Leocadia and Raquel: Toledo

While preparing and writing a collection in various and mixed genres drawing from the lives of women religious, two themes-or better perhaps "issues" - consistently and implacably pressed at and across the borders of my notebooks: the violent 2000-year argument of Church against Synagogue (both notably symbolized in female figures) and the textual muteness of post-biblical Jewish women. More silent/silenced it seems than their Christian counterparts. Whether saint or heretic and while most often author(iz)ed than authors in their own write, a trail of their ink runs across the pages of history, the nibs broadening with time as the inks release an increasing spectrum of hues. Some of my pieces then (e.g., on Julian of Norwich and Gertrude the Great), stage encounters between a Jewish woman, a Christian woman, and other bodies, voices, objects as appropriate. These meetings are impossible and immanent.     

Sovereign Bodies: Ancestor Cult and State Legitimacy among the Incas

The worship of dead Inca kings, because it aimed at preserving the deceased's bodily integrity, reveals constituent aspects of royal personhood. Underpinning these practices was the conception that the dead's agency was conveyed through corporeal substances, which therefore required constant acts of sustenance. This paper examines the bodily practices and material substances that shaped the king's physical person during his lifetime, as well as after his death. These data show that the royal body was made conspicuous through a series of ritual and symbolic actions devised to display the king's faculty to infuse vital force to all living creatures under his rule he thus stood as the source of prosperity for his subjects with which he was engaged in reciprocal obligations of life sustenance. I argue that these “embodied technologies of power” shaped a system of representations that legitimated the king's appropriation of state resources.     

Courting the Right: Richard Nixon's 1968 Campaign against the Warren Court

When you look at what the United States Supreme Court has done to hamper law enforcement and realize the difficulties the police now have in getting convictions in the first place, I wonder if we truly have representative government anymore. ¹ The main emphasis is on demagogic appeal; crime is the communism issue of 1968. This is the extent to which apparently there is a new Nixon. ²     

Empire, Internationalism, and the Campaign against the Traffic in Women and Children in the 1920s

This article assesses the inter-war campaign against traffickingin women and children, with a particular focus on the leadingrole played by British and British-dominated voluntary associations.This humanitarian campaign was conducted by social relief organizationssuch as the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene (AMSH)and the International Bureau for the Suppression of the Trafficin Women and Children (IBSTWC). While organized opposition totrafficking in persons was not new, these groups consciously‘internationalized’ their advocacy and lobbyingefforts in the 1920s and 1930s. Although their work againsttrafficking in the Straits Settlements, or the prostitutionrings operating in the Mediterranean, was driven in part bythe desire to protect Britain's national prestige, their moralimpetus and their cooperation with non-British bodies reflectedwider international concerns. The article also explores theuse of public diplomacy as a new political tool, with a particularfocus on the public-private cooperation evident in the Leagueof Nations' work to combat the trade. Finally, the article advancessome conclusions as to why British women's political organizationsin particular were some of the earliest ‘internationalists’,how successful internationalists were in combating transnationalsocial problems, and to what extent inter-war internationalistsestablished a precedent for the subsequent growth of internationalsocial relief organizations.     

The Archaeometric Characterization of Majolica Ceramics from Talavera de la Reina and El Puente del Arzobispo (Toledo,Spain)

In this study, an archaeometric characterization of 32 ceramic fragments from Talavera de la Reina and El Puente del Arzobispo, dated between the 16th and 18th centuries, has been carried out. Together with three fragments of biscuit, they have been analysed through X‐ray diffraction (XRD), X‐ray fluorescence (XRF), differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis (DSC–TGA). From these chemical results, a statistical study using exclusively majolica ceramics has been carried out. This work has allowed us to find certain differences between the manufactures of the two production centres on the basis of their chemical composition. The mineralogical study has allowed us to determine the estimated firing temperatures of each sample, using the estimated firing temperature (EFT) as an argument for their classification into three fabrics.     

国共第三次“围剿”与反“围剿”探微

1931年国共在中央苏区展开的第三次“围剿”与反“围剿”,开场和结局都颇具戏剧性,整个“围剿”、反“围剿”进程,直接受制于国内外形势的变化。在国共两大主角的角力过程中,宁粤冲突和九一八事变,某种程度上成为国共武力斗争的搅局者。事实上,1930年代前后,国共之间的许多故事,都可以看到如是因素的介入,国共两大力量之外的“第三者”,为历史的走向增添了更多的变数。     

Campaign Finance Reform and the 1994 Congressional Elections

Based on partisan arguments regarding the likely effect of campaign finance reform on electoral competition, one might suspect that, had spending limits been in place prior to the 1994 midterm elections, Republicans would not have been able to gain control of the House of Representatives. To examine this proposition, we first create a regression model designed to explain the Democratic percentage of the vote as a function of candidate spending, incumbency, nonincumbent candidate quality, and the underlying partisan leanings of the congressional districts. We then use this regression model to simulate the likely effects of campaign finance reform on the outcome of the 1994 midterm elections. Our results indicate that while spending limits would have limited the number of seats gained by the Republican party, Republicans likely would have gained control of the House of Representatives even if spending limits had been in place prior to the 1994 elections. In addition, our results indicate that campaign finance reform that includes some form of public subsidy in addition to spending limits actually may have enhanced rather than diminished the Republican "earthquake" in 1994.     

辛亥革命与禁烟运动

清末禁烟新政虽然卓有成效,但却无法挽救清王朝的覆亡命运,反而加速了辛亥革命的爆发。辛亥革命使中国社会天翻地覆,自然也影响到了正在进行的禁烟运动。辛亥革命初期．由于政局动荡,禁烟运动受到了阻碍;而革命政权一旦稳固,中央及各地革命政府便立即将禁烟提上日程,雷厉风行。采取各种有效措施,进一步推动了禁烟运动的发展。袁世凯窃国后,因辛亥革命的成果尚留余波,故禁烟运动仍能继续发展。而辛亥革命的成果一旦被破坏殆尽,陷入军阀混战,则禁烟运动便沦没于无形之中。革命固然不可避免地给社会带来阵痛,但却能使整个社会得以新生,而否定革命成果,则必然为社会近代化进程带来莫大危害。民主革命与社会近代化建设之辩证关系。由此可见一斑。