American Scholars Research Articles

Who’s Afraid of Jadidism?: Reckoning with the Legacy of a Cold War Paradigm

Abstract Since the 1990s, scholars in the fields of Central Asian, Volga-Ural, North and South Caucasian, and Crimean history have debated the role of Jadidism in the study of the history of Muslim societies under Russia imperial rule. The concept of Jadidism – variously described as a program for teaching literacy in Turkic languages, a set of educational reforms, and a movement advocating a broad range of cultural, social, and legal reforms designed to “modernize” Muslim communities – made its first appearances in Soviet historiography in the 1920s–1930s. In the 1960s, as the Cold War reached new heights, the Jadid paradigm made its way into English- and French-language historical studies, whence it became the primary lens through which Western audiences encountered and interpreted the histories of Muslims in late imperial Russia. The opening of archival and library collections following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the embrace of new theories and paradigms in Russian studies broke the hold of the Jadid paradigm over Western scholarship. At the same time, a series of heated disputes began over the legacy of the Jadid paradigm and how best to research the intellectual history of Russia’s Muslims in a post-Cold War context. In this essay, I will present a history of the rise and fall of the old Jadid paradigm in European and American scholarship. I will consider how the study of Central Asian intellectual history has evolved since the paradigm’s decline and what this evolution and the contributions to this journal issue suggest about how historians can continue to examine the nature, extent, and meaning of Muslim reform movements without reviving the old Jadid paradigm.

Against decolonial reductionism: The impact of Latin American thinking on the data decolonization project

This essay argues that Latin American scholarship and movement practice are key to understanding the dynamics of the datafied society and countering its inequities. Examining the sources of inspiration of a frontrunner seeking to decolonize the datafied society – the Big Data from the South Initiative ( BigDataSur) – we review Martín-Barbero's ontological shift from media to mediations, Freire's methodology centring individual agency and empowerment as a structural task of society, Mignolo's invite to take decoloniality as a praxis rather than merely an idea, Rodríguez's first-hand engagement with technology at the margins, Escobar's autonomous design for the pluriverse, and the critical ecology of eco-social movements. We engage with a new generation of Latin American thinkers who turn their gaze to core problems of today's systems of knowledge production, be they media or academia. Learning from these scholars, we warn against decolonial reductionism, namely the trend to evoke decolonial ideas and theories without fully committing to putting them into practice. We maintain that to decolonize datafication, we ought to also change how we generate knowledge about the datafied society. We outline three practical strategies that foster an open-ended dialogue on alternative approaches to datafication and scientific practice: multilingualism, public scholarship, and mentorship.

Law and Religion: Destruction and Reconstruction

Diritto e religione: decostruzione e ricostruzione ABSTRACT. In the 1940s, Austrian economic Joseph Schumpeter coined the concept of “creative destruction” to describe how capitalism evolves through the relentless and continuous dismantling of its old paradigms. Fast forward to the present, British and American scholars Russell Sandberg and Marc O. De Girolami are emerging today as contemporary “creative destroyers” in the field of law and religion. Pointing to the pathologies affecting the intellectual development of the discipline and prescribing possible remedies, this paper introduces and discusses two recent works by the Authors as part of their efforts to critically deconstruct law and religion and project it into the future. SUMMARY: 1. Introduction - 2. Repentance - 3. Reappraisal- 4. Regeneration - 5. Discussion - 6. Death and New Life - 7. Conclusions.

Bibliometric Analysis of Research Status, Hotspots, and Prospects of UV/PS for Environmental Pollutant Removal

There are various methods for environmental organic pollutant degradation and removal, among which ultraviolet/persulfate has drawn significant attention due to its excellent oxidizing properties, high maneuverability, and less formation of by-products. To comprehensively assess the development of ultraviolet/persulfate, a bibliometric analysis was conducted based on relevant literature indexed by Web of Science from 2002 to 2024. The findings revealed a growing number of publications, with China, Iran, and the United States being the top three countries with the highest total number of publications. Robust regional collaborations were evident. Additionally, Chinese and American scholars presented more significant activity in this field, and their publications exhibited higher quality. Furthermore, the current research hotspots, as indicated by keywords, primarily focused on the degradation mechanism of ultraviolet/persulfate and the reaction kinetic model simulation. Bibliometric results underscored that ultraviolet/persulfate, as an effective and environmentally friendly disinfection technology, possessed substantial potential for controlling diverse environmental pollutants, such as antibiotics, dyes, natural organic substances, heavy metals, microorganisms, and so on. Future research might concentrate on developing new catalytic composites and optimization of the photoactivation system. The practical application still needs to be investigated due to the complexity of the water matrix. The revival of microorganisms and the variation of toxicity should be considered further.

Emerson’s Scholar: A Transcendental Response for Sentient Resilience

Abstract In this essay, I engage in an interpretive and critical analysis of Emerson’s The American Scholar (1837) essay wherein he states, “Our day of dependence, our longstanding apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close.” I assert that the educational philosophy Emerson posits in this essay on how to educate the new American intellectual of his time, which includes curricular engagement with nature, books, action, and the development of the human traits Emerson characterized as “man thinking,” continues to be relevant for informing contemporary forms of liberal learning curricula; indeed, some of these curricula can represent a Transcendentalist response to the decaying effects of neo-liberal economic interests, anti-intellectual impulses, and the neglect of the perennial idea of learning for its own sake. I contemporize and critique Emerson’s ideas explored in The American Scholar by including the work of two philosophers namely Murray Miles and Iris Murdoch; and, Emerson and Transcendentalism scholars including Barbara Packer and Robert D. Richardson Jr. and others provide contextual insights about The American Scholar address’s implications for achieving self-reliance and a more autonomous creative impulse initiated through the liberal arts tradition, with special attention to the essential literary works of humanity.

Reading Scripture in Latin America: An Evangelical Perspective From the Grassroots

This essay illustrates the practices, methods, and commitments of New Testament interpreters in Latin America. The first section provides a theoretical framework and the second section provides an example of the kind of interpretation Latin American scholars practice, focused on the Gospel of John, specifically John 9. The main thesis of the essay is that New Testament interpreters in Latin America focus both on hearing God and practising the mission of God to all people. There are particular methods that best serve this interpretive purpose. Such methods focus on the text and on understanding history for the sake of engagement with the text. The role of the reader is not so much to define beforehand what a text says or to find passages that serve a particular purpose, but to engage with the many contexts that make a text what it is, with the aim to hear the God who is behind the text.

The Influence Mechanism of Internet Celebrity Phenomenon on Career Selection View of Generation Z in China--based on the Cultivation Theory

With the continuous development of information technology, television, as a mainstream media is gradually being replaced by new media, and this new mainstream media is also subtly influencing the career views of ‘Generation Z’ in China. This paper uses the cultivation theory proposed by American scholar Gerbner to analyze how the ‘symbolic reality’ constructed by the Internet celebrity industry affects the construction of ‘subjective reality’ in individuals' minds, and provides a brief overview of the ‘objective reality’ of the Internet celebrity industry in China.

Current perspectives and trends of CD39-CD73-eAdo/A2aR research in tumor microenvironment: a bibliometric analysis.

Extracellular adenosine (eAdo) bridges tumor metabolism and immune regulation. CD39-CD73-eAdo/A2aR axis regulates tumor microenvironment (TME) and immunotherapy response. In the era of immunotherapy, exploring the impact of the CD39-CD73-eAdo/A2aR axis on TME and developing targeted therapeutic drugs to enhance the efficacy of immunotherapy are the current research hotspots. This study summarizes and explores the research trends and hotspots of the adenosine axis in the field of TME to provide ideas for further in-depth research. Literature information was obtained from the Web of Science core collection database. The VOS viewer and the bibliometric tool based on R were used to quantify and identify cooperation information and individual influence by analyzing the detailed information of the global annual publication volume, country/region and institution distribution, article authors and co-cited authors, and journal distribution of these articles. At the same time, the distribution of author keywords and the co-occurrence of author keywords, highly cited articles, and highly co-cited references of CD39-CD73-eAdo/A2aR in the field of TME were analyzed to determine research hotspots and trends. 1,721 articles published in the past ten years were included in this study. Through bibliometric analysis, we found that (1) 69 countries and regions explored the effect of the CD39-CD73-eAdo/A2aR on TME, and the research was generally on the rise. Researchers in the United States dominated research in this area, with the highest total citation rate. China had the most significant number of publications. (2) Harvard University has published the most articles in this field. (3) 12,065 authors contributed to the publication of papers in this field, of which 23 published at least eight papers. STAGG J had significant academic influence, with 24 published articles and 2,776 citations. Co-cited authors can be clustered into three categories. Stagg J, Allard B, Ohta A, and Antonioli, L occupied a central position in the network. (4) 579 scholarly journals have published articles in this field. The journal FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY published the most significant number of papers, with 97 articles and a total of 2,317 citations, and the number of publications increased year by year. (5) "The ectonucleotidases CD39 and CD73: Novel checkpoint inhibitor targets" was the most frequently local cited article (163 times). The "A2A adenosine receptor protects tumors from antitumor T cells" was the most co-cited reference (224 times). (6) Through the analysis of author keywords, we found that the relationship between adenosine and immunotherapy was a core concept for many researchers in this field. Breast cancer, melanoma, colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer, glioblastoma, pancreatic cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, and lung cancer were the most frequent cancer types in adenosine-related tumor studies. Immunotherapy, immunosuppression, immune checkpoint, and immune checkpoint inhibitors were the hot keywords in the research, reflecting the importance of the adenosine metabolic pathway in tumor immunotherapy. The keywords such as Immunogenic cell death, T cells, Sting, regulatory T cells, innate immunity, and immune infiltration demonstrated the pathways by which adenosine affected the TME. The famous author keywords in recent years have been immunotherapy, immunogenic cell death, inflammation, lung cancer, and gastric cancer. The effect of CD39-CD73-eAdo/A2aR on the infiltration and function of various immune cells in TME, tumor immunotherapy response, and patient prognosis has attracted the attention of researchers from many countries/regions. American scholars still dominate the research in this field, but Chinese scholars produce the most research results. The journal FRONTIERS IN IMMUNOLOGY has published the wealthiest research in the field. Stagg J was a highly influential researcher in this field. Further exploration of targeted inhibition of CD39-CD73-eAdo/A2aR alone or in combination with other immunotherapy, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy in treating various cancer types and developing effective clinical therapeutic drugs are continuous research hotspots in this field.

Association between obesity and liver cancer from 2012 to 2023: Bibliometric analysis and global trends.

Incidence rates of liver cancer have increased worldwide in recent decades, making it a major public health problem globally. Obesity can be caused by multiple factors and promotes the development of liver cancer in many ways. Although the research on the association between obesity and liver cancer was previously explored, we first employed bibliometrics to analyze the current research status. From 2012 to 2023, the Web of Science Core Collection database was searched for studies regarding the association between obesity and liver cancer. To evaluate worldwide trends and research hotspots in this topic, bibliometric analysis tools such as VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and R Package were employed. Altogether 233 eligible publications, consisting of 167 articles and 66 reviews, were analyzed. The yearly number of publications and average citation numbers have increased over the last 11 years, particularly the last 6 years. The great majority of published articles on this topic originated from the United States (n = 89, 38.20%), followed by China (n = 60, 25.75%), and England (n = 23, 9.87%). In this subject's research, American scholars embodied considerable production, great prominence, and high academic influence. The most cited article was Yoshimoto, S et al of Japan Science and Technology Agency published in 2013 with a citation number of 1410. We apply bibliometric analysis for the first time in this field, expecting to help scholars efficiently and effectively retrieve the association between obesity and liver cancer.

Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of the Gratitude at Work Scale in Employed Nurses: A Cross-Sectional Study.

The Gratitude at Work Scale, originally developed by American scholars, has been widely administered to mental health professionals and human service workers to explore gratitude in the workplace. No Chinese-language instrument is currently available for assessing workplace gratitude. The aims of this study were to (a) translate the original English version of the Gratitude at Work Scale into a traditional Chinese version (TC-GAWS), confirm its factor structure, and analyze its psychometric properties among newly employed nurses and (b) develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the TC-GAWS short form. A psychometric study using a cross-sectional web-based design was conducted in Taiwan. Three hundred twenty-two employed nurses completed a battery of self-administered online questionnaires that included a demographic datasheet, the Gratitude Questionnaire-Six-Item Form, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10, and the Thoughts of Quitting Scale. IBM SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 28.0 were used for data analysis, and Cronbach's alpha and Pearson's correlation were used to assess reliability and concurrent validity. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted. The internal consistency and stability of the TC-GAWS total scale were .88 and .91, respectively. The exploratory factor analysis showed a satisfactory Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value of .88 and a Bartlett's test value of 654.01 ( p < .001), suggesting that 64.55% of the total variance was explained by the two-factor TC-GAWS. After item reduction, the CFA of the six remaining items of the TC-GAWS short form revealed adequate fit statistics for a two-factor structure and a second-order factor. Strong correlations were found between the 10-item and six-item TC-GAWS ( r > .94) in the two samples, suggesting good concurrent validity. The overall scores for the 10-item and six-item TC-GAWS had similar convergent validity, with moderate-to-strong correlations for the Gratitude Questionnaire-Six-Item Form ( r = .45 and .540), Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 ( r = .49 and .51), and Thoughts of Quitting Scale ( r = -.57 and -.53). The CFA yielded a two-factor, six-item model that exhibited good fit with the latent constructs of χ 2 / df = 11.06/8 = 1.38, p = .198, comparative fit index = .996, goodness-of-fit index = .979, root mean square error of approximation = .045, root mean square residual = .030, and standardized root mean squared residual = .023. Both the 10- and six-item TC-GAWS instruments demonstrated good reliability and validity in nurse participants. The TC-GAWS may be used to measure gratitude in nurses in the workplace. This instrument has the potential to facilitate a better understanding of gratitude in nurses, which may be applied to the improvement of nursing management, research, and education.

Malinowski in njegov formativni prispevek k ameriški folkloristiki

Bronisław Malinowski (1884-1942) was a foundational force in the development of functionalist theory in the discipline of anthropology. Based on intensive fieldwork in the Trobriand Islands, his pragmatic theory stimulated much discussion and debate in anthropological circles. Lesser known, however, is the influence that Malinowski had on the development of modern performance studies in the United States among folklore scholars. This research note focuses on Malinowski’s writings concerning the language of myth and magic, since these were the aspects of his work that appealed most to American scholars of performance in the 1970s.

Historiography and Political Discourse The history of Roman imperialism in the thought of Theodor Mommsen and Tenney Frank

This article explores the nexus between power and historiography, particularly ancient Roman imperialism, in the German and American historical writings from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Scholars have intensively explored the use of the roman imperialism in supporting the British imperialism. However, the relations between Roman imperialism and its usage in German and American historiography remain critically unexplored. Through the of Michel Foucault’s power-knowledge and discourse analysis, this paper aims to delves into the relationships between power of those traditions and historical productions. The central questions are: How does the narrative surrounding Roman imperialism shape discussions on the nation-state building and expansion beyond state borders? And how does the discourse on Roman imperialism incorporates racial theories? particularly in the works of German scholar Theodor Mommsen and American scholar Tenney Frank. Despite their different approaches, both scholars drew from Roman history to achieve similar political aims. This paper contends that history, as exemplified by Roman imperialism, serves as a powerful tool in justifying political actions.

Foreign views on the culture of Soviet Kazakhstan: an analysis of historiography

The research conducted by American scholars focused on themes such as nationality, language, religion, politics, modernization, and cultural change. These scholars sought to understand the implementation of Sovietnational policies in a multi-ethnic society like Kazakhstan and the delicate balance between Soviet identityand ethnic identities within the union. Language reform and its impact on cultural and linguistic diversitywere also explored, along with the interaction between Islam and the secular ideology of the Soviet state. Theeffects of Soviet modernization programs on Kazakhstani society, including the disruption of traditional prac-tices and ways of life, were investigated. Moreover, the study examined how Soviet policies influenced cul-tural institutions, literary practices, and artistic expression, highlighting the tensions between conformity toSoviet norms and the preservation of a distinctive Kazakh cultural identity. The article acknowledges that thebroader global dynamics of the Cold War era influenced the interpretive frameworks and assumptions ofthese scholars. As part of an intellectual tradition shaped by Western liberal values, American scholars oftentook a critical stance toward the Soviet system. Their research emphasized the failures, problems, and resistance generated by Soviet policies, including state modernization, national policies, and language reforms.The article concludes that despite valuable contributions from scholars such as Wheeler, Allworth, and Con-nolly, a comprehensive examination of Kazakh culture during the Soviet period through the lens of foreignhistoriography remains lacking. It highlights the need for further research to deepen our understanding of themultifaceted aspects of Sovietera Kazakh culture, shedding light on the complexities and contradictions inherent in the Soviet project.

Emancipatory Communication: A Critical Reflection on Communication Sciences in the Post-Pandemic Era1

ABSTRACT In an era of uncertainty, where epistemic freedoms are challenged and where many people feel excluded, how can communication – both as a discipline and a practice – serve to combat these uncertainties and feelings of exclusion? What epistemology can guide us and orient our communication science to ensure the right of all to produce knowledge on equal terms? What communication practice ensures inclusion and participation for all? Based upon a review of recent African lines of thought and their links to Latin American scholarship, this text advances an intellectual agenda that in the post-pandemic era can inform the development of theories and practices of communication that transcend the limitations of the dominant Western episteme when facing the current challenges of planetary transformations.

A carnival learning party: crossing cultural borders through coding literacy

This experience report aims to describe the conceptual and logistical features of Coding Carnival, a Brazilian-American collaboration on teaching computer programming as literacy. It is a descriptive study, with a qualitative inquiry into the Eisner methodology approach (2017). In the fall of 2019, through a sponsorship from the Brazilian government, Corrêa came to study concepts of coding literacy with Vee, an English professor at the University of Pittsburgh. They elected to design a reading group focused on teaching coding in K12[1] contexts. Readings included Brazilian and American scholars of literacy and coding, alongside hands-on activities. The culmination of the reading group was a "Coding Carnival," two public all-ages events with a theme of Brazilian carnival to demonstrate hands-on coding activities and to help families learn coding literacy together. The power and identity relationships inherent to literacy, as well as its symbolic and technological features, connected "coding literacy" with Brazilian literacy theory--in particular, the potential of individual transformation and emancipation described by P. Freire (1981). D’Ambrosio's "ethnomathematics" helped us to see how cultural, physical, and social conditions shape the mathematical thinking embedded in coding practices (D’Ambrosio, 2002). The coding literacy theory, presented by Vee (2017), in conversation with Bers’ ideas of teaching coding as a second language, helped us to bridge the gap between teaching in the humanities and understanding technical concepts in programming through a carnival learning party.[2] [1] K–12 is an abbreviation of kindergarten (K) for 5– 6-year-olds through twelfth grade (12) for 17–18-year-olds, corresponding to the first and last grades, respectively, of free basic education in the USA. [2] This study was approved by the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board under the number STUDY19100176.

NATO enlargement to the East and the war in Ukraine from the American perspective

The aim of the article is to analyze the legitimacy of justifying the outbreak of war in Ukraine by expanding NATO to the East after the Cold War. The study was conducted from the American perspective. The main research problem is the question of whether, from the point of view of American scholars and experts, post-Cold War NATO expansion to the East was a strategic mistake and was responsible for the current war in Ukraine. There is no consensus among them whether NATO enlargement after the Cold War was an error and led to Russian aggression in Ukraine. Most of them, however, dispute such a statement, rejecting Moscow’s accusations that the United States and the West are accountable for the current situation in Ukraine.

Hotelling and Wilson on Statistical Inference: Local Attitudes and Universal Dreams

During the early 1920s, a scattered group of American scholars, among whom were Harold Hotelling and E. B. Wilson, started a joint effort to develop statistical instruments in economics. They became interested in disparate topics such as the statistical determination of demand curves, business cycles, yield forecasting, population growth, and many others. Hotelling and Wilson shared much: both were trained in mathematics, both were convinced of the importance of developing inferential statistical tools based on probability theory, and both were at odds with the common sentiment of the community of statisticians contemporary with them, a community that was highly skeptical about statistical inference grounded on probabilities. Their trajectories, however, differed, diverted by their entanglement with Stanford for Hotelling and Harvard for Wilson. Confronted with different local realities, they came to develop profoundly different approaches that characterized the debates of the 1920s and 1930s on statistical inference.

Remaking Early American Literary Studies (Again)

Abstract This review essay considers the edited collection American Literature in Transition: The Long Nineteenth Century, 1770-1828, in relation to current shifts in the field of early American literary studies away from New Historicist methodologies toward a concern with topics such as form, genre, and networks. Seeking to interrogate longstanding critical assumptions about the danger of “grand narratives” and “bounded wholes,” it asks whether potentially progressive alternatives to concepts of transition and contingency are possible. At a moment when early Americanist scholarship, and the institutional and political contexts for it, are in a heightened state of flux, what emerging lines of inquiry are likely to have an ongoing influence and to what degree are critics working on the long eighteenth century engaged in a shared project?

Space and Theatre

Theatre as an artistic and cultural activity has been the subject of academic speculation ever since the Greeks, but it was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that European and American scholars institutionalized a field of theatre studies. A significant part of this new field’s self-definition involved a clear splitting away from traditional literary studies, within which theatre had previously had its academic home. The entire Western tradition, from the Greeks onward, considered the drama primarily as a branch of literature—the other basic divisions being the epic and the lyric. Traditionally theatre scholarship was based upon the literary text (Artistotle’s indifference to spectacle is an early and notorious example of this bias) and the actual process of the physical realization of this text, while not entirely ignored, was a matter of considerably less interest.

Joseph Reményi and socialist world literature

Hungarian American scholar, Joseph Reményi’s concepts of “minority literature,” “small nation literature,” and “world literatures” highlight the shift from the singular forms Deleuze and Guattari’s “minor literature,” Pascale Casanova’s “small literature,” and Marx and Engels and Karl Radek’s “world literature” to their plural counterparts. In the discourse on “minor literature” and “small literature,” Reményi offers a nuanced categorization of Hungarian literary production following the First World War. He delineates it into three distinct strands: “literature in Hungary,” “literature of Hungarian exiles,” and “Hungarian literature in the Successor States.” This tripartite classification not only encapsulates the varied loci of Hungarian literary expression but also underscores the emerging literary dichotomy between Hungarian and Slavic &amp; Soviet literatures in the aftermath of the Second World War. As for “world literature”, Reményi’s conceptual framework, which pivots on the axes of “regionalism” and “internationalism,” segments world literature into four stratified layers: minority and marginal → local → national → world. This theoretical model facilitates a repositioning of the intrinsic diversities inherent within each stratum, mapping them onto a spectrum of diverse nations, cultural groups, and minority populations. Furthermore, Reményi’s concept of “world literatures” represents a shift from the singular notion of Geothe’s “eine allemeine Weltliteratur”, Marx and Engels’ “eine Weltliteratur”, and Radek’s “contemporary world literature” to a pluralized understanding. For “socialist literature”, Reményi’s categorization of Hungarian literature within the Western European tradition, as opposed to Eastern European literature, signifies the multifaceted nature of socialist literature. This concept, initially introduced by Marx and Engels in 1848, further elaborated by Radek in 1934, is eventually expanded by Reményi into a more pluralistic form as socialist literatures in 1956. The fusion of Reményi’s concept of “world literatures” and “socialist literatures” provided a gateway to construct Socialist World Literature.