Traversing Doctoral Borderlands : Black doctoral students’ experiences of identity construction in South Africa

Doctoral studies are described as a process of formation and becoming. This is an in-between space between unknowing and knowing, within and without the ivory tower of academia. In this in-between space the doctoral candidate takes the role of a novice and apprentice unlearning the student/unknowing past and learning to become a professional in academia. This project utilises the borderlands theory to understand the experiences of doctoral students as they undergo the process of becoming and intellectual identity formation. Whilst ‘journey’ and other metaphors that have been used to understand doctoral student experiences capture the process of becoming as a progression through the liminal stages – proposal, literature review, context, writing, reading etc. These stages presuppose temporality of being leading to stasis/completion. I argue that such conceptualisation of doctoral studies, although useful, depict one side of the story and provide a limited, monolithic, and homogenising understanding of the spatial configurations of doctoral space and intellectual identity formation. The dominant discourses of doctoral conceived and perceived space, liminal stages and understanding of doctoral student experiences, mask the more latent and intimate liminal stages of intellectual identity formation. Drawing from borderlands theory, I firstly argue for a holistic approach to understanding the spatiality of doctorate studies. Secondly, I argue that liminality is an everyday process integral to human existence where one is always in a state of ideological transition. An important state of liminality is the awareness of ‘Self’ in perpetual motion, caught between two worlds dominated/dominator and two ideologies of oppression/resistance. If this side of liminality is not made visible, institutional spaces, such as the doctorate, privileged with the power to disseminate and position onto-epistemologies as universal can be used to reproduce and reinforce exclusionary onto-epistemologies that subsequently impact intellectual identity formation. Using Lefebvre’s (1991) rhythmanalysis method, I use student experiences not as mere data for analysis, but as an act of envisioning, reinventing and coknowledge production to propose borderlands as a new metaphor to study doctoral spatial realities and the experiences of the students that traverse through it.

Empowered by Ancestors

By focusing on the Imperial Temple, this book explores the making of ancestral ritual norms by looking into the ritual debates in the imperial courts of Song China (960–1279). It argues that court ritual debates empowered the Song scholar-officials (shidafu士大夫‎) with the cultural authority to confront the state and reshape society. In particular, the two discourses of filial piety and political merits played crucial role in Song court ritual debates over the Imperial Temple. Both discourses had a tremendous influence on the ancestral practices of later societies. In addition, this book offers a new perspective to examine the intellectual dimension of Song factionalism, in which the ritual interests of Song scholar-officials were more associated with their scholarly backgrounds than their political stances or affiliations. In the Song ritual discourses of the Imperial Temple, scholar-officials rendered a separate intellectual identity that transcended the boundaries of not only factional politics but also the strictly defined “schools” (xuepai學派‎) of Song scholarship. In terms of intellectual identity, Song scholar-officials are more eclectic than historians have previously thought, if ritual interest is taken into consideration. From this perspective, the book examines Song scholars’ ritual discussions on the Imperial Temple, especially those scholars who have been conventionally categorized with the New Learning (xinxue新學‎) school and the Learning of the Way (Daoxue 道學‎) fellowship.

Educational opportunities and prospects. From the notes of Wilhelmina Zyndram-Kościałkowska

The aim of the article is an attempt to define the nature and specificity of opportunities and perspectives of education in the autobiographical reflection of Wilhelmina Zyndram-Kościałkowska (1844–1926), who was a friend of Eliza Orzeszkowa. The author uses the manuscripts of the writer collected in the Lithuanian State Historical Archives in Vilnius. The essence of the research is the question – how Kościałkowska defines the opportunities and perspectives of education. The reflection on them becomes the fundamental way of defining and diagnosing the intellectual identity of the community, of which Kościałkowska feels an integral part. The article is divided into several most important issues focused on education within the walls of Vilnius University, the founding fathers of Vilnius Alma Mater, reflection on the educational activities of Eliza Orzeszkowa, the impact of russification on education in the territories annexed by Russia, the role of memoranda on education, the concept of superpowerhood as well as the importance of language as a tool and code integrating the national and intellectual community.

Normalising a Ukrainian Intellectual Identity in the Nineteenth Century: The Role of Marko Vovchok (1833-1907)

A question that confronted educated Ukrainians, predominantly landowners descended from Cossack notables, in the Russian Empire in the first half of the nineteenth century was whether they should foster an identity distinct from an all-imperial one. A sense of historical distinctiveness, the value placed by the late Enlightenment and the Romantic Movement upon the culture of ordinary people and the wealth of Ukrainian folk culture persuaded many of the need to generate a high culture employing the Ukrainian language. Yet, prior to the Ukrainian-language prose of Marko Vovchok (Maria Markovych), an element essential for the development of a multifunctional modern culture, and of an identity able to be shared by a modern Ukrainian intelligentsia, was lacking: a stylistically transparent prose able to function not only in a poetically charged way, but as a neutral medium for communicating content. The paper identifies the features of Marko Vovchok’s writing that made this innovation possible.

Philosophical Travelogy as a Cultural and Political Research Method

This article is devoted to new books written by Alexey Kara-Murza, a Russian philosopher and political scientist. Kara-Murza is the author of numerous works on the philosophy of Russian history and culture and Russian social thought, successfully working in the original genres of philosophical travelogy and philosophical local history. Russian-European and Russian-Italian cultural interactions have been the subject of Alexey Kara-Murza’s scientific interest for many years. The new monographs explore the political circumstances as well as the key biographical voyage plots to Italy of the outstanding Russian thinkers Pyotr Chaadaev (1824–1825), and Vladimir Solovyov (1876). According to Alexey Kara-Murza, these trips determined the intellectual identity of the two Russian authors as well as the spiritual and philosophical horizon of their work. Kara-Murza consistently develops a central thesis about the intellectual relationships between Europe and Russia. He interprets the dialogue of cultures as a story of creativity, and comprehends the journey as a special way of the philosophical reception of culture and creative self-identification. Kara-Murza’s cultural and political studies in his philosophical travelogy genre, as well as the method he developed which helped the philosopher reconstruct the intellectual experience of Russian thinkers in the context of the history of Russian and European culture, are critically analyzed in this article.

A LOOK AT THE ERRONEOUS RESTORATION OF THE HISTORICAL KASBAH OF AGADIR, MOROCCO

Architecture represents the cultural and intellectual identity of peoples. It is an authentic wealth of civilization that embodies the creative and aesthetic level that man has reached in various successive eras and historical periods (Al-Zahrani, 2012). It is a heritage that cannot be estimated and a living memory that reflects the extent of harmony between climate and the natural components of the environment on the one hand and, on the other, the economic and social systems on which man depends. Architectural heritage has received substantial attention from various entities, as it is an important historical and national project that contributes to the development of contemporary and future social structure and establishes a cultural policy building responsible community awareness. This so important considering that cultural heritage faces threats mainly related to its deterioration because of failing its preservation or undertaking inappropriate restoration work, as we illustrate by the case of the Kasbah of Agadir. The restorers with insufficient experience committed serious architectural failures in the Kasbah. It is difficult now to restore the state of the building before the restoration. They used materials that had a negative and distorting impact. As a result, these mistakes led to the destruction of the Kasbah’s architectural features.

Archaeology and Ideology in a ‘postmodern’ environment: material remains of ideological claims

According to scholar Fredrik Fahlandar, postmodernism has caused an intellectual identity crisis throughout the humanities. Using his chapter on Postmodern Archaeologies as a guide, this essay attempts to address some of the ways in which archaeology and the other social sciences has actually benefited from the scrutiny of postmodernist criticism, while at the same time maintaining its usefulness and insisting on its ability to avoid a relativistic approach to its research questions. The essay particularly emphasizes archaeology’s on-going relationship to the study of ideology, as both evident within the archaeological record itself and also its influence on the researchers conducting the investigations.***Arqueologia e Ideologia em um ambiente ‘pós-moderno’: restos materiais de reinvindicações ideológicas***Segundo o estudioso Fredrik Fahlandar, o pós-modernismo causou uma crise de identidade intelectual em todas as humanidades. Usando seu capítulo sobre Arqueologias pós-modernas como guia, este ensaio tenta abordar algumas das maneiras pelas quais a arqueologia e as outras ciências sociais realmente se beneficiaram do escrutínio das críticas pós-modernas, enquanto, ao mesmo tempo, mantém sua utilidade e insiste em sua capacidade de evitar uma abordagem relativista de suas questões de pesquisa. O ensaio enfatiza particularmente a relação contínua da arqueologia com o estudo da ideologia, como evidente no próprio registro arqueológico e também sua influência nos pesquisadores que conduzem as investigações.

Theories in Information Management

The growth of the information management (IM) discipline and its importance in different socio-economic platforms cannot be over-emphasized. The current development of heterogeneous technologies shows that IM is the focal point of innovations such as blockchain, data science (big data, predictive analytics, etc.), artificial intelligence, automation, etc. This research was motivated by a desire to contribute towards establishing the intellectual identity of IM as a science and as a discipline. An exploration of the inventory of theories and conceptual frameworks enables us to have an understanding of the different methodologies currently being used and therefore define the level of development of the field as a discipline. This chapter aims to present the patterns and trends in theory conducted by different studies during the last 10 years (2009 – 2019). Using a bibliometric approach anchored on descriptive informetrics, the chapter explores the application of theory within the IM field.