Shattered Minds: Madmen on the Railways, 1860–80

Scholars have long pointed to stories of death and disaster on the railways as proof of profound Victorian anxieties about technology. And yet the traumatic crash was not the only anxiety revealed by sensational railway stories. In the 1860s, a surprising number of newspaper accounts emerged telling tales of ordinary men losing their minds on the railways. These stories were told and retold across the periodical press, exaggerating both the extent of the problem and the severity of the danger for the everyday traveller. Analysing a broad range of press accounts and government policy, this article traces a moral panic in the making. These stories reveal a great concern about the seeming fragility of the male mind when exposed to the modern, industrial world. As this article demonstrates, fears of madness were not limited to Lunacy Commissioners and alienists; they were in fact a staple of popular culture. If a railway journey was all it took to drive a seemingly sane man to madness, what did that say about the health of British manhood?     

Finding mobility: women negotiating fear and violence in Mexico City’s public transit system

Feminists have long known that a woman’s confidence, sense of possibility, aspirations, and personal growth depend on their ability to be mobile. Yet gender-based violence and sexual harassment against women commuters greatly limit those freedoms. How then should cities adapt in order increase women’s equal access to mobility? To address this question, this article looks at the case of Mexico City, investigating how women pursue mobility despite hostile and violent conditions that immobilize them. Based on women’s testimonies, comments made on online debate forums, and surveys among women commuters in Mexico City, this article maps the ways women cope with violence and harassment on public transportation. The analysis also pays particular attention to how women’s coping strategies are restructured through state interventions, including women-only transportation. The data reveals that gender-based violence in Mexico City’s public transportation limits women’s mobility and reinforces gender inequality. It also shows, however, that under the right circumstances women-only transportation can be used as a place to create a rights-based movement. The article concludes that Mexico City is an example where women-only transportation has played a role in changing the traditional gender norms which have reinforced violence against women commuters.     

Diversity and diplomacy

ABSTRACT

Diplomats are the face of their country abroad. One way that a country can represent and benefit from its diversity is through the diversity of its diplomatic representatives. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has made a sustained effort to increase the diversity of its workforce and has improved the representation of some groups: for example, the increased number of women in senior positions in recent decades. A case study of DFAT’s Indigenous Recruitment and Career Development Strategy (2007–2015) identifies the following key factors needed for such efforts to succeed: sustained effort, high-level support, availability of peer support and a willingness to adapt programs over time. While there are challenges in implementing a diversity strategy, such as resource constraints and the broader organisational culture, the Indigenous Recruitment and Career Development Strategy provides a positive model of how to increase diversity among a country’s diplomats.     

Maritime Archaeology and Climate Change: An Invitation

Maritime archaeology has a tremendous capacity to engage with climate change science. The field is uniquely positioned to support climate change research and the understanding of past human adaptations to climate change. Maritime archaeological data can inform on environmental shifts and submerged sites can serve as an important avenue for public outreach by mobilizing public interest and action towards understanding the impacts of climate change. Despite these opportunities, maritime archaeologists have not fully developed a role within climate change science and policy. Moreover, submerged site vulnerabilities stemming from climate change impacts are not yet well understood. This article discusses potential climate change threats to maritime archaeological resources, the challenges confronting cultural resource managers, and the contributions maritime archaeology can offer to climate change science. Maritime archaeology’s ability to both support and benefit from climate change science argues its relevant and valuable place in the global climate change dialogue, but also reveals the necessity for our heightened engagement.     

Illustrations of Domestic Architecture,from Popular Medieval Writers

Correlation between features excavated in advance of a gas pipeline, and cropmarks photographed some years previously, led to identification of a Saxon rural settlement, occupied from the sixth or seventh century through to the mid-ninth century. It comprised several interconnected enclosures, adjacent to two main trackways. A narrow strip was excavated through the settlement, and five possible sunken-featured buildings, and numerous ditches and pits, were recorded—most ditches delineated enclosures which had been repeatedly redefined. The pottery assemblage spanned the transition between regional early Saxon and middle Saxon wares. Prehistoric occupation in the vicinity was evidenced by pottery (including beakers), flints and a bronze dagger jragment.