Full House at The Power of Death Book Launch

Power of Death This is a guest post written by the authors of The Power of Death: Contemporary Reflections on Death in Western Society. Ricarda Vidal and Maria-José Blanco launched The Power of Death on May 15th, at the River Room, King’s Building, King’s College London. Below, the authors discuss the successful event.

 

We were very happy about the large turnout for our Round Table on the Aesthetics of Death, film screening and book launch of our edited volume The Power of Death: Contemporary Reflections of Death in Western Society.

 
The artist Sarah Sparkes started us off with a presentation about her work on ghosts and the world in-between life and death. Ricardo Gutierrez, a PhD candidate in the department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, gave a talk about femicide and the stylisation and sacralisation of the mothers of murdered women in Mexico. Photographer Briony Campbell closed with a very moving presentation about her work ‘The Dad Project’, which documented her father’s death by cancer.

 
Ricarda Vidal and Maria-Jose then presented the book The Power of Death, which covers the various aspects of death – the slow painful death of cancer, the grief and mourning of those left behind, as well as the more sensational side of violent death, sudden accidental death or the taboos and transgressions of murder.

 
The evening closed with a series of short films which ranged from the black humour of a spoof advertisement for a completely automatic Harakiri-kit to a thought-provoking, albeit poetic, criticism of the American justice system.

 
Anyone interested in buying the Harakiri-Kit or our book at a 50% discount, please get in touch with Ricarda Vidal (ricarda.vidal@kcl.ac.uk) or Maria-José Blanco (maria-jose.blanco@kcl.ac.uk).

 

 

Read more about this book here.

 

 

 

 

 

Historians Relate to Present Echoes of their Work

Urban Violence in the Middle EastCovering a period from the late eighteenth century to today, Urban Violence in the Middle East explores the phenomenon of urban violence in order to unveil general developments and historical specificities in a variety of Middle Eastern contexts. Below, contributors to the volume tell about their personal relationship as historians to present echoes of their work.
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Celebrating International Museum Day

Museum Day

 

Today is International Museum Day!

 

Every year since 1977, International Museum Day is coordinated by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) and organised worldwide around May 18. This day is an occasion to raise awareness on how important museums are in the development of society.

 

The event highlights a specific theme each year that is at the heart of the international museum community’s preoccupations. The theme this year is Museums for a Sustainable Society. In honor of this event, we’d like to offer FREE ACCESS to the article “Assessing Museums Online: The Digital Heritage Sustainability (DHS) Framework” by Ana Luisa Sánchez Laws (from the second volume of the new journal Museum Worlds).

Connect with us on Facebook to access the article.

 

 

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Becoming Modern: The Mass Home and the Right to Comfort

At Home in Postwar FranceAfter World War II, France embarked on a project of modernization, which included the development of the modern mass home. At Home in Postwar France identifies the “right to comfort” as an invention of the postwar period and suggests that the modern mass home played a vital role in shaping new expectations for well-being and happiness. Below, author Nicole C. Rudolph discusses her inspiration for writing this book.

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May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM) is a celebration of the culture, traditions, and history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

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Berghahn is happy to present several series and a selection of books on studies of Asia-Pacific cultures, societies, and histories.

 

Asia-Pacific Studies: Past and Present Series

The forces of globalization in the Asia-Pacific—the most economically dynamic region of the world—are bringing about profound social, political and cultural changes in everyday lives, affecting the world both within and beyond the region. New social and cultural formations, such as the rise of the middle classes, the spread of new mass-media and virtual technologies, and the burden of environmental pressures, present challenges to global social theories. Meanwhile, the past casts a lingering shadow, with historical conflicts adding fuel to current tensions over a wide range of issues. This book series provides an outlet for cutting-edge academic research on the politics, histories, societies, and cultures of individual countries in the Asia-Pacific together with overviews of major regional trends and developments.

 

MAKING A DIFFERENCE?
Social Assessment Policy and Praxis and its Emergence in China
Edited by Susanna Price and Kathryn Robinson

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Simulated Shelves: Browse April 2015 New Books

We are delighted to present a selection of our newly published April 2015 titles from our core subjects of Anthropology, Educational Studies, Genocide Studies, History, Politics, Refugee & Migration Studies, and Theory & Methodology in Anthropology, along with a selection of our New in Paperback titles.

 

We are especially excited to announce the publication of WHAT IS EXISTENTIAL ANTHROPOLOGY? edited by Michael Jackson and Albert Piette

“This is a book whose time has come . . . Focusing on themes like contingency, the open-endedness of life projects, and the lived tension between emergent properties like security and freedom, existential anthropology attends to the human condition rather than just culture.” · Don Seeman, Emory University

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WHAT IS EXISTENTIAL ANTHROPOLOGY?
Edited by Michael Jackson and Albert Piette

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International Workers’ Day

May 1st is International Workers’ Day (also known as May Day) which is a celebration of the international labour movement and left-wing movements. It commonly sees organized street demonstrations and marches by working people and their labour unions throughout most of the world. It is a national holiday in more than 80 countries.

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To honor the holiday, Berghahn is happy to present a selection of relevant titles that explore the importance, the struggles and history of labor throughout the world.

 

THE HISTORY OF LABOUR INTERMEDIATION
Institutions and Finding Employment in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
Edited by Sigrid Wadauer, Thomas Buchner, and Alexander Mejstrik

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