Gonzalo Guerrero and the Psychology of Identity

Historiographic analysis is underused in academic psychology. In this expository essay, I intend to show that historical events or persons can be described with reference to theory and research provided by empirical psychology. Besides providing evidence-based grounds for a more penetrating historical account, the conclusions drawn from a historiographic analysis may feedback into psychological theory by generating new testable hypotheses. Whereas standard empirical research is focused on statistical associations among quantitative variables obtained in random samples, historiographic analysis is most informative with the use of extreme cases, that is, by asking and showing the limits of what is possible. This essay focuses on the story of Gonzalo Guerrero to explore psychological processes involved in identity transformation.

Dramatising Solidarity and Unification in Divided Palestine: The Chorus and the Ghost in Kamel EL-Basha’s Following the Footsteps of Hamlet (2013)

This essay explores how Kamel EL-Basha’s theatre production Following the Footsteps of Hamlet (2013) preaches unity and resistance in a post-2006 divided Palestine. After giving a brief historical account of the causes of the internal Palestinian political divisions that distract Palestinians from achieving liberation, the article traces how El-Basha uses theatrical devices such as the chorus and the ghost to materialise a sense of unification in the theatrical space. The analysis draws on other international theatrical practices like Einar Schleef’s (1980) ‘Choric Theatre’ and cites critical works such as Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy (1872) to locate El-Basha’s theatrical practice in a broader context regarding the significance of the chorus in dramatising unity. The essay also traces how the performance of traditional Palestinian songs, ululation, dances like dabke and other rituals in the play, help foster Palestinian identity and shape their sumud (steadfastness) in facing the occupation. Finally, the essay focuses on the role of the ghost in evoking nostalgia in the audience for the days of unity and collective resistance promoted by the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat before his death.

Missions in Contested Places/Spaces: The SPG, Slavery, and Codrington College, Barbados

Mentioning the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, a seminary, and slavery in the same breath seems incongruous. Nonetheless, within the account of Codrington College, Barbados, the Anglican Communion’s first theological college, we find these three inextricably linked. Using a historical-analytical approach, this paper reveals the troubling missionizing principles which advanced oppressive colonial structures, while failing to fully develop the personhood, agency, and full emancipation of the oppressed. We reassess the ways that particular top-down framings of Christianity and missions were used to enslave/oppress Afro-Barbadians, even under the guise of emancipation. Advocating instead for a framework centering emancipation from below, we outline the ways in which this historical account provides insight for contemporary missional hermeneutics/praxis that seeks to uproot racial and economic inequalities, thus pursuing liberation for all.

Solving or Not Solving Problems

The three articles featured in this issue may not appear to be related, but within their varying contexts, I found myself teasing out several chords that resonate throughout them, and one, in particular, struck me as notable. Directly or indirectly, these articles (as well as the report) all address the notion of problem-solving in some shape or form. Whether a historical account of protest as an attempt to solve issues of discontent among fur trade workers in Russian America, approaches to discussing climate change in northeastern Siberia, coping with failing infrastructure and the negotiation of corporate versus state responsibility—or dealing with COVID lockdowns and scholarly knowledge exchange at present—the articles in this issue all explore the confrontation of problems and how they might be solved.

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE MALAYSIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM

The purpose of this article is to provide a historical account of the English language in Malaysia. Malaysians' linguistic and educational backgrounds are intricately linked to the country's historical and educational traditions. Despite the evolution of the Malaysian educational system, the English language continues to be taught as a compulsory language in schools. It is a method of engaging students in interaction and meaningful communication that is known as communicative language teaching. Language learners who are still required to learn English in universities must cultivate a positive attitude in order to engage in meaningful learning activities.

Embodied Invention

This chapter develops a historical account of Bach’s musicking body, and those of early-eighteenth-century keyboardists more generally, as a way to rethink how Bach’s keyboard music was conceived and performed. It synthesizes aspects of contemporaneous medical, scientific, and theological discourses about the human faculties of touch, memory, and invention, and brings these into dialogue with the inventive and performative dimensions of Bach’s keyboard practice. The chapter unearths historical conceptions of memory as physiologically grounded and distributed across the body, of touch as a corporeal-spiritual faculty, and of human bodies as purposive and intelligent. These notions of a bodily kind of intelligence suggest the need to ascribe much greater agency to the embodied aspects of early-eighteenth-century modes of composing and performing. The chapter thus offers a somatic alternative to the customary focus on mental, disembodied patterns of invention in understanding Bach’s compositional and improvisatory practices at the keyboard.

The Sparrow Ghost

<p>The characters depicted here are based on the particular actions and experiences of actual people, but their personalities and relationships have been fictionalised. No resemblance is ultimately intended between these characters and their real catalysts. The descriptions of the flu pandemic are as accurate as possible. This work is, however, not intended as an historical account. History is a means, not my end.</p>

The Sparrow Ghost

<p>The characters depicted here are based on the particular actions and experiences of actual people, but their personalities and relationships have been fictionalised. No resemblance is ultimately intended between these characters and their real catalysts. The descriptions of the flu pandemic are as accurate as possible. This work is, however, not intended as an historical account. History is a means, not my end.</p>

Psychologising meritocracy: A historical account of its many guises

Measured by psychologists, conceived in critical terms, popularised as satire, and exploited by politicians, meritocracy is a dilemmatic concept that has changed its meanings throughout history. Social psychologists have conceptualised and operationalised meritocracy both as an ideology that justifies inequality and as a justice principle based on equity. These two conceptualisations express opposing ideas about the merit of meritocracy and are both freighted ideologically. We document how this dilemma of meritocracy’s merit developed from meritocracy’s inception as a critical concept among UK sociologists in the 1950s to its operationalisation by U.S. and Canadian social psychologists at the end of the 20th century. We highlight the ways in which meritocracy was originally utilised, in part, to critique the measurement of merit via IQ tests, but ironically became a construct that, through its psychologisation, also required measurement. Through the operationalisation of meritocracy, social psychologists obscured the possibility of critiquing meritocracy and missed the opportunity to offer alternatives to a system that has been legitimised by their own work. A social psychology of meritocracy should take into consideration the ideological debate around its meaning and value and the implications of its measurement and study.

The Politics of Retirement Savings Taxation: a Trans-Tasman Comparison

<p>The thesis makes two primary contributions. The first is in the provision of a comprehensive historical account of the events, personalities and environment that formed the policy for the taxation of retirement savings in New Zealand and Australia. This historical account is analysed through institutional frameworks to explain the antecedents that have resulted in the retirement savings taxation policy outcomes that exist in the two countries at the present time. The second key objective of the research, in using institutional theory to assist with the first objective, is to provide some insights into the utility of institutional theory, and historical institutionalism in particular, in this comparative case study. The different retirement savings policies that were implemented in the mid to late 1980s in New Zealand and Australia have resulted in substantially different levels of retirement savings in each country. New Zealand s retirement savings figures and participation in occupational superannuation are among the lowest in the OECD. Conversely, Australia now has the fourth largest managed fund pool in the world, and the largest in Asia. Australian retirees can expect to have an income of 70 - 80 per cent of their final retirement income, after 40 years of Superannuation Guarantee participation. Retiring New Zealanders, assuming National Superannuation continues unchallenged, will receive a minimum of 60 - 65 per cent of the average wage. The difference in standard of living that these amounts will support is significant. Retiring Australians will be advantaged with some relationship between their pre-retirement and retirement income. This is a benefit many retiring New Zealanders will not receive. The research findings indicate that the key independent variables highlighted in this research (the environment, institutions, power and ideas) contribute a contestable explanation to the policy directions adopted in each country. The thesis argues that the concept of ideas is the key dimension that shaped the retirement savings taxation policy in the 1982 to 1992 period in New Zealand and Australia. The use of a coherent ideology facilitated the communication of a consistent world view in both countries, and provided a set of established ideas to support the direction adopted. This assisted with validation for trade-offs incurred in the policy process. The investigation of institutional factors highlighted the lack of potential for interest groups to make their voices heard. Conversely, the privileging of certain interest groups, those aligned with the prevailing ideas, was also prevalent. The institutions with the strongest influence on the policy process were those that, through historical events or historical opportunity, had preferences that were aligned with the state. This case study indicates that historical institutionalism has less utility for the study of a more detailed component of policy, rather than broader structural policy reform, as typically used in other studies. Thus, it is suggested that the utility of historical institutionalism may be reflected by the level of detail both undertaken in the research and desired from the research output. The indication that historical institutionalism may have greater utility for larger case study analyses may have application for future research.</p>