On the Evening News, the Galapagos Islands, and the Purpose of the Academy

A post by Journals Marketing Manager Young Lee.

Whenever I watch the news these days, I know I’m in for a depressing half-hour, especially in New York, where crimes big and small seem to happen nonstop. Whether it’s a subway groper, a child falling out of a seventh story window, or the violence in Syria, I am starting to understand that no news really is the only good news.

This steady stream of bad news makes me wish for a Garden of Eden on this world, a place that’s a little more innocent, and I’m reminded of a trip I took last December to the Galapagos Islands, famous for their role in the inception of Darwin’s theory of evolution. What struck me most about the islands was that, with wildlife galore and few predators, all the animals seemed to coexist so peacefully. Sea lions casually rested their heads on iguanas and birds never worried about their eggs being eaten. Tropical flamingos and penguins lived side-by-side. It was the oddest thing I had ever seen and it was inspiring. Continue reading “On the Evening News, the Galapagos Islands, and the Purpose of the Academy”

Interview with the Author- Christien Klaufus, Author of Urban Residence: Housing and Social Transformations in Globalizing Ecuador

Christien Klaufus is the author of Urban Residence: Housing and Social Transformations in Urbanizing Ecuador, published this spring by Berghahn. Her work examines two contrasting populations in Ecuador’s cities: popular-settlement residents and professionals in the planning and construction sector to understand how they shape the city itself. Here she discusses her work, how she came to it, and her many varied interests outside the academy.

1. What drew you to the study of urban spaces in Ecuador?
My fascination for Latin America started when I was a child. I used to collect clippings about Peru, Bolivia, Mexico and Guatemala from the National Geographic journals that my father brought home. After graduating in Architecture in 1993, I travelled through South America for a few months. It was during that trip that I decided I wanted to switch careers from working in architectural design to becoming an academic researcher on urban spaces and architecture, preferably in Latin America. Ecuador became my favorite destination. So I applied for a BA and MA in Cultural Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, which later resulted in a PhD dissertation on that topic. The book was a logical outcome of my multidisciplinary academic background and a long-lasting fascination for Latin America. Continue reading “Interview with the Author- Christien Klaufus, Author of Urban Residence: Housing and Social Transformations in Globalizing Ecuador”

“Why is marking a book indespensible to reading it?”

“Why is marking a book indespensible to reading it? First, it keeps you awake — not merely conscious, but wide awake. Second, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in wordes, spoken or written…Third, writing your reactions down helps you to remember the thoughts of the author…Marking a book is literally an expression of your differences or your agreements with the author, It is the highest respect you can pay him.” Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book

Quotation of the Week

Interview with the Author- Nitzan Ben-Shaul, Author of Cinema of Choice: Optional Thinking and Narrative Movies

Nitzan Ben-Shaul is the author of Cinema of Choice: Optional Thinking and Narrative Movies, which will be released by Berghahn this month. His book explores films such as Sliding Doors, Run Lola Run, Inglourious Basterds, and Rashomon that present alternate narrative paths and uses these films to examine how standard linear films close down thinking processes, while arguing that optional thinking in film can be stimulating and rewarding. Here, he answers questions about his research and topic.

1. What drew you to the topic of cinema that proposes alternate narrative paths?
I was initially drawn to these movies when working on my book on interactive cinema (Hypernarrative Interactive Cinema: Problems and Solutions, Rodopi, 2008). Being concerned there with drama-guided interaction I found movies like Run Lola Run, Sliding Doors, and Rashomon to be excellent models for devising engaging interactive movies given their bifurcating narrative paths. I also produced a feature length interactive movie entitled Turbulence (2009) based on my research into interactive movies. I then asked myself what is the added value of these films and realized that they encourage optional thinking, that is, they get you thinking about options in life, a process that most movies actually derail by their encouraging closed-mindedness in their one-track narrative trajectory leading in an apparent strict causality to a relieving closure. Continue reading “Interview with the Author- Nitzan Ben-Shaul, Author of Cinema of Choice: Optional Thinking and Narrative Movies

Happy Bastille Day- A Brief History of the Holiday and French Revolution Resources from Berghahn

Most national days celebrate about what you would expect a national day to celebrate. Some, like the national days of the United States, Albania, and Haiti mark the signing of a declaration of independence from a colonial power. Other countries, like much of Africa, choose to remember the day the colonial power actually left. Countries like Germany and Italy celebrate unification. Others are a little quirkier, like Austria which celebrates its declaration of neutrality and Luxembourg which honors the Grand Duke’s birthday. A handful of countries such as the United Kingdom and Denmark have no national holiday. But few countries can top France for the sheer coolness of their national day which commemorates the day an angry mob stormed a prison. Continue reading “Happy Bastille Day- A Brief History of the Holiday and French Revolution Resources from Berghahn”

New to Berghahn Journals- European Comic Art

The release of the July 2012 issue of European Comic Art has been a big deal around our offices because it marks the journal’s relaunch as a Berghahn title. Published in partnership with the American Bande Dessinée Society and the International Bande Dessinée Society, it is the first English-language journal devoted to European graphic novels and comic strips.  Continue reading “New to Berghahn Journals- European Comic Art”

An Excerpt from Fortune and the Cursed: The Sliding Scale of Time in Mongolian Divination

Note: Berghahn recently published Katherine Swancutt’s Fortune and the Cursed: The Sliding Scale of Time in Mongolian Divination, an ethnographic study of the world of Buryat Mongol divination. An excerpt from the book follows a note from the author which places it in the context of her larger argument.

It’s common knowledge that, when under duress, many people turn to religion. Yet the human penchant for inventing new magical practices during this ‘turn to religion’ is rarely revealed.

When I first went to Mongolia, I wanted to uncover how a shamanic cosmology comes to be reinvented over time. My plan was to document the shamanic practices – and especially the divinations (aka ‘fortune-tellings’) – undertaken by Buryat Mongols at the northeastern fringes of the country. These shamans manage everything from major health and business crises to everyday fluctuations in a person’s fortune, which, I learned, is not just a kind of luck-filled prosperity that can rise or fall dramatically. Fortune is also a driving force behind Buryat innovation-making. Continue reading “An Excerpt from Fortune and the Cursed: The Sliding Scale of Time in Mongolian Divination

Get to Know Berghahn: Young Lee

Get to Know Berghahn is a recurring interview feature that introduces the hardworking people behind the scenes at Berghahn. This week’s subject is Marketing Manager Young Lee.

1. How long have you been at Berghahn? What did you do before that?
I’m  newbie! I’ve been at Berghahn for a little over 2 months.  Previously, I worked as an Email Marketing Manager at a higher-ed company called Collegebound Network  and I also worked as an account  manager specializing in the Library Market at Barnes & Noble.

2. What do you read when you aren’t reading Berghahn books?
Mostly fiction but the last book I read was a non-fiction title called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and it was fantastic! The next book on my list is The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.  I also read  the Harry Potter series once a year. I know, it’s a sickness.

3. What’s a skill or talent you have that no one at the office knows about?
It’s more of a hobby, but I do like to bake. Unfortunately, I don’t do it much during the summer due to the heat that the oven radiates in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen/living room.

4. Where would you want to live if you could move the Berghahn offices anywhere? Why?
Somewhere by an ocean and mountains. I would say Mid-Coast Maine. Seafood is essential in my life and access to nature activities like hiking and skiing would be great! The longer I live in the city, the more I fantasize about moving to the country.

5. What’s your favorite thing about working at Berghahn?
I love that Berghahn is a small office. Everyone here works really hard and truly cares about the quality of their work. It has been a very easy transition for me since everyone has been so nice and helpful. The short commute isn’t bad either!

Gender, Sports, and Culture: The Victorians and Us

Graduate school ruins your ability to view anything related to your topic of study with an unacademic eye. This is fine if your topic doesn’t come up every day like, say, Byzantine art, but when you choose something that crops up often, like the influence of American music on Continental youth culture in the 1950s, it means you’ll be mentally revising your thesis every time you hear “Johnny B. Goode.” I’m reminded of this phenomenon every Olympiad because I wrote my master’s thesis on sports in Nazi Germany, using the party’s sports policy up until the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a window into their ideas about race and its intersection with political priorities before the war. The fast-approaching 2012 Olympics already have me mentally revising my thesis (something I’m sure I’ll be doing on my death bed), but the most recent issue of our journal Critical Survey has me wondering if I didn’t miss an altogether more interesting topic- sports and gender. Continue reading “Gender, Sports, and Culture: The Victorians and Us”