The decline and fall of a working classicist

Although the academy tends not to recognize it, scholars and students from working-class backgrounds are automatically at a disadvantage. To demonstrate both sides of the university experience, I provide here a detailed, personal account of my journey from undergraduate to postgraduate to post-Ph.D. researcher. I pay special attention to my chosen subject of classics and ancient history, an area of study with its own set of class-based problems – for while those from working-class backgrounds might be (and are) subject to classism in any discipline, the seemingly inherent elitism of the classics and ancient history field makes it doubly hard for the underprivileged to succeed. I begin by illustrating how ‘working-class knowledge’ of popular culture granted me access into an otherwise closed, exclusionary set of subject materials and go from here to detail how such work is undervalued by the field, before ending on the violent effects that the all-too-familiar casualized employment structure has on those would-be academics who lack access to family wealth, savings and freedom of opportunity/action. Ultimately, I try to show how that – no matter how hard you try – if you are from working-class background, you are highly unlikely to succeed in the modern-day academic system.

Integrated care is needed, now more than ever: a professional's perspective

Sara-Marie Black offers a personal account of the last 18 months and its emotional, personal and professional impact. While presenting an unprecedented challenge, COVID-19 has also provided an opportunity to learn and reflect, and has emphasised the need, now more than ever, to work collaboratively across health, social and voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors.

The Equity of Remote Teaching During COVID-19

This chapter is written by a second-grade teacher who gives a personal account for remote teaching during quarantine and the 2020 - 2021 school year. The equity and diversity of various situations involved during the past year are discussed throughout the chapter: from the beginning of quarantine 2020 to the end of the school year in May 2021. Remote teaching, social and emotional factors, and the diversity of families are also addressed. The chapter is dedicated to Jordan Lea Darnell, a teacher who lost her battle to COVID-19 in the Spring of 2021.

Salutogenesis and Mental Health Promotion in Military Settings

This chapter centers on salutogenic work in military settings in the context of mental health promotion. The author opens with a personal account of how he found himself engaging in salutogenic research within a military setting, and touches upon some moral questions that this research arena brings up. The author then describes negative consequences of military service, as a background for discussing some salutogenically oriented programs intended to enhance mental fitness of soldiers, accompanied by empirical research findings. Finally, the author suggests some insights and recommendations for further applications of salutogenesis in military settings.

BOOK REVIEW: MARIA KIMINTA’S FIGHT AGAINST FGM

Maria Kiminta’s personal account, Kiminta: A Maasai’s Fight against Female Genital Mutilation, is a survivor memoir which reveals her genital mutilation and her comprehensive range of vision on FGM in an audacious, argumentative, and persuasive fashion. It lucidly and pragmatically recounts her first-hand experiences as a Maasai FGM survivor; thus, it is an essential memoir on FGM advocating the global movement to eradicate the horrendous practice. The memoir is also significant in that it renders the readers the resources/arguments to realize the violence and depth of excruciating pain on female sex, to understand “loss to development as a whole” (Kiminta 2015: 44), and to support the movement. Her memoir focuses on a pivotal stage of her life, that is, her clitoridectomy and her holistic findings related to FGM as part of her anti-FGM activism in Germany. Her simultaneous placing of arguments and counter arguments to justify her claims/arguments with fact/data enables her to achieve an objective tone in her memoir. In so doing, she indistinctly divides the memoir into seven parts, such as her clitoridectomy at the age of ten in Kenya, causes behind FGM practice, strategies to execute FGM, impacts of FGM, points of claim and counter claim, hindrances to implementation of anti-FGM Acts, and her recommendations.

Ecoscenography conversations1

The global ecological crisis calls for a new approach to theatre making that overturns the ‘take, make and dispose’ production model that has become so intrinsic to the performing arts. Ecoscenography is a burgeoning movement that interweaves creative, environmental, social and cultural aspects of performance design to produce ecologically sensitive and evocative spatial experiences. The neologism has its roots in Australian fringe theatre and freelance design practices, many of which take pride in shoe-string budgets, site-specific, ad hoc and non-traditional forms of theatre making. Ecological re-considerations of performance design have emerged through these grassroot experiences which continue to be a vital foundation for Australia’s thriving theatre community. Nevertheless, there is still very little written about sustainability in the performing arts (both in Australia and beyond), particularly from the perspective of the scenographer. This dialogic article is a conversation between two Australian-based scenographers who are passionate about bringing an ecological ethos into performance design. The article explores Ecoscenography ‘in conversation’ by drawing out common perspectives and experiences to demonstrate how an ecological ethic can inspire the performance maker’s creative process. We discuss our trials and tribulations of sustainable practice, from our first engagement with the topic, to our aspirations for the future of the field. The result is a candid, tangible and personal account of what it means to be an ecoscenographer in an increasingly turbulent (but hopeful) world.

The Key Elements of the Guarantee System of Compliance with the Legitimate Interests of the Parties to Investment Transactions: Interdependence and Functions

Introduction: the relevance of the research is due to the transformation of social relations in the neoindustrial era, which opens up technological innovations to mankind. In this regard, there is an objective need to revise and modernize many legal institutions and create a new legislative matter for the normal functioning of the banking and investment sector adequate to modern realities. Purpose: the paper contributes to the formation of the understanding of individual investors, recipients of investments, and investment intermediaries of the fact that there is a set of special means that can be freely implemented in a situation of violation of the rights and noncompliance with the legitimate interests of each of the participants in these relations. These special means should represent the interrelated and interdependent elements of the system, reinforcing, complementing each other, thereby forming a synergistic effect and thereby providing these guarantees. Methods: the methodological framework for the conducted scientific research is the method of historical materialism. In addition, while writing the paper, both the traditional general scientific methods (the dialectical method of cognition, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, etc.) and the specific scientific legal methods (formal-legal, the method of legal interpretation, etc.) were used. Results: the author substantiates the existence of five functional elements that guarantee in their totality a system of guarantees of compliance with the legitimate interests of participants to remote digital investment transactions. Firstly, there is a developed civil law regulation. Secondly, a workable institution of the financial Ombudsman. Thirdly, the effective regulation of this market segment by the central bank. Fourthly, jurisdictional and non-jurisdictional justice operating within the framework of legality. Fifthly, advanced information technologies for transactions and protection of rights. The functioning of the designated system of guarantees is investigated by elements. Conclusions: in summary, it is concluded that the efforts of scientists and developers-practitioners should be aimed at creating an end-to-end technology for participation in remote digital investment transactions and protection of their rights by the parties. The necessity of introducing special service applications that make up such technology is argued. It is proved that the implementation of such technology will allow functioning effectively, mutually complementing and strengthening all the elements of the guarantee system. It is proved that the key idea underlying the end-to-end technology of participation in remote digital investment transactions is the execution of the transactions themselves in the mode of smart contracts, which are executed, and the facts about the execution of their stages are stored in the distributed registry system. At the same time, this information technology should be integrated with the hardware and software complex of the GOSUSLUGI portal as a special service presented in the personal account of a citizen, as well as with the website of the Federal Tax Service with the corresponding service in the personal account of a party – a legal entity. These services should provide for a guaranteed and unhindered (automatic) possibility of an electronic, legally significant, appeal by a party to a remote digital investment transaction to the Bank of Russia, to a financial commissioner, to an arbitration institution, to a court.

Living in Two Worlds

This unique collection of diaries and letters offers a vivid personal account of the experiences of a Jewish couple living parallel lives during the Second World War. While their children left for England just before war broke out, and Siegfried soon followed, Else Behrend was unable to obtain her visa in time, and remained in Germany. This volume includes Else's account of her years of persecution under the Nazi dictatorship, and of her life underground in Berlin, before her eventual daring escape to Switzerland on foot in 1944. Her dramatic story is presented alongside Siegfried's account of his very different experience, living penniless and in isolation in England, as well as some of her letters to her close friend and confidante, Eva. Complemented by QR codes that allow readers to listen to Else's own voice from her 1963 BBC interviews. Published in English for the first time, Living in Two Worlds offers an unforgettable and moving insight into the impact of the Second World War on everyday life.