Reflexiones sobre el cráneo virreinal y su relación con lo contemporáneo

Cráneos descarnados cruzan la mirada con el espectador, algunas veces son sostenidos por un santo meditativo; otras forman parte de una elegante mujer novohispana. Los cráneos habitan los viejos y oscuros muros de la Pinacoteca de la Profesa en las antiguas calles del centro histórico de la Ciudad de México. Estas imágenes misteriosas pueden cautivar o ser repulsivas a los ojos profanos del público contemporáneo, que las contemplan sin entender el sentido que tuvieron en su origen. El presente estudio muestra algunos hallazgos sobre el sentido del cráneo en la pintura virreinal. Para la interpretación de las obras, se utilizó un método basado en la iconografía.

O Neo-Peplum: Hollywood e a herança do cinema popular europeu no séc. XXI

Através de uma análise histórico-formal este artigo propõe-se analisar a influência do peplum, um conjunto de filmes de aventuras produzidos na Europa mediterrânea entre 1958 e 1964, no cinema de Hollywood contemporâneo, em particular num ciclo de filmes que denominámos de neo-peplums pois, tal como o peplum europeu, estes caraterizam-se pela recriação fantasiosa do Mundo Antigo e pela hipertrofia do trabalho formal, utilizando os novos recursos tecnológicos na criação de uma mise-en-scène altamente estilizada.

Adapting Victorian Gypsies for the Screen: Ethnicity, Otherness and (In)visibility in Neo-Victorian Popular Film

This paper aims at analysing the presence of gypsy characters in two neo-Victorian popular films, namely Joe Johnston’s The Wolfman (2010) and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows (2011). The cultural construction of nineteenth-century gypsies, those “Others within Europe” (Boyarin 433) whose presence in Victorian fiction was peripheral, spectral and at times invisible (Nord 3-4), is simultaneously exploited and contested by these two neo-Victorian screen narratives to raise issues of otherness and invisibility on the screen. Setting off from the premise that screen texts, just like print texts, can also be participant in the neo-Victorian project of reimagining the underside of Victorian culture for contemporary audiences (Whelehan 273), this paper traces how the adaptation of Victorian gypsies for the screen, true to the palimpsestuous potential inherent to the process of adaptation (Hutcheon 6) and sharing the double drive between past and present which characterises the neo-Victorian genre (Arias and Pulham xiii; Shiller 539), hybridises our cultural memory of the Victorian Age on the screen while concurrently raises concerns over the persistent liminal status of gypsies in contemporary European culture. In particular, this paper illustrates how the tropes prototypically associated to gypsies (namely their nomadic lifestyle, mysticism, alienated existence or their perceived association to criminality) which can be traced back to Victorian culture are deployed on the neo-Victorian popular screen (with varyingly succesful outcomes) to comment on their (in)visibility in the European popular imagination.

The failures of neo-liberal state building in Iraq: assessing Australia's post-conflict reconstruction and development Initiatives

This article examines Australia's post-conflict reconstruction and development initiatives in Iraq following the intervention of 2003. Overall, it finds that Australia privileged the neo-liberal model of post-conflict state building by investing in projects that would enhance the capacity of the new Iraqi state, its key institutions and the private sector towards the imposition of a liberal democracy and a free-market economy. To demonstrate, this article documents the failures of the Australian government's stated aims to "support agriculture" and "support vulnerable populations" via interviews conducted in Iraq with rural farmers and tribal members and those working in, or the beneficiaries of, Iraq's disability sector. It concludes by noting that such failures are not only indicative of the inadequacy of the neo-liberal state building model, but also that these failures point the way forward for future post-conflict reconstruction and development projects which ought to be premised on a genuine and sustained commitment to addressing the needs of those made most vulnerable by war and regime change.

Neo- jihadist prosumers and Al Qaeda single narrative: the case study of Giuliano Delnevo

Scholars in the field of terrorism and violent extremism often refer to the so-called Al Qaeda single narrative. This article suggests that the Internet challenges the existence of a “single narrative,” by arguing that neo-jihadist prosumers may reinterpret Al Qaeda’s narrative and create hybrid symbols and identities. The article discusses the case study of an Italian neo-jihadist allegedly killed in Syria, Giuliano Delnevo, presenting research on his YouTube and Facebook production. Delnevo’s narrative, which emerges from the diverse messages circulating on the Internet, recasts the Al Qaeda narrative by hybridizing it with other cultural backgrounds and political symbols.

La literatura de la neo-violencia en Colombia : manifestaciones thanáticas en el siglo XXI

La rédaction de ce mémoire a été possible grâce à la bourse d’études supérieures du Canada (BESC M), Joseph-Armand-Bombardier du Centre de Recherche en Sciences Humaines (CRSH) du gouvernement du Canada, 2015.

Matematica e musica grafi, tonnetz e teorie neo-riemanniane

Il primo capitolo verte su argomenti di musica e, dopo una breve premessa generale, ed alcuni cenni biografici di J. S. Bach, si passa ad una analisi strutturale di tipo aritmetico e geometrico su alcune sue famose composizioni, sottolineando in particolare la passione del grande compositore per la numerologia, esaminando l’importanza che il fattore numerologico sempre assume nelle sue opere. Il secondo capitolo verte su argomenti di matematica e tratta alcuni importanti aspetti della teoria dei grafi, del toro e dell’immersione di grafi in superfici. Il terzo capitolo, nel quale si fa riferimento agli argomenti dei primi due capitoli, è diviso in tre parti: la prima esamina alcuni principali fondamenti matematico-musicali, la seconda propone un excursus storico dalla scala pitagorica al temperamento equabile, la terza approfondisce il ciclo delle quinte, il Tonnetz e le teorie neo-riemanniane.

Historiographic Metafiction and the Neo-slave Narrative: Pastiche and Polyphony in Caryl Phillips, Toni Morrison and Sherley Anne Williams

The classic slave narrative recounted a fugitive slave’s personal story condemning slavery and hence working towards abolition. The neo-slave narrative underlines the slave’s historical legacy by unveiling the past through foregrounding African Atlantic experiences in an attempt to create a critical historiography of the Black Atlantic. The neo-slave narrative is a genre that emerged following World War II and presents us with a dialogue combining the history of 1970 - 2000. In this thesis I seek to explore how the contemporary counter-part of the classic slave narrative draws, reflects or diverges from the general conventions of its predecessor. I argue that by scrutinizing our notion of truth, the neo-slave narrative remains a relevant, important witness to the history of slavery as well as to today’s still racialized society. The historiographic metafiction of the neo-slave narrative rewrites history with the goal of digesting the past and ultimately leading to future reconciliation.

La literatura de la neo-violencia en Colombia : manifestaciones thanáticas en el siglo XXI

La rédaction de ce mémoire a été possible grâce à la bourse d’études supérieures du Canada (BESC M), Joseph-Armand-Bombardier du Centre de Recherche en Sciences Humaines (CRSH) du gouvernement du Canada, 2015.

Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003 metabolises the human milk oligosaccharides lacto-N-tetraose and lacto-N-neo-tetraose through overlapping, yet distinct pathways

In this study, we demonstrate that the prototype B. breve strain UCC2003 possesses specific metabolic pathways for the utilisation of lacto-N-tetraose (LNT) and lacto-N-neotetraose (LNnT), which represent the central moieties of Type I and Type II human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), respectively. Using a combination of experimental approaches, the enzymatic machinery involved in the metabolism of LNT and LNnT was identified and characterised. Homologs of the key genetic loci involved in the utilisation of these HMO substrates were identified in B. breve, B. bifidum, B. longum subsp. infantis and B. longum subsp. longum using bioinformatic analyses, and were shown to be variably present among other members of the Bifidobacterium genus, with a distinct pattern of conservation among human-associated bifidobacterial species.

Book review: 'Neo-mateship' in the 21st century : changes in the performance of Australian masculinity. Karina J. Butera, Deakin University 2008.

This article argues that 'traditional mateship', as the everyday practice of men's same-sex friendships, is a dying mode of relating in Australian culture. Using Goffman's dramaturgical model, the views of three generations of men are used to qualitatively explore three proposed sites of transformation in men's same-sex friendships. First, the shift from unquestioning group loyalty to individualistic, transient and contingent relationship choice; second, the move from guarded levels of disclosure to open expressiveness and willingness to display vulnerability; and finally the evolution from expecting and giving only practical support to providing both practical and emotional support. The narratives of the middle-aged cohort are used to illustrate the various role-distance strategies that were used to resist and rework gender scripts. The article concludes that, although the parameters of acceptable gendered behaviours in Australian men's friendships are expanding, they have not yet reached the breadth and depth found in 'pure' friendships, but could be described as a new type of mateship: neo-mateship.

Fabricating an identity in neo-liberal times: performing schooling as ‘number one’

This paper presents interview data from a case study of ‘Lemontyne College’; a large government school situated in a ‘master planned community’ (MPC) in Australia. The paper draws on Ball’s (2003) theorising of performativity and fabrication to analyse this school’s take up of the status‐oriented corporate discourses of performance, competition and accountability. This theorising brings to light the ways in which the managerial processes at the school, driven by the administration’s embracing of these discourses, shape Lemontyne into an auditable commodity and fabricate an identity around being ‘number 1’. The paper highlights the lack of authenticity of this fabrication by drawing attention to its careful and deliberate construction. Our focus here is on the surveillance and accountability measures required to discipline teachers into this performative sociality and on the alternative reality articulated by teachers in terms of their resistance to this sociality. To these ends, the paper highlights how Lemontyne’s embracing of performative discourses results in a de‐socialisation of schooling relations. We propose that such de‐socialisation compromises efforts in schools to respond productively to social change and in particular to the new equity challenges arising in contexts such as Lemontyne situated in a MPC.

Gender justice and education: constructions of boys within discourses of resentment, neo-liberalism and security

This paper examines the impact of a politics of resentment, neo‐liberal policies, and security concerns on issues of gender justice in schools in various western countries. We argue that since the 1990s gender justice in schools has been severely hampered by a politics of resentment, or backlash politics, and the presence of neo‐liberal discourses in education. Furthermore, we contend that current national security concerns in the post‐September 11 context have compounded many of the challenges posed by these trends. We detail how such trends have produced constructions of boys as oppressed, as problems and as dangerous. We argue for a problematising of such constructions and of the anti‐feminist, masculinist and imperialist discourses undergirding them. We propose that moving beyond such essentialising towards gender justice in education will require a critical engagement with the ways in which national security issues, such as the “war on terror”, are working alongside backlash politics and neo‐liberal discourses to distort gender equity and schooling priorities.

Neo-liberalism and new configurations of global space: possibilities, tensions and problematics for gender justice

While the global neo-liberal agenda has increased the impoverishment and marginalisation of many women, it has also created possibilities for pursuing gender justice. Deepened and broadened understandings and measures of equity brought about by the processes of globalisation and insights from feminism have disturbed neo-liberal regimes and produced action around the pursuit of gender equity goals. Moreover, new configurations of ‘the global’ have strengthened transnational feminist networks and coalitions and generated multiple and varied spaces for feminist engagement. Against this backdrop, this article draws attention to the ways in which these shifts have brought to light previously unrecognised complexities and tensions that continue to hinder the pursuit of global gender justice. Focusing on the feminist work of NGOs and CSOs and, specifically, issues of social capital and cultural context, the article examines the problematics and possibilities regarding these organisations' promotion of gender change at local, national and transnational levels. Such examination foregrounds the significance of a coherent feminist politics and activism that responds to the social conditions and cultural nuances that impact on gender relations in particular contexts and is supported by broader facilitative structures and social networks.