assessed by dominant tree volume at 50 years. This study also shows that the CBM-CFS3 model can simulate the conservative net carbon balance of afforested LW, and, as such, can help reduce uncertainties regarding the long-term net carbon drawdown of afforested LWs

Sovereignty and systemic change: An examination of the utility of sovereignty in the context of systemic change from an English school perspective.

This thesis is concerned with assessing the current relevance of the concept of state sovereignty to the study of international relations in the context of contemporary systemic changes, European integration and globalization. It engages with two central questions. First, given that it is said that the above changes significantly undermine sovereignty, to what extent does sovereignty actually continue to constitute an important concept for IR? Second, and more challenging, what is the most appropriate way to conceptualize sovereignty in the context of these changes? This research engages with the above questions from the vantage point of the English School theoretical approach, exploiting its three traditions spectrum. In doing so, it develops the application of the three traditions by both reflecting on a new subject area and also recognizing fresh perspectives from within its traditional sphere of activity. On the one hand, it considers economics (a subject largely ignored by the School), developments in relation to which are central to the contemporary systemic changes under consideration. On the other, it highlights relevant unidentified perspectives residing in a traditional area of engagement, theology, which is rendered increasingly important in the context of globalization and the so-called La Revanche de Dieu. The thesis argues that, appropriately applied, sovereignty continues to be an important concept for the study of international relations. In making this case, however, it contends that if sovereignty is to clarify rather than obscure, it must be handled in a way that means it can competently engage with change. The thesis contends that the English School carries the latent potential to rise to this challenge and that in a significant sense this makes the three traditions more important today than at the time of their initial formulation, thus endorsing the current renaissance of interest in the ES theoretical approach