My journey through finance and stochastics

This year, Finance and Stochastics celebrates its 25th anniversary. The journal provides a platform for the community of researchers on which they can publish their ideas and results.Publication is an outcome of research which may be conducted for a number of years before it reaches the required maturity. I find this research process to be very important. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to decode it from reading the research publications. This special issue of Finance and Stochastics gives me an opportunity to focus on it. I am grateful I can present my personal memory of this process. Understanding why questions are asked and how the answers are found is critical.

"Recalling-ls-Greatest": Personal Memory and Lyricism in Toyin Falola's A Mouth Sweeter than Salt and Counting the Tiger's Teeth

The reflective disclosure of the past is a major trend in African literature as indicated in writers like Wale Soyinka, Chinua Achebe and Ngugi Wa Thi­ong'o. Personal memory is also often employed aesthetically to mirror what is embedded in the past. Toyin Faiola the author of A Mouth Sweeter than Salt and Counting the Tiger's Teeth presents his childhood and teenage years, fam­ily history and the social and historical events of Ibadan, Ilorin and Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He also details his personal experiences as a witness to the Agbekoya rebellion of 1968-70. In presenting actions in the two self-narratives, Toyin Faiola exploits the resources of indigenous and contemporary African songs, incantatory chants and transliterated version of many lyrics. He uses the lyrics to also investigate the symbolic meaning of words used in the past and reiter­ates the prevalence of songs in Yoruba culture. The lyrics link together many themes as well as serving as an avenue for community and individual expres­sion. We have memorial songs, songs of rebellion, songs of sexuality and sa­tirical songs which mock teachers, the police and government officials. Faiola presents an inseparable relationship of mutual exchange between the oral and written traditions. However, our point of emphasis is to evaluate the context and usage of the lyrics and panegyrics in the two texts.

Memory and History: A Comparison of the Past in Slovak Prose of the Post-2000 Period

This study focuses on how two kinds of memory: historical and personal are reflected in a section of Slovak literature of the past two decades. A variety of autobiographical genres and biographically-stylised fictional prose draw on personal memory, and history, is the domain of historical genres, particularly the novel. After the 1990s, the present was deemed important and historical presentations of the past were parodiedin the prose of Peter Pišťanek and Igor Otčenáš. At the beginning of the new millennium, however, prose portraying and reflecting on the past reappeared. Memory- based writing which is concerned with an individual situated within history, or outside of it, is more persuasive. Memory-based writing is used in different forms of autobiographical writing: within fiction it takes a form of biographical stylisation (e. g. Vilikovský, Kopcsay and Rozner). In the past ten to fifteen years, there has been a renewed interest in history in Slovak literature, mainly in pre-1989 history (e. g. Rankov, Krištúfek and Lavrík), which had been mistreated in pre-1989 Slovak literature, and later there was no interest in it or it was even rejected in the 1990s.During that time, historical memory was exploited to meet societal requirement. Silvester Lavrík was an exception—he was able to marry the two basic approaches to the past (personal history and historical) in a form of a dispute between them.

The Later Work of Gabriel García Márquez

If the Bolívar novel embodies the collective memory of a region in a manner spare yet ingenious, the novelist’s other major late work tends toward personal memory. In Of Love and Other Demons, García Márquez comes as close to magical realism as in any work since the short stories and One Hundred Years of Solitude and reaffirms the multiracial and Caribbean character of the author’s own definition of Spanish America. In News of a Kidnapping, García Márquez ventures onto the territory of drug cartels and violence, which became the preoccupation of the next generation of Colombian writers, relating this material from the deadpan, appalled stance that is as characteristic of his viewpoint as the mesmeric incantations so commonly associated with him. In Memories of My Melancholy Whores, a late in life moral transformation redeems a lifetime of iniquity and testifies to the strangeness of the new territory of extreme old age, in a sense as unexplored a country as Macondo once was. In Living to Tell the Tale, García Márquez reflects upon the first half of his own life. Unlike in the case of Bolívar, García Márquez did not get to tell the ending of the story, leaving later writers and readers to do so in their own minds, as the great master had done for the General.

The Weathered Trace: Capturing the Actualisations of Time

<p>It may be considered that architecture does not as a discipline, acknowledge the changes a building will go through after construction completion. Therefore, weathering of materials occurs without direction forcing a building to degrade over time rather than mature. We may accept that materials have a given lifespan and that it is simply a question of time before that material is no longer suitable for its original use. However, the impermanence of materials through weathering need not be considered a negative element throughout the life of a building. It may give us the impression that we can grasp the effects of time in a tangible way through its visual expressions, reminding us of our own place in the cycle of time. This thesis was design led by firstly producing material experiments, and going on site to understand the conditions of weathering on materials. This lead to a number of questions – firstly, may architecture direct its own visual expression of time through embracing the inevitable process of weathering within its materials and site? Can these actualizations of time documenting the events of a buildings life promote the build up of personal memory between the user and the architecture they experience? These questions were tested through the design of temporary research accommodation units located at Te Raekaihau Point on the south coast of Wellington. Being an extremely harsh environment, the full force of a weathered trace could be illustrated. Through design, the idea of architecture as an evolving image was explored. The contrasting material time frames of concrete and wood were understood in their relation to one another and how one may act as a framework for the other. Concrete surfaces expressed positive and negative detail, directing the weather to enhance certain patterns over time. The organic nature of timber was interpreted throughout the site with varied levels of exposure. Original traces of weather on site were used to understand future interpretations. These traces influenced material placement, orientation and gave an understanding of the processes that will affect architecture in time. Accepting that no material is permanent, certain details explored the idea that one materials death may bring about the birth of another. Over time, a timber walkway connecting two areas of the site was designed to erode, revealing a concrete stairway hidden beneath. These design considerations lead to the conclusion that architecture must be considered over time, with careful consideration of the natural forces that will affect its development. A site analysis does not occur in one visit, it must be a more thorough process considering all aspects that affect materials in time and how best to work with these inevitable facts as opposed to against them. This will result in a building capable of capturing the actualisations of time promoting memory through the weathered trace.</p>

The Weathered Trace: Capturing the Actualisations of Time

<p>It may be considered that architecture does not as a discipline, acknowledge the changes a building will go through after construction completion. Therefore, weathering of materials occurs without direction forcing a building to degrade over time rather than mature. We may accept that materials have a given lifespan and that it is simply a question of time before that material is no longer suitable for its original use. However, the impermanence of materials through weathering need not be considered a negative element throughout the life of a building. It may give us the impression that we can grasp the effects of time in a tangible way through its visual expressions, reminding us of our own place in the cycle of time. This thesis was design led by firstly producing material experiments, and going on site to understand the conditions of weathering on materials. This lead to a number of questions – firstly, may architecture direct its own visual expression of time through embracing the inevitable process of weathering within its materials and site? Can these actualizations of time documenting the events of a buildings life promote the build up of personal memory between the user and the architecture they experience? These questions were tested through the design of temporary research accommodation units located at Te Raekaihau Point on the south coast of Wellington. Being an extremely harsh environment, the full force of a weathered trace could be illustrated. Through design, the idea of architecture as an evolving image was explored. The contrasting material time frames of concrete and wood were understood in their relation to one another and how one may act as a framework for the other. Concrete surfaces expressed positive and negative detail, directing the weather to enhance certain patterns over time. The organic nature of timber was interpreted throughout the site with varied levels of exposure. Original traces of weather on site were used to understand future interpretations. These traces influenced material placement, orientation and gave an understanding of the processes that will affect architecture in time. Accepting that no material is permanent, certain details explored the idea that one materials death may bring about the birth of another. Over time, a timber walkway connecting two areas of the site was designed to erode, revealing a concrete stairway hidden beneath. These design considerations lead to the conclusion that architecture must be considered over time, with careful consideration of the natural forces that will affect its development. A site analysis does not occur in one visit, it must be a more thorough process considering all aspects that affect materials in time and how best to work with these inevitable facts as opposed to against them. This will result in a building capable of capturing the actualisations of time promoting memory through the weathered trace.</p>

Selfie and Narcissism in Young Adults

Selfie, a commonly observed behaviour, is symbol of virtual identity. Similarly, narcissism as described by grandiose view of oneself, seeking approval and admiration on social media is also frequent. The purpose of this study is exploring selfie taking behaviour and narcissism among young adults. A total 132 subjects were considered for study through an online questionnaire which included demographic variables, selfie taking behaviour and NPI-16 (Narcissistic Personality Inventory -16). The results showed majority of the subjects N = 76 (57.5%) had high narcissism (NPI ≥ 7). Age group 15 to 25 years (p= 0.0200), males, subjects who stayed in city, post graduates or graduate qualification, and married subjects had high narcissism. Using smart phone use more than 5 years (p=0.00942), taking 5 to 10 selfies per day with (p=0.00331), posting selfie for personal memory (p=0.03268), selfie on WhatsApp messenger (p=0.03268) and taking selfie with person alone and selfie taken on specific occasions (p=0.01122), had high narcissism. The conclusion of this study is selfie and narcissism are closely linked among young adults and a matter of psychological wellbeing during personality development.

FROM MONOPOLIZING MEMORY TO CO-CREATING IT: OPENNESS AND EQUITY IN THE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM

With the growing proliferation of digital media into the memory practices of cultural institutions and ordinary people, questions about a growing dependence on monopolistic technology companies on the creation, access and preservation of collective memory have emerged. For cultural institutions that rely on social media to boost their audience engagement, this also means that they lose part of their role as public educators, while ordinary people fear the loss of ownership over their personal memories. This paper proposes equitable approaches to the current digital ecosystem, that is built on the extraction and profit-making of personal data, that can be developed by looking beyond the current market, envisioning possibilities for related policies that could enable the re-design of the current memory ecosystem towards social inclusion. The argument is based on a combination of ethnographic research into initiatives that foster the openness of knowledge by enabling fair practices to be realized in the competitive sphere of the digital economy. Building upon work such as the MyData and the DECODE project, as well as enquiries into personal memory practices of youth living in Germany and the UK.

The sense of mineness in personal memory: problems for the endorsement model

What does it take for a subject to experience a personal memory as being her own? According to Fernández’ (2019) model of endorsement, this particular phenomenal quality of our memories, their “sense of mineness”, can be explained in terms of the experience of the mnemonic content as veridical. In this article, I criticize this model for two reasons: (a) the evidence that is used by Fernández to ground his theoretical proposal is dubious; and more importantly, (b) the endorsement model does not accommodate many non-pathological everyday memories that preserve their sense of mineness, but whose veridicality is explicitly denied, suspected, not automatically endorsed, or neither denied nor endorsed. Finally, I sketch two alternative explanations: one also problematic, the other one more promising, and present some normative advantages of the latter. This also displays the undesirability of the endorsement model from a normative perspective.

Reflecting on the Intersection of Critical Pedagogy, Identities, and Spaces: An Indonesian Doctoral Student’s Autoethnography

To address a student-teacher educator perspective in the engagement of critical pedagogy (CP), I employed a critical and analytical autoethnography to self-investigate my lived experiences during coursework in a doctoral program in the United States. Framed in postcolonial CP in border-crossing notion, I engaged in critical and analytical autoethnography. I critically carried out thematic analysis on learning artifacts and personal memory during the Summer course 2020 which was expanded to analytical thematic analysis as I drew on artifacts and personal memory during coursework from Fall 2018 to Spring 2020. The analysis was intended to explore how CP was enacted during coursework and the implications of the enactment. Three key themes were identified: ideology work; co-construction of knowledge and mutuality; and imagined spaces and unfinishedness. The themes embodied the perceived enactment of CP in my coursework experience and they revealed how criticality intersected CP is with pedagogical practices, transformed identities, and spaces. They further served as the basis for implications for English teacher education programs and teacher educators in Indonesia to implement CP in a higher educational landscape.