STB-White

The final design of a hypersonic, SCRAMjet research aircraft, which is to be dropped from a carrier plane, is considered. Topics such as propulsion systems, aerodynamics, component weight analysis, and aircraft design with waverider analyses are stressed with smaller emphasis placed on aircraft systems such as cockpit design and landing gear configurations. Propulsion systems include analysis of the turbofanramjet for acceleration to low hypersonic speed (Mach 6.0) and analysis of the SCRAMjets themselves to carry the aircraft to Mach 10.0. Both analyses include the use of liquid hydrogen as fuel. Inlet design for both propulsion systems is analyzed as well. Aerodynamic properties are found using empirical and theoretical formulas for lift and drag on delta-wing aircraft. The aircraft design involves the integration of all preliminary studies into a modified waverider configuration

Volatile Memories: Personal Data and Post Human Subjectivity in The Aspern Papers, Analogue: A Hate Story and Tacoma

Contemporary narrative video games still owe a debt to notions of plotting and characterization inherited from realist novels, even as they demonstrate how digital technologies are driving the development not merely of new fictional forms but also new conceptions of identity and subjectivity. This article expands upon these claims through analyses of three texts. Published in 1888 and revised in 1908, Henry James’s novella The Aspern Papers follows a protagonist obsessed with laying his hands on a long-dead Romantic poet’s archive; released in the 21st-century, Christine Love’s (2012) Analogue: A Hate Story and Fullbright’s (2017) Tacoma imagine technologically advanced posthuman futures in order to pose questions about datafication, identity, and the terms on which the past remains accessible in the present. Considered together, they shed light on longer generic traditions, the relationship between literature and video games, and the ethical and epistemological issues raised by new technologies

What Constitutes Intermarriage for Multiracial People in Britain?

Intermarriage is of great interest to analysts because a group’s tendency to partner across ethnic boundaries is usually seen as a key indicator of the social distance between groups in a multiethnic society. Theories of intermarriage as a key indicator of integration are, however, typically premised upon the union of white and nonwhite individuals, and we know very little about what happens in the unions of multiracial people, who are the children of intermarried couples. What constitutes intermarriage for multiracial people? Do multiracial individuals think that ethnic or racial ancestries are a defining aspect of their relationships with their partners? In this article, I argue that there are no conventions for how we characterize endogamous or exogamous relationships for multiracial people. I then draw on examples of how multiracial people and their partners in Britain regard their relationships with their partners and the significance of their and their partners’ ethnic and racial backgrounds. I argue that partners’ specific ancestries do not necessarily predict the ways in which multiracial individuals regard their partners’ ethnic and racial backgrounds as constituting difference or commonality within their relationships

The Experience of Ofsted: fear, judgement and symbolic violence

After framing the issues with an overview of comparative international models of accountability in teacher education (in the US and Australia (e.g. Cochran-Smith et al 2016, Darling-Hammond and Hyler 2013 and Marshall et al 2012), this chapter assesses Ofsted in its role as a regulator of quality in educational standards. The absence of an overall national regulator in other countries has a consequence of instituting ‘fear’ as a technology of compliance in the English context. The chapter focuses specifically on one particular inspection of initial teacher education (ITE) courses run by a HE/FE partnership in the West Midlands of England but the conclusions it draws are applicable more widely to the role of Ofsted as a market regulator as it currently operates in the HE and FE sectors (and the education sector as a whole) in England. The inspection took place in March 2013 and this chapter draws on the experiences of HE and FE teacher educators from the partnership to provide a basis for discussion. It will illustrate how the English model of accountability has moved way beyond both US and Australian models. Drawing on the work of Paul Virilio and Francesc Torralba the chapter explores the role fear plays in inspection, positioning it as a key ingredient in the institutional habitus that is introduced and affirmed by Ofsted

‘The game becomes the mediator of all your relationships’: Life Narrative and Networked Intimacy in Nina Freeman’s Cibele

Nina Freeman’s 2015 videogame Cibele recounts its creator’s experience of falling in love with a fellow player of an online game. An interactive autobiography about a young woman sharing her life online, Cibele explores the terms on which new media enable users to narrate their experiences, represent themselves and forge identities. This article locates the game in relation to recent developments in life writing and independent game design, asking what digital technologies offer autobiographers as medium and as subject matter. It also frames Cibele as an attempt to challenge two dominant discourses about online culture: offering a counterpoint to narratives stressing the dangers facing young women who seek intimacy on the internet, Cibele also questions framings of networked intimacy as a necessarily deficient substitute for “the real thing.” Its oblique approach, however, in tandem with its commitment to witnessing the ambivalences and incoherencies of digital culture, have, I argue, led to these points being missed or misinterpreted by players, reflecting a longstanding tendency to dismiss and devalue women’s life writing

Book review

A review of Andrew Burn’s book Literature, Videogames and Learning. Published in 2022 by Routledge. ISBN: 9781032024523, pp. 232

Who Wrote the Elder Scrolls?: Modders, Developers, and the Mythology of Bethesda Softworks

This paper considers the part played by modders in shaping Bethesda Softworks’ The Elder Scrolls series of roleplaying games. It argues that Bethesda’s stewardship of the franchise over the course of its twenty year history has been characterised less by an unwavering creative vision than a willingness to make use of the resources to hand - not least the inventiveness of modding communities. Charting how Bethesda employees and the games’ modders have performed and discussed their respective roles, we track shifts in the tools, vocabularies, aims and approaches of both parties. We find that while the practices and priorities of modders and developers have, in many respects, converged over this period, crucial legal and conceptual distinctions continue to separate professionals from amateurs. Valve’s abortive attempt to introduce paid mods to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim threw this division into stark relief, emphasising the need for studies of modding which address the performativity of intellectual property, showing how conceptions of authorship and ownership develop over time within specific studios, cultures and publics

Digital Media: Life-Changing Online. Introduction

This special issue follows on from the IABA Europe 2017 conference held at King’s College London hosted by the Ego-Media research group and the Centre for Life-Writing Research, who thank everyone who contributed. The conference theme was “Life Writing, Europe and New Media”: anodyne terms, in the interests of inclusivity, yet their congruence raises some big questions. Is the term life writing sufficiently able to absorb digital and social media as part of its assumed domain? How do offline and online forms of life writing relate to each other? In a global internet age, what if anything is specific to Europe or European practices? And, agonisingly for the hosts in the wake of Brexit, in what ways is it possible for Britain to persist in being European

From zero to 60: Building belief, capacity and community in Street Law instructors in one weekend

Street Law, where law students or lawyers teach about the law in local school, correctional, and community settings, is the fastest growing and most popular type of experiential legal education in the world—and with good reason. The Street Law methodology helps make the law more relevant, more accessible, and more understandable to both participants in the program and lawyers and law students delivering the programming. Despite Street Law’s prevalence and popularity, there is scant guidance for how to best introduce and implement a program, little research support explaining why Street Law works, and even less empirical justification proving that the program works. This paper makes three significant and unique contributions to the emerging field of Street Law scholarship and research. First, we provide an in-depth explanation of the principles and learner-centered practices that make Street Law such a powerful tool for legal education. Second, we ground these principles and practices in a robust body of research, the first such effort in the field. Third, we offer an annotated step-by-step outline of a unique weekend orientation program developed and field-tested by the seminal Georgetown Street Law program and delivered in partnership with the Law Societies of Ireland and Scotland. It is our hope that this paper will offer practitioners both a series of best practices to draw upon and a reason to do so. A second paper, that will shortly follow this one, will share and discuss quantitative and qualitative data evidencing the powerful outcomes that this weekend orientation can effect in participants