Cultural Studies Research Articles

Island biocultural diversity in the Mediterranean: the case study of Sardinia

The Mediterranean Basin is a hotspot for biological and cultural diversity, and this is particularly evident in its islands, even though little attention has been paid to their remarkable biocultural diversity. In order to elucidate this characteristic phenomenon, we present a review of the literature on biodiversity and cultural studies in Sardinia. From the review, it has emerged that the island can serve as an excellent case study and a model for the development of a methodology on the topic, which can be applied to the entire Mediterranean Basin. An Island Biocultural Diversity Initiative for the Mediterranean Region has therefore been set up to support the preservation of biocultural diversity and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) in Mediterranean islands, with Sardinia as its primary hotspot.

Mining, farming, and diplomacy. Understanding the human landscape of Bronze Age Sardinia (Italy) through geospatial analysis

Human agency on landscape modification and land use is often seen in terms of socio-economic opportunities vs. natural constraints. In the study of prehistoric cultures this is both a strong source of information about sustenance strategies and community behaviours, and a subject potentially easy to analyse within a limited set of physical and social parameters. The recent advancements in the use of spatial analysis tools in landscape archaeology allow to obtain ever more precise models. However, studies that compare at the same time the geological landscape and social elements are very scarce. We used Point Pattern Analysis and Modelling to investigate megalithic structures (nuraghes) in Bronze Age southwestern Sardinia (Italy) and identify correlations between their spatial patterns and a set of covariates encompassing both environmental (i.e. topography and geological resources) and cultural factors. The models which best represent pattern distribution come from the combination of covariates from both groups.The models highlight a close distance from known ore deposits and show a clear dependence of Nuragic populations to ore extraction and metallurgy. The availability of fertile soils with moderate permeability and moderately low pH is also significant, as well as a preference to prominent locations with a positive correlation with the Topographic Position Index and the Convexity Index. From a cultural standpoint, we observed a consistent aggregation of simple nuraghes around complex nuraghes at mid-short distances. The occurrence of polycentric patterns can be explained either by the former emerging from the presence of the latter or vice versa, and is typically associated with a loosely stratified social structure devoid of strong hierarchies. These results underscore the efficacy of spatial analysis in disentangling and juxtaposing the physical and social factors influencing the distribution of past culture, and offer new insight on the development of Bronze Age societies in their geographical context.

What Is Culture Made of? An Exploratory Study of Ethical Cultures and Provider Perspectives on the Care of Periviable Neonates

Objective Studies examining intercenter variation in neonatal intensive care unit practices at the limits of fetal viability have hypothesized that institutional “culture” can be one of many factors that impact patient care. This study aimed to describe institutional culture at a single, large academic center with regard to the antenatal consultation, resuscitation, and postnatal management of periviable neonates. Study Design Members of six clinical groups—attending and fellow maternal–fetal medicine physicians, attending and fellow neonatal–perinatal medicine physicians, neonatal nurses, advanced practiced neonatal nurses, pediatric hospitalist physicians, and neonatal respiratory therapists—were invited to complete qualitative, semi-structured interviews. All audio recordings were transcribed. Dedoose software was used to complete team-based coding and thematic analysis. Results Twenty-two interviews were completed. Thematic analysis revealed three central themes described by participants as contributory to institutional culture: Perception, referring to factors based on individual attitudes and insights, Statements of Information, referring to factors anchored in more objective concepts such as outcomes data and institutional policy, and Dynamic Factors, referring to the relatively fluid factors of institutional culture that interact with both Perception and Statements of Information. Participants were more likely to mention factors in the Perception category (n = 430) compared with factors in the Information category (n = 225), and although the latter were described as critical components of antenatal counseling and perinatal management, the philosophy of our unit appeared to be more heavily rooted in institutional memory and individual belief systems. Conclusion Our data demonstrate a personal undertone to institutional culture at the limits of viability, with an emphasis on individual attitudes and subjective interpretations of fact rather than empirical data. As the landscape of neonatology continues to change, understanding those factors that contribute to culture remains a necessary step toward deconstructing institutional belief systems and optimizing clinical care. Key Points

Cultural capital, standardised testing and East Asian education: The transposition of disposition of Taiwanese elite students

Cultural capital has been an essential concept for educational stratification research. While several studies suggest that in East Asian educational contexts, cultural capital may exhibit less emphasis on aesthetics, there remains a need for in-depth exploration of such orientation. To fill this gap, this article examines non-aesthetic subspecies of cultural capital by exploring how standardised testing, a predominant educational institution in East Asia, shapes a distinct embodied cultural capital – a pragmatic learning disposition. We examine two cases where Taiwanese academically elite high school students adapt their standardised testing-driven dispositions to distinct contexts: a different activity domain and an alternative educational field. The first explores how elite students transpose the disposition shaped by standardised testing to their participation in rock music activities. Our research reveals that their academic learning experiences fostered a disposition for honing precise exam skills, which influenced the trajectory of their musical taste development, along with the accumulation of technical capital. The second case involves elite students experienced in open-ended mathematics competitions, who later enrol in French preparatory classes for admission to French grandes écoles. These students have difficulty shedding their pragmatic disposition, which is deeply rooted in standardised testing, but hardly suits the French preparatory class. Disposition transposition and its hysteresis effect across contexts can serve as a useful methodological tool for cultural capital studies, enabling an exploration of emerging technical subspecies of cultural capital and the associated pragmatic dispositions, thereby shedding light on the diverse relationships among students’ subspecies of embodied cultural capital.

The anticancer effects of Aronia berry extract are mediated by Chk1 and p53 in colorectal cancer

BackgroundAronia berry extracts (ABE) have recently been reported to possess significant anti-cancer effects in various malignancies, including colorectal cancer (CRC), due to their high polyphenolic content. However, the molecular mechanism(s) underlying the anti-cancer effects of ABE in CRC remain unclear, which is important to consider when considering their use as complementary medicine approaches in cancer. MethodsWe performed genome-wide transcriptomic profiling and pathway enrichment analysis to identify specific growth signaling pathways associated with ABE treatment in CRC cells. In addition, a series of systematic and comprehensive cell culture studies were performed to investigate the anti-cancer effects of ABE in SW480 and HCT116 CRC cell lines. Subsequently, these findings were validated in patient-derived 3D organoids (PDOs) models. ResultsTranscriptomic profiling analysis identified p53 signaling as one of the key enriched pathways mediating the anti-cancer activity of ABE. Analysis of public datasets revealed that Chk1, a key regulator of p53, was one of the critical targets of ABE in CRC. Chk1 and p53 activation was shown to be downregulated with ABE treatment, leading to the induction of cell cycle arrest (p = 0.003–0.014) and enhanced DNA damage (p = 0.015–0.026). Furthermore, these findings were validated in PDOs, where the ABE treatment resulted in significantly fewer and smaller PDOs in a concentration-dependent manner (p = 0.045 - <0.001). ConclusionsWe firstly provide evidence for the role of the p53 signaling pathway as a mediator of the anti-cancer activity of ABE, which provides a rationale for its use as a safe and effective integrative medicine approach in CRC.

Przyroda w perspektywie kulturoznawczej jako obszar badań

Issues related to the environment, its protection, climate change, etc., has been increasingly entering the field of humanities and social sciences. The article examines the theoretical framework for building a research program for cultural studies for environment, a subfield of cultural sciences relating to issues of nature. The context of consideration oscillates around the development of economic-cultural, and cultural-political issues with themes related to nature and its protection. The text indicates that culturally operationalized knowledge of nature can have both research and implementation translations, becoming the basis for building strategies or theoretical foundations for reflection in the fields of conservation practices.

Miscegenation Madness

Abstract In this article, I examine how the fear of miscegenation developed as a raison d’être for the construction and maintenance of apartheid. I argue that despite its efficacy at reproducing racial-caste formations, miscegenation taboo ultimately undermined its own hegemonic mythology by constructing contradictory erotic desires and subjectivities which could neither be governed nor contained. I consider how miscegenation fears and fantasies were debated in public discourse, enacted into law, institutionalized through draconian policing and punishment practices, culturally entrenched, yet negotiated and resisted through everyday intimacies. While crime statistics show that most incidences of interracial sex involved White men and women of color, the perceived threat to “White purity” was generally represented through images of White women—volks-mothers and daughters—in the Afrikaner nationalist iconography. White women’s wombs symbolized the future of “Whiteness.” This article offers a critique of the prevailing South African “exceptionalism” paradigm in apartheid studies. Detailed analyses of government commission reports (1939, 1984, 1985) and parliamentary debate records (1949) reveal considerable American influence on South Africa’s “petty apartheid” laws, and especially the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act (1949) and Immorality Amendment Act (1950). While these “cornerstone” policies of apartheid developed from local socio-political conflicts and economic tensions, they were always entangled in global racial formations, rooted in trans-oceanic histories of slavery, dispossession, and segregation. This historical anthropological study of race/sex taboo builds on interdisciplinary literatures in colonial history, sociology, postcolonial studies, literary theory, art history, cultural studies, feminist theory, queer studies, and critical race theory.

3D printed gelatin methacryloyl hydrogels for perfusion culture of human trabecular meshwork cells and glaucoma studies.

Glaucoma, a progressive eye disease leading to irreversible blindness, currently affects over 70 million people globally. Elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is implicated in its development. IOP is carefully regulated by the trabecular meshwork (TM). However, studying TM behavior has been limited to traditional tissue culture studies or costly ex vivo cultures of animal and donor eyes. Developing novel functional TM models could enhance cell/tissue behavior understanding and aid therapeutic development for glaucoma. In this study, we 3D printed a simplified and reproducible model of the human TM (hTM) and studied hTM cell behavior under static and dynamic cultures. Gelatin Methacryloyl bioinks proved suitable for printing with viable and proliferative hTM cells expressing crucial marker genes in response to glucocorticoid induction. This, to our knowledge, is the first functional 3D printed hTM model and aims to facilitate TM research. Moreover, this easily reproducible model could also be applicable in the study of numerous other cell types throughout the body.

Comprehensive Toolkit to Qualitative Research in Cultural Studies

Comprehensive Toolkit to Qualitative Research in Cultural Studies

As though the ’80s never happened – recalibrating value through music

How can we renew awareness of the civic value of the arts and humanities? This article responds to this question mainly with reference to music. It notes the rise since the 1990s of extrinsic criteria of value evident in sociological, economic and psychological arguments for the significance of music and the arts, which risk a profound instrumentalisation. In reaction, recent defences of the arts stage a stand-off against sociological perspectives, in particular, returning to older humanistic defences. Recalling the growth of interdisciplinary popular music and cultural studies from the 1980s, which unveiled the multivalent relationships between aesthetic and social dimensions of music, sets this polarisation into relief, productively shifting the debate. Music emerges as a vital medium for living, active in differentiated lives, an environment that may alone proffer meaning, pleasure, hope and a sense of collective imaginative and public life amid intensifying anxiety, desperation and the denial of collectivity. (This article is published in the thematic collection ‘The arts and humanities: rethinking value for today—views from Fellows of the British Academy’, edited by Isobel Armstrong.)

The Dangers of (Masculine) Storytelling: Gender and Memory in Puig’s Sangre de amor correspondido

Drawing from the field of Cultural Memory Studies, this article examines the process of recollection as depicted in Sangre de amor correspondido (Seix Barral, 1982) by Manuel Puig (1932–1990). Within this novel, we witness the portrayal of memory processes through the eyes of Josemar, a marginalized construction worker from a small rural town in Brazil. The protagonist endeavors to narrate his life experiences through the lens of idealized hegemonic masculinity. Some scholars think that gender represents a fundamental facet of identity. Furthermore, identity emerges from introspective processes driven by memory. Consequently, this paper asserts that the integration and signifying of masculine prostheses hinge upon the articulation and solidification of a self-narrative rooted in “masculinity’s social frameworks of memory.” Through narration, hegemonic masculinity assumes a foundational role within individual identity; simultaneously, it disseminates the patterns—these social frameworks of memory—used for the interpretation and organization of life experiences as recollections.

Excavating ancient pilgrimage at Nessana, Negev

Abstract The ancient site of Nessana in the south-western Negev had an important role in the logistics of early-Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The arid climate, which preserved organic material, and the richness of multilingual epigraphic evidence from this region make Nessana a key site for archaeological study of the material culture of pilgrimage.

Marriage migration, intimacy and genre in Helen Hoang’s The Bride Test (2019) and Brigitte Bautista’s You, Me, U.S. (2019)

A significant strand of cultural and social studies research on late modernity has focused on intimacies; in particular, ‘mediated intimacies’ (Attwood et al., 2017; Barker et al., 2018; Gill, 2009), exploring how the media, in its various forms, represents and affects intimate relationships. Romance fiction, the most popular global genre, offers a key source text for exploring intimate and romantic relationships and the ways culturally and politically specific forms of intimacy are shared transnationally. Of particular interest is the increase in the twenty-first century of romantic stories that deal with the intersection of intimacy and migration. This article brings together critical work on intimacy and affect, scholarship on popular romance, and research on migration and transcultural exchange to explore how contemporary Anglophone popular romance fiction mediates intimate relationships in the context of migration. Focusing on two romance novels featuring South East Asian migration to the USA — Brigitte Bautista’s You, Me, U.S. (2019) and Helen Hoang’s The Bride Test (2019) — I explore how these novels represent marriage migration and its relationship to and impact on intimacy. Both novels are aware of existing stigmas around marriage migration (the risk of abuse or fraudulent marriage), but the association of marriage with ‘authentic’ romantic love in the romance genre ultimately serves to uphold such stigmas, rather than challenge them. The texts pay equally close attention to the performativity of romantic love, noting how heteronormative, western norms of romance are required for migrants but, in the case of You, Me, U.S., can also be queered. These texts are concerned with the movement of people and cultures while themselves travelling across borders as products of a transnational, global publishing market. These fictions, then, showcase how their particular articulations of intimacy offer new insights for scholars interested in marriage migration.

Infernal Heavens: Narratives of Africa. From Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness to Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Paradise

Situated at the intersection of literary studies and cultural studies, the present article looks at how fictional representations of Africa have evolved over the past century, from Conrad’s canonical Heart of Darkness, which has unjustly become the landmark of colonial biased narratives of Africa despite the author’s declared disengagement with his protagonists’ perspectives, to Abdulrazak Gurnah’s recent reverse rewriting of Marlow’s journey, this time from the heart of darkness outward. Dwelling on the spatial metaphors of Heaven and Hell, this study argues that the two works under scrutiny put forward two essentially dichotomic representations of the same place, the African continent, which are largely dependent on the cultural environment and on cultural constraints. Whereas Conrad’s infernal depiction of Africa relies mostly on Eurocentric stereotypes and on a personal experience whose horror mostly stemmed from a cultural shock produced by experiencing difference as evil, Gurnah’s more complex and authentic depiction is a result of telling the story from within, as an insider, and reflecting on difference as productive diversity. In this respect, this study brings into discussion Ranjan Ghosh’s recent dialogue with J. Hillis Miller on Literature and Globalization (2016) to argue that a transnational, transcultural and transdisciplinary approach to the narrative text would actually result in bridging the gap of classical binary difference and would emphasize the immanence of the literary text. Thus, Gurnah’s Paradise reconstructs pre-WWI Africa from within, as a sum of lost Paradises which are by no means of Western extraction, while Conrad’s canonical Inferno echoes the fears of an empire.

Educational Research Methodology Trends of Southeast Asia English Major Undergraduate Theses: A Content Analysis

The present study thoroughly examines the predominant research methodology trends and topics applied in a specific time frame from 2019 to 2023 in educational research of the online searchable undergraduate theses in English major programs across Southeast Asia, utilizing a comprehensive content analysis approach. By employing keyword extraction, topic-specific modelling, and thematic evaluation, our objective is to ascertain the prevailing methodologies in English language teaching and the research interest themes from 347 undergraduate downloadable theses that have been investigated. The analysis explores the possible ramifications of these patterns on the caliber of undergraduate research, English language instruction, and the broader education domain within the given area. This study revealed a strong preference (54.5%) for quantitative approaches, highlighting the importance of empirical methodologies. Additionally common were qualitative approaches (24.8%), suggesting an increasing recognition of the importance of examining human factors. While action research (8.4%), particularly Classroom Action Research (CAR), was less prevalent than mixed-method approaches (12.8%), this suggests that action research needs to be recognized. The different ratios of research methods demonstrated a dedication to investigating various questions and advancing knowledge in language, literature, and education. The interesting research themes identified the complex and diverse nature of English language raising focus in Southeast Asia such as technological integration, teacher development, cultural studies, assessment, and language teaching methodologies. The study provides useful information for enhancing research mentorship and education, and it improves knowledge of research trends in this setting. Furthermore, the findings obtained from this study have the potential to contribute to the enhancement of curriculum design, instructional approaches, and distribution of resources in the English language education research area.

BEDAWANG NALA: ARTISTIC INSPIRATION FOR A FICTION FILM TO STRENGTHEN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AWARENESS

This research explores the philosophical and symbolic value of Bedawang Nala in Balinese architectural art and the development of its narrative in fiction films based on Hindu mythology. Bedawang Nala, depicted as a giant fire-haired turtle with dragons Anantabhoga and Basuki, reflects cosmic balance and natural harmony in Tri Hita Karana. This qualitative research uses an interdisciplinary perspective involving the views of cultural studies and the creativity of film art creation. Data was obtained through in-depth interviews to explore the meaning and connection of the Bedawang Nala concept with environmental themes, audiovisual observations of traditional Balinese architecture, and literature studies on Bedawang Nala and ecological issues. Data were analyzed using interview transcript interpretation techniques to identify main themes related to the philosophical and symbolic values of Bedawang Nala, audiovisual analysis, and literature synthesis that connects findings from interviews and observations with current discussions about ecological education. The findings show that the Bedawang Nala mythology is not just an aesthetic ornament but has an educational value relevant to contemporary environmental issues. The development of this mythology-based film narrative can be an effective academic and cultural reflection tool, strengthening ecological awareness in society. This research suggests making and evaluating films based on Bedawang Nala and exploring other local mythologies to increase the educational impact and environmental awareness through film media.

Reading patterns: dressmaking sections in women’s magazines in the 1960s and 1970s

ABSTRACT In the 1960s and 1970s, many women’s magazines had special sections for home dressmaking. At a time when ready-to-wear clothing was expensive, the sew-it-yourself pages had an important function to win over competition among female readers. Teenagers read the magazines in search of clothing designs to copy in order to dress according to the latest fashion. Despite the importance of such special sections, they have only been given a marginal place in the history of the popular press and in cultural studies. This article examines and discusses the role of dressmaking sections in women’s magazines in Sweden in the 1960s and 1970s. Based on analysis of the two largest Swedish women’s weeklies and interviews with readers and editors, the study highlights women’s ‘utilitarian reading’, which combines textual, visual, and material literacy, and thus contributes to an overlooked area within women's studies, fashion and media history.

Validity of reducing blood culture incubation time for the BD BACTEC FX blood culture system considering microbiological and clinical aspects

IntroductionA blood culture (BC) test is vital for diagnosing bacteremia in clinical practice. Although incubation time varies among automated BC systems, 4–5 days is deemed to be sufficient time for the BD BACTEC FX blood culture system. This study compared the clinical and microbiological characteristics of true-positive BC samples on day 5 with those within 4 days to reduce missed true bacteremia cases. MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study of blood cultures from hospitalized patients between April 2020 and April 2023 at a tertiary care hospital in Japan. ResultsIn total, 12,342 BC sets were collected from 6,567 patients. Gram-positive bacilli other than Bacillus spp. and Corynebacterium spp., non-albicans Candida, and yeasts other than Candida spp. were detected more frequently in BC-positive patients on day 5 than in those within 4 days. The gastrointestinal tract was the portal of entry more frequently on day 5 than within 4 days (25 % vs. 4 %, p = 0.006). ConclusionA 4-day incubation period is sufficient for the BD BACTEC FX blood culture system under routine conditions. However, a 5-day incubation period may be warranted when low pathogenicity is suspected or the gastrointestinal tract is suspected as the portal of entry.

Multi-omics study on the mixed culture of Trichoderma reesei and Aspergillus niger with improved lignocellulase production

The mixed culture of Trichoderma reesei and Aspergillus niger were found to improve lignocellulase production and ameliorate the composition (Fang et al., 2010; Fang et al., 2013; Zhao et al., 2018) [1-3]. However, the mechanism behind remained unclear. Here we conducted multi-omics study of the mixed culture to elucidate the mechanism comprehensively, including proteomics of the secretomes, metabolomics of the fermentation broths and transcriptomics. The mechanisms at transcriptional, proteomic and metabolomic levels were clarified. Proteomics show many proteins in the secretomes were up-regulated by the mix culture of T. reesei and A. niger, and lignocellulase production and the composition were improved, but the protein numbers and abundances of the lignocellulases were reduced. Transcriptomics demonstrate that lignocellulase gene expressions, stress responses and anti-stress were co-regulated in T. reesei, and that most lignocellulase genes in T. reesei were up-regulated and most A. niger lignocellulase genes were down-regulated. Metabolomics reveal the chemicals and the mechanism of the communication between T. reesei and A. niger in the mixed culture for improved lignocellulase production. The secondary metabolites such as p-cresol, nodularin and tolazoline could play important roles. Integrative analyses indicate that the secondary metabolites, stress-response, anti-stress, starch and sucrose metabolism and lignocellulase gene expressions were orchestrated. As a result, the roles of T. reesei and A. niger in the mixed culture were defined. The mechanism of the mixed culture for improved lignocellulase production was obtained, in short T. reesei was the major role and A. niger the minor. This work provides theory and targets as basis to obtain complete understanding of the mechanism and guide engineering of the microbial consortium of T. reesei and A. niger for further improvements.

Cultural heritage re-search: Reimagining the collective memory of Copándaro de Galeana, Michoacán

The author reconnects with the ongoing struggles of her parents’ hometown, Copándaro de Galeana, located in Michoacán, Mexico, in this ethnographic critical research. Employing critical survey methods and analyzing the community’s identity reclamation through two festivals, El Carnaval and El Festival de las Almas y las Flores, the author collaborates with family members and friends to create a collective memory of Copándaro de Galeana’s intangible cultural heritage, underscoring the community’s self-expressed Resistant Knowledges. As a critical cultural heritage study, this article addresses the dichotomy of exploitation vs empowerment present in archival aspects of cultural heritage preservation methods. It also examines how the author’s position as a Chicana/Mestiza, attempting to reconnect with her indigenous roots and the duality of Indigenismo, aids or counters the empowerment of Copándaro de Galeana. Situated within the broader theme of “Resistant Knowledges: Unmasking Coloniality through the re-search of local to global communities,” the study addresses specific subtopics, emphasizing autonomous movements, identity and representation, and community resilience. Recognizing the important role that oral history has played in recording Copándaro de Galeana’s memory, the author similarly includes community members’ recollections and personal experiences to form a decolonized re-search article.