Archival Material Research Articles

The Trans Archive in Shola von Reinhold’s LOTE and Jordy Rosenberg’s Confessions of the Fox

Reimagining archives and recovery scholarship have become trends in contemporary trans fiction. Shola von Reinhold’s LOTE (2020) and Jordy Rosenberg’s Confessions of the Fox (2018) are examples of this interest in the historical touches of trans ancestors and present-day transprotagonists. In LOTE and Confessions of the Fox, the protagonists sift through archival materials, challenge white, cisgender, heteronormative archons in institutional archives, and through critical fabulation imagine Deleuzoguattarian versions of grassroots trans archives that promise queer futurities of validation and community.

Evaluation of CacyBP/SIP expression and its relationship with ERK1/2 and p38 kinase in testicular seminoma

Testicular cancer accounts for approximately 5% of all urologic cancers. The most common histopathological diagnosis of testicular neoplastic lesions are germ cell tumors (90-95% of cases), among which the majority of cases are seminomas, the most common malignant tumors among men aged 15-44. For better clinical diagnosis and treatment, it is important to understand the molecular mechanisms of tumor formation. In this study, the expression of the CacyBP/SIP protein and ERK1/2 and p38 kinases was analyzed for the first time in seminomas and normal testicular tissues. The research was carried out using archival tissue material from 30 patients undergoing surgery due to testicular seminoma, whereas the comparative material consisted of the adjacent normal tissues. Immunohistochemistry and qRT-PCR were used to identify the expression of CacyBP/SIP, ERK1/2, and p38. A marked weakening of the immunohistochemical reaction was observed in the cancerous tissue compared to the control tissue. PCR testing of the marked proteins confirmed their lower expression in seminoma. Our findings suggest the involvement of the CacyBP/SIP protein in the ERK1/2 and p38 signalling pathways, which may be involved in the processes of testicular seminoma carcinogenesis. The results of our research provide the basis for further research in this area.

Text and performance quarterly: in and of the humanities

ABSTRACT This letter of congratulations and welcome to Text and Performance Quarterly’s incoming editor, Kimberlee Perez, argues for centering and advocating for the journal’s epistemic commitment to the humanities within communication. It draws on archival materials, scholarship in the journal, and the author’s experiences as both a faculty member and former TPQ editor to discuss the status of this commitment within the field. In a widely acknowledged moment of crisis for the humanities’ position in US higher education, TPQ has a unique and vital role to play in expanding its profile within the National Communication Association and communication as a discipline.

Enhancing digital access to Kenya’s archival materials through virtual and augmented reality technologies

Purpose Digital transformation through technology integration to support information access across sectors is a global trend. However, the Kenya National Archives and Documentation Service (KNADS) has made minimal progress. This study assesses KNADS’ readiness to adopt Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies and examines their vital characteristics and applications in archival management.Design/methodology/approach Using a mixed-methods research approach, data were collected from 32 participants consisting of all KNADS top and middle management staff. Qualitative data were collected using interviews and analysed thematically, while quantitative data were collected through questionnaires and analysed using SPSS version 24.Findings KNADS collections are in physical formats. They are accessed and used physically. Similarly, KNADS does not have a comprehensive digital transformation strategy to integrate virtual and augmented reality technologies to guarantee continuity if physical access is disrupted.Practical implications KNADS should promote and provide the broadest possible accessibility of materials while respecting legal and ethical access restrictions, including public statutes, cultural protections, donor contracts and privacy requirements.Originality/value Although many studies have been conducted on technological adoption for archival access, the study explores this from a Global South perspective.

How workers construct a sense of positive occupational identity in a contested emerging profession: the case of career coaches

PurposeUsing the empirical context of the coaching profession, this study explores how workers in a partially contested and emerging occupation construct a sense of positive occupational identity.Design/methodology/approachWe adopted a grounded theory method, drawing on interviews with 43 Brazilian career coaches, supplemented by documentary analysis of archival materials related to the profession and non-participant observations conducted during training sessions for these professionals.FindingsParticipants report the ambiguity of their occupational roles as career coaches, with expectations from different groups sometimes aligning and sometimes conflicting. Instead of striving for a homogeneous expectation of how career coaches should be, they suggest finding a sufficient balance between their perceived selves and diverse expectations. This attainable authenticity is reflected in participants' reliance on validation from supportive social groups rather than those who disapprove of career coaching as a vocation. We contend that two combined factors were essential for these professionals in a simultaneously contested and emerging occupation to construct a positive occupational identity. The first involves recognizing that they cannot be entirely authentic in their profession but can be sufficiently authentic. The second is that they should not rely on universal societal approval but instead leverage approval from certain societal groups, accepting that not everyone will approve of them.Originality/valueThis paper represents an original effort to explore how career coaches endeavor to build a positive occupational identity, considering the context of a simultaneously contested and emerging occupation. The simultaneous consideration of these factors, through the specific case of career coaches, was innovative for the literature.

Revisiting the Fall of Aq Masjid: Khoqand Instability and the Russian Conquest

The 1853 capture of Aq Masjid was a decisive moment in Russia's Central Asian expansion, acting as a springboard for further advances. Traditionally seen as a response to Khoqandi raids on Qazaqs under Russian protection, this article challenges that view and emphasises the impact of internal instability within the Khoqand Khanate. Russia strategically exploited civil strife and political fragmentation that had weakened Khoqand's leadership. Archival materials, including Qazaq intelligence documents, Russian military correspondence, and Khoqandi chronicles, reveal that the campaign was less a reaction to raids and more a calculated move to capitalise on Khoqand's internal divisions.

Building a Broad Partnership: The Evolution of Armenia–UAE Relations

This article aims to examine the relations between the Republic of Armenia and the United Arab Emirates. Using statistical data, official statements, archival materials, and other relevant sources, it discusses the motives of the Republic of Armenia and the United Arab Emirates for developing bilateral relations, analyzes factors impacting those relations, and evaluates the dynamics of their relationships. It employs a multifactor analytical framework that delves into the nuances of bilateral relations and discusses bilateral cooperation in four areas—political ties, economic cooperation, security and defense, and domestic factors and perceptions. They are analyzed in the context of both states’ international environment and foreign policy priorities. The study finds that the two states have consistently grown and broadened their relations, particularly in economic cooperation. On the other hand, this partnership lacks depth and strategic engagement.

Riding artificial waves: the hybridisation of surfing in urban spaces

ABSTRACT Traditional outdoor lifestyle sports, once rooted exclusively in natural environments, have increasingly been practiced in safe and controlled artificial settings. This phenomenological research examines the case of Wave Park in South Korea to gain nuanced insights into surfers’ experiences and perceptions within artificial settings. We collected multiple qualitative data sources, including 12 semi-structured interviews with recreational surfers, archival materials, and field observations. Our findings revealed the complex and ambivalent nature of the artificial surfing experience, highlighting both the opportunities and challenges inherent in the urban leisure expansion. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of urban leisure experiences in lifestyle sports and offer broader implications for conceptualising leisure spaces in contemporary society. Additionally, the examination of the Korean context enriches our understanding of the cultural hybridisation and glocalisation processes in lifestyle sports.

Effects of Saline Solutions on Paper-Based Cultural Heritage: Non-Invasive Techniques for Studying Flooded Ancient Books

Archival materials are increasingly vulnerable to damage from chemical, physical, biological, and environmental factors, including climate change-related extreme weather events such as torrential rains and flash floods. These conditions pose significant risks to paper-based cultural heritage, leading to degradation from both water and salt exposure. This study investigates the effects of direct immersion in saline solutions on different types of paper, simulating the impact of flooding events. We focused on how varying levels of salinity affect the crystalline structure of paper, which is crucial for understanding its degradation. This study employed non-invasive, portable optical techniques such as luminescence, reflectivity, and Raman spectroscopy to monitor the changes in the paper structure. Our results showed that salt exposure leads to significant alterations in the paper’s crystalline composition. The study concludes that washing treatments are essential for mitigating further degradation, highlighting the importance of timely intervention in preserving cultural heritage. The non-destructive nature of the methods used also demonstrates their potential for in situ applications in cultural heritage conservation.

Testing psychiatrists to diagnose schizophrenia: Crisis, consensus, and computers in post-war psychiatry

This article offers a new reading of the US–UK Diagnostic Project (1965–75), a series of influential collaborative studies that tested the ability of psychiatrists on either side of the Atlantic to diagnose schizophrenia, exploring its historical origins, significance, and legacy. Using archival materials to trace the contest between two of the key players in the Diagnostic Project, Aubrey Lewis and Morton Kramer, it explores how the methodological allegiance between biostatistics and clinical psychiatry was forged in a decade in which psychiatry was undergoing a public crisis. The article unpacks how the place of diagnosis in psychiatry was fundamentally transformed through this important and overlooked collaboration, in which computational methods were strategically used to steer post-war psychiatry from crisis to consensus.

‘An Agreement to Limit a Basic Human Right’: How the Orderly Departure Programme Reduced Freedom of Movement for Refugees from Vietnam (1979)

ABSTRACT The Orderly Departure Programme (ODP) is regarded as a Cold War success story of refugee management, aiding the resettlement of 638,900 Vietnamese. Western sympathy for anti-communist refugees initially sparked solidarity, but led eventually to compassion fatigue, disenfranchising the practice of resettlement. However, current scholarship overlooks the fact that the ODP installed a moratorium on departures from Vietnam. I use newly discovered archival material and methods to show how the international refugee organization UNHCR undermined refugee protection, by limiting the basic human right to freedom of movement, to accommodate host states – particularly the UK and Hong Kong –in reducing responsibility for resettling refugees.

Effects of Ionizing Radiation on the Color and Morphology Properties of Leather

Effective conservation strategies for leather artifacts and art objects are essential for preserving cultural heritage, particularly given the inherent vulnerability of the material to biodegradation, as leather, an organic material, is especially susceptible to this process. Gamma radiation has emerged as a promising method for the disinfestation and disinfection of cultural heritage objects and archival materials. This study aimed to advance the understanding of gamma radiation as a conservation technique for vegetable-tanned snake and chrome-tanned bovine leather, specifically focusing on its effects on chromaticity, surface topology, fiber structure and thermal behavior. Gamma radiation was applied at controlled doses of 1 and 3 kGy, and its impact on the morphology of the leather was assessed using colorimetry within the CIELAB color space and field emission gun scanning electron microscopy (FEGSEM). The findings indicated that gamma radiation at these doses induced minimal alterations in the morphological properties of the leather. The color differences for irradiated and non-irradiated samples were negligible, with total color differences (ΔE) remaining within acceptable limits (ΔE < 3). Moreover, FEGSEM analysis demonstrated that the fiber structure and surface morphology were not significantly compromised by the irradiation process. Thermogravimetric analyses showed similar thermal decomposition between non-irradiated and irradiated samples for both bovine and snake leather, with detailed data analysis indicating thermal stability. The results supported the efficiency of gamma radiation as a conservation technique for both bovine and snake leather artifacts, preserving their aesthetic and structural integrity.

The Nature of British Propaganda in Their African Colonies during World War II

Abstract This article examines the changing nature of colonial government propaganda in Kenya during World War II. It contends that colonial wartime discourse was not constant and static, but eclectic, always changing to reflect the major issues of the war. When the war began, the propaganda focused on announcing the war in a way that could help mobilize the support of the British colonial African subjects, and, as the war progressed and changed, so did the colonial propaganda for the Africans to sustain that support. By examining the changing patterns of colonial wartime propaganda in Kenya, this article contributes to our understanding of the major issues in the colonial propaganda during the war, how and why the issues kept changing, and how the colonial powers tried to keep up the pace with these changes in their propaganda in order to maintain the support of their African colonial subjects during the war. An examination of the changing nature of colonial propaganda also provides some context for understanding why many Africans became disappointed with colonial powers after the war and started fighting against colonialism in Africa. Finally, based largely on archival materials, the article also helps supplement the existing literature on colonial propaganda in Africa during World War II.

An Italian among the Chinese elite, a Chinese library among Lucanian mountains: Ludovico Luigi Nicola di Giura (1868–1947) and his personal library

Abstract Ludovico Luigi Nicola di Giura (1868–1947) was an Italian doctor who lived in Beijing from 1900 to 1931. In addition to his medical practice, di Giura actively engaged with the local elite, developed a profound interest in Chinese literature, and contributed to introducing Chinese reality and culture into Italy through journalistic, literary, and translation works. Upon his return to Italy, he constructed a ‘Chinese library’ at his family estate in Chiaromonte, located in the Basilicata region. This article adopts the ‘Heraclitean approach’ proposed by Weingarten (2022) to examine di Giura's personal library, analysing the evolution of both individual and communal cultural longings reflected by his collection and marginalia within the books spanning different periods. Drawing upon the primary sources recently discovered and catalogued from the library, along with archival and bibliographical materials from both Italian and Chinese sources, the paper not only aims to reveal di Giura's intellectual profile, but also aims to utilise his individual experiences as a lens for observing the social and cultural life of Italians in China during the early twentieth century.

Jimmy Carter, Letters to the Editor, and the “Loss of Confidence” in America’s Political System in 1976

ABSTRACT More than three years prior to President Jimmy Carter’s “crisis of confidence” speech, letter-to-the-editor writers, cued by daily news coverage, acknowledged an emerging “loss of confidence in the American political ‘system’” prompted by the materialization of “showbiz politics” and superficial, sensationalistic campaign reporting surrounding the presidential horse race. In conversation with cultural studies scholars and historians, this study seeks to better understand lingering material traces of the nation’s structures of feeling bound within newspaper editorial pages during the first post-Vietnam/Watergate presidential election, with a focus on emerging cultural conversations cued by campaign reporting on the candidacy of relatively unknown “outsider” Jimmy Carter. The coauthors conducted a textual analysis of a purposive sample of letters to the editor in the nation’s six leading-circulation newspapers within a ten-month period surrounding the 1976 presidential campaign, read with and against the grain of related news coverage and archival materials. This paper gives us a new understanding of the critique of the American political system and an emerging national malaise during the long seventies.

ЦУКРОВІ ТОВАРИСТВА ДРУГОЇ ПОЛОВИНИ ХІХ – ПОЧАТКУ ХХ СТ.: ІДЕЇ, СТРАТЕГІЇ ТА ЇХ ВТІЛЕННЯ

Based on archival materials and historical literature, the article analyzes the activities of the Tereshchenko Brothers' Sugar and Refinery Company and its contribution to the development of the Ukrainian sugar industry. In the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the sugar industry was the most developed and widespread in many Ukrainian provinces. Its profitability attracted the attention of the new merchants. In the early 60s of the nineteenth century, they began to invest heavily in the sugar industry, becoming both entrepreneurs and landowners. The Tereshchenko family belonged to this group. The family's main occupation was the sugar business. The Tereshchenkos owned 11 sugar factories, which produced up to 10% of all sugar in the empire. When mutual and jointstock companies began to emerge, the family members formed the Tereshchenko Brothers Sugar Factories Company. Its activities had a positive impact on the development of the sugar industry. Joint stock companies accelerated the formation of a monopolistic association. In 1887, a syndicate of sugar producers was formed. The Tereshchenkos, as one of the largest sugar producers in the country, were members of the syndicate's management. The influence of this body on the development of the national economy was so significant that the government was forced to reckon with it, not only because it was interested in the development of the sugar industry, but also because of the economic and political importance of the syndicate. The experience of industrial corporatization, the use of contractual and monetary relations in the acquisition of materials and raw materials, sales of products, hiring of workers, management of enterprises and many other aspects of social and economic relations can be successfully used today. The experience of corporatization of industry, the use of contractual and monetary relations in the purchase of materials and raw materials, sales of products, hiring of workers, management of enterprises and many other aspects of social and economic relations can be successfully used today.

Archival materials as historical resources about deported Latvian citizens in 1941, 1949 an in other periods.

Archival materials as historical resources about deported Latvian citizens in 1941, 1949 an in other periods.

Exploring the value of queer archives in queer criminology: Interrogating narratives of incarceration and offending

This article explores the potential of queer archival material to disrupt and nuance dominant criminological narratives on a range of criminal justice-related issues in the lives of queer people. It does so in two contexts: regarding narratives focused on queer experiences of incarceration; and narratives focused on queer offending. Research on queer experiences of incarceration suggests that queer people are particularly at risk of homophobic and transphobic abuse and assault in prison, and that they must repress their sexuality and gender in prison. And research on queer pathways to offending highlights the interconnections between criminal justice contact, offending, and forms of inequality that characterise queer lives, positioning queer offending as largely driven by those inequalities and their resulting harms. By engaging with a unique collection of queer archival materials, specifically the correspondence of incarcerated queer people, this article queers those dominant narratives. It does so by paying particular attention to the experiences of the only transgender correspondent in this collection. That person’s experiences very clearly illustrate the complex intersections between queer lives and criminal justice and the subsequent need to queer the dominant narratives in this space. Additionally, their experiences illuminate how archival materials in queer criminology foster the emergence of complexity and nuance in our analyses and offer new directions for queer political reform and activism in crime and justice contexts.

Refugee status as taboo: how humanitarian intervention impeded refugee recognition in Vietnam before the Orderly Departure Program (1979)

The management of the Vietnamese refugee crisis, when the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) resettled approximately three million refugees between 1975 and 1997, remains a cornerstone of UNHCR’s self-representation and an oft-cited example of successful intervention to this day. However, the focus on resettlement obscures the fact that UNHCR’s engagement in Vietnam started well before the end of the war, in 1973, in the form of humanitarian aid. This essay argues that UNHCR’s early engagement with Vietnam intended to realize the organization’s international ambitions, namely, to further globalize its reach. After its successful war of decolonization, Vietnam attained a special position in the Global South as well as in the communist bloc that allowed UNHCR to build new relationships beyond the West. The essay makes extensive use of archival material, not only from UNHCR’s archives and Western countries, such as the United States and Great Britain, but also from the Vietnamese National Archives, to show how in these early stages the usage of the word “refugee” became a taboo for UNHCR officials and the communist Vietnamese authorities alike. This reluctance to recognize those leaving Vietnam as refugees impeded their chance at protection, while it allowed UNHCR to intervene in the crisis on behalf of the Vietnamese government. Hence, rather than a saviour of refugees from Vietnam, UNHCR let its own interests prevail, violating its mandate to protect refugees. Examining international crisis management and foreign intervention in Vietnam, this essay demonstrates that UNHCR attempted to exploit the crisis to exponentially expand its own size and globalize its reach to both the post-colonial and the communist worlds. Paradoxically, only when UNHCR changed course, adopting the Orderly Departure Program of 1979, did the Office expand to become one of the leading agencies within the UN system.

Монастырская тюрьма в общественном сознании подданных Российской империи XIX столетия

The purpose of the study is to analyze the ideas about the monastery prison in Russian society of the 19th century, when deep modernization processes were taking place and the question of its liquidation arose. The paper analyzes the attitude towards the monastery prison in several social contexts that formed the basis of the social structure of the Russian Empire in the context of the development of state-church relations. The novelty of the work lies in an attempt to identify the causes and features of ideas about the monastery prison in certain social groups: the peasantry, clergy, intelligentsia, and also to link these ideas with the evolution of the relationship between church and state. The work is based on a wide range of sources: official documents, memoirs, archival materials, official reports of surveys of peasants in the central part of Russia, legislative acts. As a result of the conducted research, it is concluded that the public's perception of the monastery prison is ambiguous and contradictory: from the pronounced denial inherent in the liberal environment to the more restrained, characteristic of peasants and clergy. The reasons for the contradictory attitude towards the monastery prison stemmed from the peculiarities of the worldview, attitudes and preferences of social groups. At the same time, by the end of the 19th century, a negative narrative began to prevail in public opinion regarding the use of monasteries for punitive purposes, which was explained by the social crisis and changing views on the place and role of the church in society and the state.