Academic motherhood in the United Arab Emirates

Balancing the dual roles of mother and academic can be an intensive juggling act. Often, it is mothers who undertake the majority of domestic work in the household, and who tend to experience greatest consequences of this in the workplace; including stress, pressure and less likelihood of promotion. Research indicates that networks of support provided by families and friends can help alleviate these pressures. Academic parents who work outside of their home countries may not have access to these networks to share the work of raising children, but academics who work in the Arabian Gulf have inexpensive domestic help at their dispensation. The ways in which life as an expatriate affects academic mothers both professionally and personally is explored in this study set in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Interview data was gathered from ten expatriate academic mothers. It was found that, similarly to other studies in this field, mothers undertake the vast majority of coordination of domestic work and childcare in their homes, but that having domestic help enables them to enjoy more time with their families. However, there was no clear indication that having extra help at home enabled the women to partake more readily in their academic work. The majority of the women in this study considered that their lives as academic mothers are made easier by residing in the UAE, despite being far from family. This was in part due to ubiquitous domestic help, but also due to perceptions of the UAE providing a culturally family friendly working environment.     

Buried far from home: Sasanian graves at Jebel al‐Emeilah (Sharjah,UAE)

Human skeletons were recovered in two unmarked burials blown to the surface of a dune south‐west of Jebel al‐Emeilah in the Central Region of the Sharjah Emirate (UAE). Sasanian stamp seals were found associated with one of the individuals. A bone fragment of this individual provided a direct radiocarbon date placing it in the Middle Sasanian period. With the aid of strontium isotope analysis it was possible to determine that the two individuals were immigrants to the area that is now part of the UAE.     

Overlapping rivalries: the two Germanys,Israel and the Cold War

The case of early German-Israeli relations offers unique insight into the dynamics of the German Cold War. As this article shows, the two Germanys were ideologically and geopolitically antithetical, but vis-a-vis the question of relations with Israel East and West German representatives faced a situation that was uniquely related to the German past and to the German Cold War competition.     

A Historical Inevitability?: Kissinger and US Contacts with the Palestinians (1973–76)

This article examines Henry Kissinger's role in shaping US strategy towards the Palestinian issue between 1973 and 1976, focusing a series of direct and indirect covert contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization and its representatives during these years. Although scholars have correctly noted that Kissinger's Middle East policy concentrated on reconciling Israel with the Arab states, particularly Egypt, these contacts suggest an intent to keep open the possibility of bringing the PLO into negotiations with Israel.     

试论楚国铁器的使用和发展

我国出土的早期铁器大都集中于楚国,目前出土的楚国早期铁器从上个世纪70年代的10余件增加到40余件,时代上限从春秋晚期上溯到了春秋中期。楚国最早的铁器发现在今鄂西,开始使用的铁器主要为农具,还有一些小型利器。至春秋晚期,楚国已有了锻造的铁器。楚国铁器,从战国初开始容器变大,刀剑变长,新器形大量出现。到战国中期,精工铁器和铜铁合铸的铁足铜鼎流行。楚国大约从春秋中期开始冶铁、用铁,到春战之交,社会已进入了铁器时代。     

辽帝春捺钵频次及其嬗变

春捺钵为辽朝政治生活中的一项重要活动,依其捺钵频次与地域大致可划分为太祖、太宗世宗穆宗、景宗圣宗、兴宗道宗天祚帝四个时期。以捺钵文化内涵观之,辽帝春捺钵有以传统游牧经济为核心逐渐演变为以辽朝政治为核心的特征。以捺钵地望观之,辽帝春捺钵地有辽初以四楼域为核心逐渐演变为以长春州域为核心的特征。傅乐焕将圣宗以后春捺钵地划分为“东北”“西南”两组并非准确,圣宗时春捺钵至少可分为东、西、南、北(中)四个区域,且北、东两个区域的春捺钵频次最高。春捺钵不仅体现了游牧民族的特性,更凸显了辽朝的政治特征。     

The Palestine Question in the 1940s and the Emergence of the Arab Lobby in Canada

In the early 1940s, Arab lobbying activities started to be noticeable in Canada. In 1944 the Canadian Arab Friendship League was founded in Montreal by Muhammad Said Massoud, a Druze emigrant from Lebanon. The League soon became the spearhead of Arab lobbying activity in Canada. Its declared goal was to improve Canada's relations with the Arab world, yet in the second half of the 1940s its main focus of interest was to struggle against the partitioning of Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish state there.     

春秋时期诸侯国是独立主权国家吗?--与叶自成先生商榷

叶自成先生于近期发表的《中国外交的起源——试论春秋时期周王室和诸侯国的性质》一文提出了春秋时期诸侯国是独立主权国家的理论。本文认为,诸侯国无论对内还是对外都要尊天子、循周礼,因此不拥有主权。对中国这样一个多民族国家来说,不能简单地用中央政权对割据政权制约能力的强弱来确定这些政权是否为国家。统一的政治一文化空间和大一统的国家认同是更重要的因素。