A Forgotten Legacy: The Romanov Patronage of Finland’s Early Art Collections

The earliest art collections of Finland’s National Gallery came into being when, as the Grand Duchy of Finland, it was an autonomous part of imperial Russia (1809–1917). The prevailing view of Finnish museum studies, however, sees the Finnish Art Society, the precursor of the Finnish National Gallery, as being modelled on exclusively European cultural institutions. The history of the Society and its collections have thus been seen as resistant to any alien eastern influences, and as an attempt to differentiate Finnish culture from Russian art collecting practices. Drawing on the theoretical shift in cultural studies from the conception of stable, clearly demarcated cultural identities of nation states toward less rigidly defined identities, the aim of this essay is to reconstruct the hidden Russian presence in Finnish museum historiography. Based on original unpublished sources, my study shows that the earliest support of Finland’s cultural infrastructure was given by the Romanov patrons Nicholas I, Alexander II, and Alexander III. By exposing the absence and physical erasure of “imperial identity” in the official Finnish museum narrative, I reveal how museums can at once elevate particular discourses and practices while marginalizing other historical processes in a nation’s cultural past.     

The Chun Doo-Hwan Authoritarian Regime’s Securitisation of Water: The Case of the Peace Dam,South Korea

This article explores the securitisation of water aimed at avoiding a political crisis for the Chun Doo-Hwan regime in South Korea (1979–1988) using the case of the Peace Dam. The legitimacy of the Chun regime was vulnerable because of diverse factors such as internal and external crises inherited from the previous regime and Chun’s rise to power through a military coup and civilian massacres. In this political situation, the securitisation of nature could be an effective method of curbing potential resistance and ruling a people facing a complex crisis. The constructed threat of an attack by flooding by North Korea and the consequent alleged need for the Peace Dam were part of a scheme by Chun to maintain political power through the securitisation of water, specifically by establishing North Korea as an external enemy and unifying the South Korean people.     

The Neurophysiological Aspects of Pavlov’s Theory of Higher Nervous Activity: In Honor of the 150th Anniversary of Pavlov’s Birth

Whereas Ivan P. Pavlov (1849-1936) is well-known for his work on classical conditioning, his contribution to neuroscience, particularly his interest in the function of neural centers in the central nervous system, is not as widely known. During the last three decades of his life, Pavlov explored cortical processes by salivary reflex conditioning, a method he used to develop his theory of higher nervous activity. This theory outlined the function of the brain in higher organisms in their interaction with the changing environmental contingencies. As early as 1908, Pavlov outlined a neurophysiological theory as the physiological basis of his theory of higher nervous activity. He maintained that the neural processes of excitation and inhibition irradiate and concentrate among the cortical neural centers. Most of all, he emphasized the plasticity of the cortex in higher organisms’ in the Darwinian struggle for existence.     

The Abeng’s Call: The Articulation of Place and the International in Black Power Print Production

This article engages with radical Black Power print production in order to examine the articulation of Black practices of place-making and Black internationalist spatial politics. These spatial politics and practices are developed through engagement with the Jamaican Black Power newspaper Abeng which was produced at the height of Black Power activity on the island in 1969. The paper draws on Black Geographies scholarship to demonstrate that Abeng represented a material and discursive means through which subaltern practices and places of resistance in Jamaica were enacted in opposition to and excess of plantation spatialities and regimes on the island. The carving out of such subaltern places allowed for the articulation of transnational imaginaries and translocal solidarities with similarly aligned communities and struggles across the diasporic world. The Abeng newspaper was again central in crafting these imagined Black internationalist geographies and coeval praxes of transnational solidarity.     

In The Shadow of the Stuart Pretenders: the Life of Francis Strickland ‘Man of Moidart’ (And Westmorland?)

This paper summarises significant events in the life of Francis Edward Joseph Strickland from his birth in 1691 at the exiled Stuart Court in Saint-Germain-en-Leye, near Paris, to his death in Carlisle during the 1745 Jacobite rebellion. Emphasis is placed on his various roles in the Stuart court and his involvement in the 1715 and 1745 Jacobite rebellions, including his malign influence on Bonnie Prince Charlie and his deteriorating relationship with his godfather James Francis Stuart, the Old Pretender. His life is evaluated in the context of his role and status within the wider exiled Jacobite circle.     

The Enduring Fear and Allure of Miscegenation: In Response to John Hobson’s The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics

This brief intervention challenges John Hobson's view in The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics that anti-miscegenation sentiments are a thing of the past in international relations theory. Rather, it is argued, anti-miscegenation continues to live in international practices, such as consociational peace agreements and “two-state solutions,” as well as in the persistent unwillingness of international relations scholars to actively embrace trespassing of borders, particularly of racial and cultural ones. Thus Hobson's erudite, epic work is both hopeful and not – built upon binaries and distinctions, devoid of grey zones, blind to gender and sex and their relations to racial difference and international hierarchies it provides few openings, few possibilities for alternative politics or even for serious contestation of the racialized status quo that we inhabit at the moment.     

The Elephant In and Out of the Room: Remigio dei Girolami’s Responses to Charles de Valois

In November 1301, Charles de Valois, brother of French King Philip IV, entered Florence at the request of Pope Boniface VIII and his Florentine allies. While Charles’ mission was ostensibly peacemaking between Florence’s Black and White factions, in reality his visit led to violence and exile of leading Whites, including Dante. Much of what we know about these events was written in retrospect, from the chronicles of Compagni and Villani to Dante’s Commedia. The Florentine Dominican Remigio dei Girolami, however, preached two sermons that week that provide a more immediate impression. One was given at the official communal welcome ceremony for Charles. The other, one of his sermons De pace, was probably given at a semi-secret peace procession mentioned by Compagni. Rhetorical analysis of these two sermons shows that Remigio tailored his message to his audience. When Charles was present, Remigio diplomatically avoided the subject of factional division, instead advising Charles on his upcoming mission to Sicily (perhaps subtly encouraging him to get on with it and leave Florentine politics alone). In Charles’ absence, however, Remigio obliquely criticized Charles and stressed to his fellow-citizens that, as the sermon’s thema stated, peace was in their power.     

“The Painter in Two Frames”: An Archaeological Investigation of Kamal-ol Molk’s Agency in the Field of Art and Politics

An agent’s actions in different fields and its changes can leave material traces. Therefore, archaeology in its broadest methodological meaning surveys material culture and seeks to investigate an agent’s action in a process. Our archaeological excavation in Neshat Garden led to the discovery of material traces of lifestyle changes of a well-known agent from the late Qajar/early Pahlavi era. Mohammad-e Qafari, nicknamed Kamal-ol Molk, was a famous painter of the Qajar court. He left the court in middle age and entered politics as an agent of opposition. Kamal’s journey to Europe was a turning point that extended to the end of his life. At the same time, Iran’s sociopolitical context experienced significant evolution, including the Mashroute Movement and the rise of Pahlavi dynasty to power. Such mutations made Kamal-ol Molk abandon/change his activities in the field of art, sponsored by the power structure, to engage in political activity. His exile/compulsory migration to a faraway village in northeastern Iran is the outcome of his political activities. The present research is based on archaeological surveys and excavations in two sites: Kamal-ol Molk’s house and Neshat Garden. The archaeological investigation of Kamal’s life in context, his paintings, letters, and photos as a long-term process reveals an artist who was also political. His agency in politics was so effective that in order for the “holy honorable party” to survive, he sometimes ordered assassinations.