Decolonizing Art History

When, in 2015, students at the University of Cape Town in South Africa demanded the removal of a statue of British colonial and diamond merchant Cecil Rhodes from their campus, they initiated what was to become a global call to ‘decolonize the university’. In the same year, students at University College London began to ask the question: why is my curriculum white? Other public sector cultural institutions soon joined the chorus in an overdue acknowledgement that unspoken colonial legacies had for too long upheld and promulgated white privilege. The role of public sculpture as a catalyst for political debate and change has a long tradition within art's histories. It serves to remind us of the centrality of the discipline in promoting and maintaining dominant cultural values; and yet it also enables us to interrogate them as historically located and subject to inevitable temporal mutation. Whilst postcolonial studies and critical race studies have been informing and challenging the shape of art history for several decades, new generations of students, scholars, critics, curators, collectors, artists and audiences are seeking radical re‐evaluations of the academy and those cultural institutions who hold themselves up as standard‐bearers of our collective cultural heritage. But, what, if anything, is specific about the current moment's demands to reassess how universities, museums, and galleries teach, research, collect and exhibit? How can art historians, curators, collectors, museum directors, artists and writers respond to the call to decolonize art history? How can we draw from the rich legacy of postcolonial, feminist, queer and Marxist perspectives within art history, and what are the new theoretical perspectives that are needed? Writing these questions within the context of the UK, the backdrop of Brexit cannot be ignored, along with the impact of austerity and precarity in the university and museum sectors, and the rise of nationalism and xenophobia in response to both economic and political migration. There is a sense of instability in the political landscape, and conversations are often harder to hear than accusations, condemnation or dismissal. This is coupled with an increasing sense of art history being an embattled discipline, an unnecessary luxury for many students faced with tens of thousands of pounds of student debt. Yet conversely some of the loudest voices in the conversations around decolonizing art and its histories have been from young artists, scholars, curators and students, demanding that the institutions from which they feel excluded start to listen. For many of us working within (and alongside) the discipline of art history, these calls have asked us to reckon with what we do as teachers, scholars and curators. In order to continue this conversation, we have asked a range of art historians, curators and artists to respond to a series of questions that consider some of the recent calls to ‘decolonize art history’. The responses vary in format, length and focus. We offered some guidelines regarding length but otherwise were open to the ways in which the questions were addressed. Continuing the vision for Art History set out by Price in her inaugural editorial in February 2018, the following seeks to give space to some of the conversations that many of us are having within and between our institutions. The questionnaire format indicates that there is not one way to ‘decolonize art history’, but rather it is a debate that the editorial board of Art History, alongside many of our colleagues in the discipline, feels needs public discussion. We publish the questions and a selection of the responses below. What is the historical specificity of current calls to decolonize art history? How are they different from previous challenges to the discipline (such as postcolonialism, feminism, queer studies, Marxism)? What is your understanding of decolonizing art history now? What does a decolonized art history look like? How should it be written/practised? How might the decolonization of art history impact upon your own area of research/practice? What would be produced from it? Might anything have to be jettisoned? Where should decolonization in relation to art history happen? What strategies might different spaces for decolonization demand

Teaching introductory undergraduate Physics using commercial video games

Commercial video games are increasingly using sophisticated physics simulations to create a more immersive experience for players. This also makes them a powerful tool for engaging students in learning physics. We provide some examples to show how commercial off-the-shelf games can be used to teach specific topics in introductory undergraduate physics. The examples are selected from a course taught predominantly through the medium of commercial video games.Comment: Accepted to Physics Education, Fig1 does not render properly in this versio

Desperate housewives: An analysis of the characterisations of female gamblers portrayed in gambling movies in Hong Kong

This article examines portrayals of female gamblers in recent Hong Kong movies. The authors report that the depiction of female gamblers is very different from that of male gamblers in the movies made in the same period. Whereas the male gamblers are pitching a lonely and desperate battle against the evil opponent, the female gamblers portrayed in the movies are housewives or small-time players who gamble only for their personal gain. A general negative overtone in portrayals of female gamblers was interpreted as a reflection of the traditional view that discourages women from gambling. The shift of gambling themes in the Hong Kong movies has been identified to reflect the most salient concerns among Hong Kong residents. Such changes are attributed to particular social and cultural changes in the community

How does diet quality predict the performance of ROTC cadets on the ACFT

The Army Combat Fitness Test (ACFT) is a newly developed test assessing U.S. Army soldiers\u27 combat readiness. The Healthy Eating Index 2015 (HEI-2015) is a questionnaire established by the USDA that quantifies overall diet quality. The HEI-2015 uses a scale of 0 to 100 with higher scores aligning more with the recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The HEI-2015 is comprised of 13 subcategories: Total Fruits [TF], Whole Fruits [WF], Total Vegetables [TV], Greens and Beans [GB], Whole Grains [WG], Dairy [D], Total Protein foods [TP], Seafood and Plant Proteins [SPP], Fatty Acids [FA], Refined Grains [RG], Sodium [S], Added Sugars [AS], and Saturated Fats [SF]. Purpose: The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to determine if diet quality can predict performance outcomes of the ACFT in ROTC cadets. Methods: ROTC cadets (31 males, 21 females; aged 20.5 ± 2.2 years) completed the 6-event ACFT (3-repetition maximum trap-bar deadlift [MDL], standing power toss [SPT], hand-release pushups [HRPU], sprint-drag-carry [SDC], plank [PLK], and 2-mile run [2MR]). The cadets were invited into the laboratory to complete the HEI-2015. The ability of the HEI-2015 to predict ACFT performance was determined with a linear regression model. Significance was set at p \u3c 0.05. Results: HEI-2015 total score was significantly and positively correlated to ACFT total score, showing (r = .319, p = .014). Subcategories of the HEI-2015 were positively and significantly correlated with ACFT total scores, GB (r = .326, p = .012), SPP (r = .349, p = .007), and FA (r = .263, p = .044). HEI-2015 total score significantly explained 10% (p = .014) of the variance on the ACFT total scores with a beta coefficient 3.121. Conclusion: HEI-2015 total score, GB, SPP, and FA are all predictors of the ACFT total score. This data shows that overall diet quality is an important factor in determining a soldier’s combat readiness. For every 1.2 point increase in HEI-2015 total score, it is predicted that ACFT total score will increase by 3.1 points

Hyperinsulinemia: Best management practice

Chronic hyperinsulinemia associated with insulin resistance is directly and indirectly associated with many metabolic disorders that contribute to significant morbidity and mortality. Because hyperinsulinemia is not widely recognised as an independent health risk, there are few studies that assess management strategies. Medication management may not address the multiple issues associated with hyperinsulinemia. Lifestyle management includes physical activity, especially high intensity interval training, and dietary management. Reducing carbohydrate quantity and increasing nutrient density are discussed with carbohydrate-restricted and Mediterranean diets conferring additional benefits to a low-fat diet. Physical activity and dietary management provide the foundation for hyperinsulinemia management and may work synergistically. Of these principles, a combination of resistance and high intensity interval training, and carbohydrate restriction provide the two most effective frontline management strategies for managing hyperinsulinemia

Systems analysis of bioenergetics and growth of the extreme halophile Halobacterium salinarum

Halobacterium salinarum is a bioenergetically flexible, halophilic microorganism that can generate energy by respiration, photosynthesis, and the fermentation of arginine. In a previous study, using a genome-scale metabolic model, we have shown that the archaeon unexpectedly degrades essential amino acids under aerobic conditions, a behavior that can lead to the termination of growth earlier than necessary. Here, we further integratively investigate energy generation, nutrient utilization, and biomass production using an extended methodology that accounts for dynamically changing transport patterns, including those that arise from interactions among the supplied metabolites. Moreover, we widen the scope of our analysis to include phototrophic conditions to explore the interplay between different bioenergetic modes. Surprisingly, we found that cells also degrade essential amino acids even during phototropy, when energy should already be abundant. We also found that under both conditions considerable amounts of nutrients that were taken up were neither incorporated into the biomass nor used as respiratory substrates, implying the considerable production and accumulation of several metabolites in the medium. Some of these are likely the products of forms of overflow metabolism. In addition, our results also show that arginine fermentation, contrary to what is typically assumed, occurs simultaneously with respiration and photosynthesis and can contribute energy in levels that are comparable to the primary bioenergetic modes, if not more. These findings portray a picture that the organism takes an approach toward growth that favors the here and now, even at the cost of longer-term concerns. We believe that the seemingly "greedy" behavior exhibited actually consists of adaptations by the organism to its natural environments, where nutrients are not only irregularly available but may altogether be absent for extended periods that may span several years. Such a setting probably predisposed the cells to grow as much as possible when the conditions become favorable

Rapid adaptive radiation of Darwin's finches depends on ancestral genetic modules

Recent adaptive radiations are models for investigating mechanisms contributing to the evolution of biodiversity. An unresolved question is the relative importance of new mutations, ancestral variants, and introgressive hybridization for phenotypic evolution and speciation. Here, we address this issue using Darwin's finches and investigate the genomic architecture underlying their phenotypic diversity. Admixture mapping for beak and body size in the small, medium, and large ground finches revealed 28 loci showing strong genetic differentiation. These loci represent ancestral haplotype blocks with origins predating speciation events during the Darwin's finch radiation. Genes expressed in the developing beak are overrepresented in these genomic regions. Ancestral haplotypes constitute genetic modules for selection and act as key determinants of the unusual phenotypic diversity of Darwin's finches. Such ancestral haplotype blocks can be critical for how species adapt to environmental variability and change

Langmuir turbulence and surface heating in the ocean surface boundary layer

This study uses large-eddy simulation to investigate the structure of the ocean surface boundary layer (OSBL) in the presence of Langmuir turbulence and stabilizing surface heat fluxes. The OSBL consists of a weakly stratified layer, despite a surface heat flux, above a stratified thermocline. The weakly stratified (mixed) layer is maintained by a combination of a turbulent heat flux produced by the wave-driven Stokes drift and downgradient turbulent diffusion. The scaling of turbulence statistics, such as dissipation and vertical velocity variance, is only affected by the surface heat flux through changes in the mixed layer depth. Diagnostic models are proposed for the equilibrium boundary layer and mixed layer depths in the presence of surface heating. The models are a function of the initial mixed layer depth before heating is imposed and the Langmuir stability length. In the presence of radiative heating, the models are extended to account for the depth profile of the heating

Leveraging Motivations, Personality, and Sensory Cues for Vertebrate Pest Management

Acknowledgments: We wish to thank Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research staff, particularly Peter Millard and Bruce Warburton, for facilitating and supporting this research. Thanks to Jenna Bytheway for infographic design. This research was supported by Strategic Science Investment funding from the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Science and Innovation Group, awarded to Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research. T.W.B. was supported by Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant number 747120, and A.S. was supported by National Science Foundation grant IOS 1456724.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Phase-field approach to heterogeneous nucleation

We consider the problem of heterogeneous nucleation and growth. The system is described by a phase field model in which the temperature is included through thermal noise. We show that this phase field approach is suitable to describe homogeneous as well as heterogeneous nucleation starting from several general hypotheses. Thus we can investigate the influence of grain boundaries, localized impurities, or any general kind of imperfections in a systematic way. We also put forward the applicability of our model to study other physical situations such as island formation, amorphous crystallization, or recrystallization.Comment: 8 pages including 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review