Abortion and eugenics

The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a revolution within foetal diagnostics. In roughly the same period, legal measures in many countries permitted the termination of pregnancies in cases of suspected foetal abnormalities. Critics have claimed that the resulting abortion policies resemble the old, state‐imposed eugenics of the early 20th century. This article presents some evidence to the contrary. In Norway, which is the article's main topic of concern, so‐called eugenic clauses in the abortion legislation were passed well before the revolution in foetal diagnostics. More importantly, other motives were historically more significant than eugenics for the development of modern Norwegian abortion policies. Consequently, any eugenic effect of these policies should be considered a result of coincidence rather than design – or so the article argues. Brief comparisons with the other Nordic countries are included.     

陈寅恪与牛津大学

陈寅恪曾被牛津大学聘为汉学教授 ,却终未到任。中国中英文化协会和英国利用庚子赔款建立的大学中国委员会在聘任过程中扮演了重要的角色。陈寅恪赴英受阻是由于战争令交通中断的说法并不准确 ;令陈滞留香港的很可能是当时一些中国外交官掺杂了政治和外交因素的做法。英国汉学家修中诚与陈寅恪商定在牛津大学开展中国历史研究的计划和有关信件 ,展示了陈寅恪的学术抱负。     

北大藏《水陆里程简册》所见秦南阳郡交通线路新探

北京大学藏秦《水陆里程简册》有记载从“邓攀渚”到“鲁阳”一段水陆里程数字,利用GIS测量实地距离与之比对,试复原沿线聚落、仓庾、津渡等交通节点的建址布局,进而重新考证《水陆里程简册》所载线路行径。在此基础上,重新审视秦南阳郡在这一时期南北交通网络中所处的位置。     

The Daily Life of the Professors of National Southwest Associated University—Taking Professor Zheng Tianting and Zheng Tianting’s Diary of National Southwest Associated University (Zheng Tianting Xinan lianda riji) for Material

This article explores the life of the professors of National Southwest Associated University during the Anti-Japanese War in detail, and tries to reveal their mental outlook and their enlightenment on how to live. The paper also describes the daily lives of Professor Zheng Tianting and his colleagues, including living and sleep, body care, diet and hobbies, family life, closeness to nature, appreciation of cultural artifacts, various cultural and entertainment activities, nostalgia for deceased relatives, communication and care within clans and social groups, diary writing, and self-cultivation. Zheng and his colleagues from National Southwest Associated University felt deeply that people living in social groups needed to take the initiative to find friends, make friends, and be critical friends. Friends can encourage each other, solve difficulties, promote personal development, enrich life interest, and improve quality of life, which makes an already active life more dynamic and colorful. The life of Zheng and his colleagues was in accord with the social conditions of the times. There are three aspects of consistency between them: the common experience of war, patriotic spirit, and confidence that China would definitely win; traditional moral benevolence and the inheritance of the spirit of the ancient Chinese intellectuals who cared about the country and the people before personal enjoyment; and maintaining the spirit of the times, which was a new awareness of independent personality and consciousness. There are many inspirations for life that can be drawn from the daily life of Zheng and his colleagues: People should have a rich and diverse life, every meal deserves to be taken seriously, and one should watch art performances, play mahjong and poker, appreciate art works, collect cultural relics, and so on. Such is what life should mean. Whether it was the willingness of the professors of National Southwest Associated University to “go Dutch” when they had dinner parties during the Republic of China or the novel experience of daylight savings time, these were considered new things in life. They are a reminder that we need to continue to supersede closed thoughts. The professors, who had both the essence of traditional morality and the modern sense of democracy, realized their desire to be their own “master.”     

Stafne's Defects in a Sample of Adult Thai Mandibles in the Khon Kaen University Osteology Collection,Thailand

Examination of 311 adult dry‐bone mandibles from Thailand revealed 8 examples of Stafne's defects in the region of the submandibular salivary gland. This study revealed that some radiographic studies may under report the actual frequency of shallow or early‐stage Stafne's defects that lack sclerotic rims.     

傅斯年的大学理念及大学研究所构想

傅斯年高等教育思想中最有价值者,当数其对德国讲座制度的阐释及对大学设置研究所之构想。大学不仅仅是知识传授的中心,更是学术研究的中心,大学教育应当以学术教育为中心,其理想的大学应当是德国研究型的大学。故傅斯年反对在大学中实行年级制,主张实施选课制度。除了实行选课制度和讲座制度之外,傅斯年主张大学应该创办研究所。大学研究所与专业研究所有着明显的不同:前者为大学师生共同研究的性质,是大学教授指导学生共同研究的学术机构,包含着研学相长之意;后者则是专业研究员进行专门研究的机构,无需学生参与。傅斯年的大学研究院设想,基本上是接受和效仿德国讲座制度和研究所制度而来的,与当时教育部仿效美国大学体制而设立研究生院的规定,存在着明显的差异。傅斯年主张大学以讲座制度为基础自然形成专科研究所,进而建成研究型大学。这种认识,直到他主持台湾大学时仍然没有改变。     

A variation on forced migration: Wilhelm Peters (Prussia via Britain to Turkey) and Muzafer Sherif (Turkey to the United States)

ABSTRACT

In 1933 the Turkish Republic formally offered university positions to 30 German-speaking academics who were dismissed with the coming to power of the National Socialist Government. That initial number went up to 56 with the inclusion of the technical assistants. By 1948 the estimated total had increased to 199. Given renewable five-year contracts with salaries substantially higher than their Turkish counterparts, the foreign émigrés were to implement the westernization program of higher education. The ten year-old secular Turkish Republic’s extensive social reforms had encompassed the adoption of the Latin alphabet, and equal rights for women, removing gender bias in hiring. Such a high concentration of émigré academics in one institution, “the highest anywhere in the world,” provides a unique opportunity to study a subject which has been neglected. In this article two cases in psychology will be examined: Wilhelm Peters (1880–1963), who came, via Britain, to Istanbul in 1936 from the University of Jena in Germany, and Muzafer Sherif (1906–1988) who went to the United States from Ankara University in 1945. The purpose of the comparative analysis is to identify the features that are specific to the German experience, and those that are shared and underlie translocation in science within the multifaceted complexity of the process of forced migration.     

From the Archives: Pacific Research Archives

The Pacific Research Archives (PRA) is one of three national collections held in the archives at the Australian National University (ANU). This paper describes the origins of and relationships among the three core archival collections: the Noel Butlin Archives Centre, the ANU University Archives and the Pacific Research Archives. The entire ANU Archives boasts over 20 kilometres of records, largely held in the ‘Acton Tunnel’, an underground car park redeveloped as a repository. Established in 2007, the Pacific Research Archives includes over 150 collections created by scholars, missionaries, colonial administrators, organisations and individuals who were working, or had interests, in the Pacific Islands in the politico-cultural regions of Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia. This paper traces the origins of the university’s role as a leader in Pacific studies, the context in which the Pacific Research Archives was created in 2007 and its current method of operation in a collaborative and digital world.     

The University of South Africa (Unisa) 1918–1948: the first transition,from colonial to segregationist institution

This article traces the first of what would become several significant transitions in the evolution of the University of South Africa (Unisa); that from University of the Cape of Good Hope (UCGH), an institution with a distinct English tradition loosely based on the ‘liberal’ constitution of the Cape Colony, to a more segregationist Afrikaner-dominated university by 1946. This was largely shaped by national politics, in particular the rise of Afrikaner nationalism, in the 1920s and 30s. Not only did Unisa become captive to Afrikaner forces, it also was strongly infiltrated by the Broederbond, which had as one of its objectives the holding of key positions in higher education in South Africa. In addition, issues of race now became a growing ‘problem’ as Unisa sought to fulfil its mandate to provide higher education for ‘non-Europeans’ in an era of segregation. However, it would be a distortion to portray this transition fom a simple binary perspective. There was ambivalence about the ‘liberalism’ of the UCGH that reflected the pressures for a new racial order at the Cape. Similarly, the extent of Broederbond influence at Unisa (and over national politics) should not be over-emphasised. Somewhat paradoxically, Unisa continued to accommodate nodes of liberal thinking within the institution, and in the 1960s resisted state attempts to be drawn into a scheme to construct an Afrikaans-only university in Johannesburg. Nevertheless, the essential conservatism and political acquiescence of the university to apartheid meant that the requirement to transform Unisa in the democratic era was all the more painful and complex.