The Moral Dimensions of Sufism and the Iberian Mystical Canon

This study explores the shared spaces and common ground between the moral theosophies of Sufism and Christian mysticism in Spain. This article focuses on how Sufis, Carmelites and other mystical authors expressed spiritual concepts, establishing networks of mutual influence. Medieval and Golden Age mystics of Islam and Christianity shared a cultural canon based on universal moral principles. Both their learned and popular traditions used recurrent spiritual symbols, often expressing similar ethical coordinates. Spiritual dialogue went beyond the chronological and geographical frameworks shared by Christianity and Islam in the Iberian Peninsula: this article considers a selection of texts that contain expansive moral codes. Mystical expressions of Islam and Christianity in Spain are viewed as an ethical, cultural and anthropological continuum

Men Who Talk About Love in Late Medieval Spain: Hugo de Urriés and Egalitarian Married Life

In the last third of the fifteenth century, Hugo de Urriés’s work can offer the modern reader a very rare and informative perspective from the points of view of social history and history of ideas. The Dezir del casamiento (Poem of Marriage) is a very extensive moralising poem written by Aragonese courtier Hugo de Urriés, known by critics as the devout lover of Spanish courtly literature because of his very unusual autobiographical celebration of his life with his wife. The poem is an enthusiastic encomium that was completely alien to the Castilian mainstream courtly canon. This article analyses the literary, philosophical and religious traditions informing Urriés’s writing as well as the social, biographical, and historical circumstances shaping his ideas about gender relations. The methodology of this work serves the purpose of going beyond erudite study of texts, traditions and sources and tries to reflect intimate experiences and beliefs of real people about marriage, perhaps the most important and visible regulator of personal relationships between men and women in the period prior to the changes introduced by the Council of Trent. The article identifies the universal thinking behind Urriés’s idyllic account of his life as a married man

A Late Medieval Knight Reflecting on his Public Life: Hugo de Urriés (c. 1405-c. 1493), Diplomacy and Translating the Classics

This article focuses on Aragonese courtier Hugo de Urriés's public profile by means of analyzing the critical points derived from examining his personal, political, cultural and historical stands making use of an invaluable primary source, his letter to Fernando the Catholic in the early 1490s. It is not often that the medieval scholar is presented with the chance to analyze a self-evident symbiosis between the public and private personae of a late medieval knight. As part of Urriés's public profile, his translation of Valerius Maximus and his foreword to King Fernando of Aragón are contextualized as an integral part of an agenda of legitimization of royal and imperial power, an agenda in which Urriés actively participated and one that he militantly promoted throughout his life. This article juxtaposes diplomacy, courtliness and translation of classics as a means of showcasing some of the markers of nation building in the years of the reign of the Catholic Monarchs

Ethnicity and social class in Mesoamerica

This thesis is a theoretical discussion of ethnicity and social class in Mesoamerica, which seemed both necessary and desirable because of the uncertainty prevailing on the subject. Its overall aim is to clarify the present state of theory on ethnicity, class and their articulation. In order to accomplish this I analyse and compare contrasting social anthropological tendencies. First, those which interpret the social characteristics of the region by emphasising ethnicity (culturally interpreted) at the local level and while disregarding the structural framework of the class at the wider level; second, those which in contrast, stress the role of the wider class structure while neglecting ethnic relationships at the local level; and third, those which combine both dimensions, interpreting local, ethnic phenomena within the framework of class. The main advantages and disadvantages of these approaches are discussed in order to determine which of them offers the most satisfactory view of the importance and articulation of ethnicity and class in Mesoamerica, a subject which is fundamental to a proper understanding of the current social and political instability of the region. The thesis is in three parts. The first provides the historical antecedents of the central theme. Here I describe the concept of Mesoamerica and give an account of prehispanic social development, criticising some of the theories which try to explain the basic social features of ancient Mesoamerican societies. The analysis then focuses on the changes brought about by Spanish rule, on the emergence of ethnic groups and on the ethnic and class characteristics of popular reaction against Spanish domination. The subsequent Independence period is discussed and the principal socioeconomic and political changes accompanying capitalist expansion are documented. Special attention is paid to the class and ethnic character of popular responses to the new social order in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Following the historical background, the other two parts analyse theories dealing with the relationship between ethnicity and class. Part Two examines two 'simple' and antagonistic interpretations, the "ethnic/cultural/local-level" and the "class/structural/wider-level" approaches. Part Three is devoted to more complex perspectives which attempt to combine both approaches. This has resulted in two different models: that which postulates, and that which opposes, the correspondence of ethnic and socioeconomic boundaries. Through the critical analysis developed in Parts Two and Three and synthesised in the general conclusions, I suggest how a more adequate theoretical approach to this complex subject might be formulated

(In)difference to survivors: The anti-violence comics project

Sexualized violence prevention at the university level can sometimes leave out the perspectives and needs of marginalized groups. Ethics should always serve to temper any endeavors to work with marginalized groups. Any endeavor into the field requires methods and frameworks that serve not only the needs of the researcher but also the knowledge builders involved. Postmodern ethnography articulates a need for contesting a positivist understanding of knowledge through use of alternative methods like novelized fiction, autobiography, documentary, and visual art. In conjunction, intersectional theory forces us to consider our place as researchers and the larger power dynamics within our culture. Through the use of ethnofiction and the comic art medium, the project was able to express some of the needs of marginalized groups without putting any would-be knowledge builder at risk. Ethnofiction uses traditional ethnographic methods to inform and shape fiction that can provide more texture and richness than academic forms of dissemination, a reconsideration of ethnography. The anti-violence comics project found that comics have the potential to reach wider audiences than institutionally based forms of knowledge. Comics have the power to invoke aesthetic responses within a reader and provide enough abstraction to allow the reader to identify with the characters depicted within. The research project found that there is great potential in interdisciplinary work between the arts and the social sciences

Gamma Emission from Large Galactic Structures

Gamma-ray emission from large structures is useful for tracing the propagation and distribution of cosmic rays throughout our Galaxy. For example, the search for gamma-ray emission from Giant Molecular Clouds may allow us to probe the flux of cosmic rays in distant galactic regions and to compare it with the flux measured at Earth. Also, the composition of the cosmic rays can be measured by separating the gamma-ray emission from hadronic or leptonic processes. In the case of emission from the Fermi Bubbles specifically, constraining the mechanism of gamma-ray production can point to their origin. HAWC possesses a large field of view and good sensitivity to spatially extended sources, which currently makes it the best suited ground-based observatory to detect extended regions. We will present preliminary results on the search of gamma-ray emission from Molecular Clouds, as well as upper limits on the differential flux from the Fermi Bubbles.Comment: Presented at the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC2017), Bexco, Busan, Korea. See arXiv:1708.02572 for all HAWC contribution