Karen Underhill. Bruno Schulz and Galician Jewish Modernity. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2024. Pp. 278.

Tomboy figures have become increasingly visible in contemporary queer cinema, yet their cultural and political meanings remain deeply ambivalent. Positioned at the intersection of subversion and containment, the tomboy simultaneously embodies gender nonconformity and remains vulnerable to visual discipline and narrative normalization. Drawing on feminist and queer revisions of gaze theory (Mulvey in Screen 16:6-18, 1975; Kaplan in Women and Film, Methuen, London, 1983; Doane in Screen 23:74-88, 1982; Straayer in Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies: Sexual Re-Orientations in Film and Video, Columbia University Press, New York, 1996), alongside film semiotics and performativity (Barthes in Myth Today, Routledge, London, 2014; Metz in The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1981; Butler in Gender as Performance, Routledge, London, 2013), this article examines how tomboy subjectivity is constructed, regulated, and occasionally reclaimed through cinematic form. Adopting a comparative qualitative methodology that integrates semiotic analysis and close textual reading, the study analyzes four films from distinct cultural contexts: Blue Is the Warmest Color (Abdellatif Kechiche, 2013), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma, 2019), Yes or No (Saratsawadee Wongsompetch, 2010), and The Handmaiden (Park Chan-wook, 2016). Focusing on visual signifying practices, such as costume, bodily gesture, spatial occupation, camera framing, and symbolic objects, the analysis investigates how tomboy masculinity is alternately eroticized, desexualized, domesticated, or framed as autonomous agency under different regimes of looking. The findings reveal a clear cultural divergence. In Western queer films shaped by female or queer authorship, tomboy figures are more likely to be situated within structures of reciprocal gaze and embodied subjectivity. By contrast, in East and Southeast Asian commercial contexts, tomboy masculinity is frequently softened into a politically neutral, marketable image shaped by censorship and commercial logic. Auteur cinema, however, occupies a liminal zone in which tomboy performativity is caught between patriarchal fetishization and queer reclamation. Rather than constituting a stable identity category, the tomboy emerges as a culturally regulated cinematic sign whose meaning is continually produced through visual power relations. By synthesizing gaze theory, semiotics, and performativity within a cross-cultural framework, this study demonstrates how tomboy representation functions not merely as a marker of gender difference, but as a critical site where visibility, discipline, and queer agency are negotiated in contemporary screen culture.

The study is on Extent of Awareness and Use of Online Databases in Digital Environment for Academic Activities by Undergraduate Students in Adeyemi Federal University of Education Ondo, Nigeria. Six research objectives and questions guided the study. The survey research design was adopted for the study. The study population consisted of Adeyemi Federal University of Education Undergraduates. Structured questionnaire was developed for the study and used for the data collection. A sample size of 100 respondents was purposively chosen as the respondents of the study. All data were categorized and analyzed using tables, frequency, charts and simple percentage, for data analysis. The results reveal that the majority of AFUED undergraduate students had a generally low level of awareness of the available online databases in the University Digital Library. EBSCOHOST recorded the highest level of combined awareness (HA + FA + A = 65.0%), making it the most recognized database among respondents, followed by Proquest (53.0%). However, a substantial proportion of students remained unaware (NA) of most databases. JSTOR recorded a non-awareness rate of 59.0%, AGORA 69.0%, African Digital Library 64.0%, HINARI 64.0%, and Indiana University Press had the highest non-awareness rate of 75.0%. This finding suggests that awareness of online databases among AFUED undergraduates is generally low, with most students either unaware or only marginally aware of the digital resources available to them in the Online environment. the challenges confronting AFUED undergraduate students in their use of online databases. The most critical challenge was incessant power failure, with 85.0% of respondents (SA + A) affirming this as a major barrier. This was closely followed by server low bandwidth (80.0%), insufficient computers in the library (80.0%), discouraging subscription costs (70.0%), expensive downloading and printing (68.0%), and insufficient time due to academic pressure (68.0%).The most strongly supported strategies included provision of uninterrupted power supply (SA + A = 88.0%), provision of enough computers in the Digital Library (88.0%), government provision of subsidized laptops to students (88.0%), teaching students advanced database searching skills (88.0%), and giving students orientation and education on online information resources (87.0%).

Making German Jewish Literature Anew: Authorship, Memory, and Place. <i>By Katja Garloff. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2022. 216 pages. $65.00 hardcover, $35.00 paperback, $34.99 eBook.</i>

Catalonia's human towers: Castells, cultural politics, and the struggle toward the heights By MariannVaczi. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2023. 282 pp.

Book review of: Lems, Annika. 2022. Frontiers of Belonging: The Education of Unaccompanied Refugee Youth. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Erin K. Nourse. Water into Bones: Birth Rituals, Ancestors, and Religious Hybridity in Northern Madagascar. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2025. 288 pp. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $42.00. Paper. ISBN: 9780253072405.

Book Review: Hosting States and Unsettled Guests RigganJ.PooleA.2024. Hosting States and Unsettled Guests: Eritrean Refugees in a Time of Migration Deterrence. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. 214 pages. $32.00

Jennifer Riggan and Amanda Poole. Hosting States and Unsettled Guests: Eritrean Refugees in a Time of Migration Deterrence. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2024. xii + 195 pp. Bibliography. Index. $32.00. Paper. ISBN: 9780253067999. - Volume 68 Issue 2

In this paper, the human/machine binaries are redefined through the analysis of Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson through the perspective of cyborg theory proposed by Donna Haraway. The paper analyzes how the novel predicts and challenges the symbiosis of machines and humans and exposes the uncontrollable state of identity as digital convergence is becoming more ordinary. The novel presents a potential transformational space represented by the Metaverse, a digital world populated by avatars, which are the extensions of individuals, in which human beings are themselves cyborgs, who have technology to enhance their abilities and challenge the limits of social construction. These are the conditions of the modern world where physical and virtual worlds mingle in a highly complicated, overwhelming exchange of identities and the cyborg identity is beyond the capacity of agency and uniqueness. The qualitative approach to the study is utilized to meet the investigative component of the research. Haraway argues that the world is a blend of humanity and technology since it is a hideous merger of animals and machines. The paper argues that the story by Stephenson is not just a reflection of the overlap between human life and technology, but it also raises some analytical questions regarding the concept of human identity in a posthuman era. A critical analysis of Snow Crash as applied to the cyborg theory reveals that the human agency and control in a posthuman and post-identity world are rendered unfounded as the conventional ideas about the presence of human race in the society that is saturated with technology are being undermined. Simply put, the study covers issues of posthumanism and online identity, providing a structure of how the research will be conducted in the virtual worlds in the future.

Rachel Deblinger: Saving Our Survivors: How American Jews Learned about the Holocaust Indiana University Press, 2025, 224 pp. Debórah Dwork: Saints and Liars: The Story of Americans Who Saved Refugees from the Nazis W. W. Norton &amp; Company, 2025, 256 pp.

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Jennifer Hart, Making an African City: Technopolitics and the Infrastructure of Everyday Life in Colonial Accra. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2024. vii + 291pp. Bibliography. 21 figures. 45.00 pbk.

Kwaku Nti. Maritime Culture and Everyday Life in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Coastal Ghana: A Social History of Cape Coast. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2023. xv + 333 pp. 2 maps. Photographs. Bibliography. Index. $35. Paper. ISBN: 9780253-067920.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the media played a vital role in transmitting truthful information alongside misguiding false messages. Research evaluates media coverage effects on public discussions throughout Ghana after the government struggled against the spread of fake information about pandemic treatments and vaccines and their origins. According to Herman and Chomsky's propaganda model, this study evaluates how media institutions backing the government ended up promoting official statements through their platforms though independent outlets and social media channels became place where authentic reporting occurred alongside dangerous misinformation. Media framing shows direct influence over how people trusted health authorities and followed their health-demanding protocols. The official media platforms, which were associated with government, promoted public safety guidelines simultaneously as social media networks disseminated false information that weakened people's compliance with protection measures. The research establishes the requirement to evaluate how media representations combine with state communication and public awareness in crises, which turn life-threatening misinformation into a problem. This research reveals the challenges in deceptive media influences, which fills gaps in crisis communication literature to benefit policymakers together with journalists. The authors suggest enhancing fact-checking programs while teaching people to better understand media information and requiring public health officials to clearly communicate their messages. The research confirms that free media in democracies plays an essential role because it enables journalists to monitor authorities while blocking false information. The study makes an important global contribution to emergency health media analysis by demonstrating why accuracy should replace sensationalism in the media landscape. Ghana’s experience provides worthwhile lessons, which should guide other nations fighting pandemic-related misinformation during this age of wide-ranging incorrect information spreading freely. References Adom, D. (2020). Cultural and educational implications of the COVID-19 global pandemic in Ghana. International and Multidisciplinary Journal of Social Sciences, 9(3), 209–229. https://doi.org/10.17583/rimcis.2020.5416 Ansong, A. B. (2012). The media and democratic consolidation in Ghana. African Renaissance, 9(1), 121–134. Antwi-Boasiako, J., Abbey, C. O. A., Ogbey, P., &amp; Ofori, R. A. (2021). Policy responses to fight COVID-19; the case of Ghana. Revista de Administração Pública, 55, 122–139. Appiah, B., Gastel, B., Burdine, J. N., &amp; Russell, L. H. (2015). Science reporting in Accra, Ghana: Sources, barriers, and motivational factors. Public Understanding of Science, 24(1), 23–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662514547478 Boateng, J. K., Boateng, J., &amp; Darkwa, E. (2024a). The role of adult education in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in selected communities in Ghana. Advances in Adult and Development Education, 1(1), 13–33. Boateng, J. K., Boateng, J., &amp; Darkwa, E. (2024b). Community mobile teaching and learning applications during COVID-19: Review of the experiences of some religious groups in Ghana. Sustainable Community Development in Ghana, 51–62. Darkwa, E. (2023a). Book review of Affective Politics of Digital Media: Propaganda by Other Means, Megan Boler and Elizabeth Davis, 2021, New York: Routledge. Inverge Journal of Social Sciences, 2(4), 30–32. Darkwa, E. (2023b). Review of Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Inverge Journal of Social Sciences, 2(1), 37–40. Darkwa, E., Acquah, B., &amp; Osafo-Adjei, C. (2023). Navigating the mass media’s political agenda-setting role: A case study of Ghana. Inverge Journal of Social Sciences, 2(4), 1–12. Darkwa, E., &amp; Acquah, B. (2023). Book review of Jennifer Hasty’s The Press and Political Culture in Ghana (2005). Inverge Journal of Social Sciences, 2(2), 14–18. Darkwa, E. (2024a). Exploring the characteristics and application of emerging digital technologies in contemporary Ghana's participatory spatial planning. International Journal of Current Research in Sciences, Social Sciences and Languages, 3(4), 7–26. Darkwa, E. (2024b). Book review of Social Media and Elections in Africa: Theoretical Perspectives and Election Campaigns edited by Martin N. Ndlela and Winston Mano. Research Ethics Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 1(5), 106–109. Darkwa, E., Inguva, H., Osafo-Adjei, C., &amp; Acquah, B. (2024). The public sphere on a digital plane: The influence of the new digital media on Ghana’s democracy and the public sphere. Inverge Journal of Social Sciences, 3(2), 46–62. Gadzekpo, A. (2009). Media pluralism and democratic consolidation in Ghana. Journal of African Media Studies, 1(3), 451–467. https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612211010480 Gunther, A. C. (1998). The persuasive press inference: Effects of mass media on perceived public opinion. Communication Research, 25(5), 486–504. https://doi.org/10.1177/009365098025005002 Hartley, K., &amp; Vu, M. K. (2020). Fighting fake news in the COVID-19 era: Policy insights from an equilibrium model. Policy Sciences, 53(4), 735–758. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-020-09405-z Haleem, A., Javaid, M., &amp; Vaishya, R. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 pandemic in daily life. Current Medicine Research and Practice, 10(2), 78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmrp.2020.03.011 Huang, C., Wang, Y., Li, X., Ren, L., Zhao, J., Hu, Y., ... &amp; Cao, B. (2020). Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China. The Lancet, 395(10223), 497–506. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30183-5 Klaehn, J. (2002). A critical review and assessment of Herman and Chomsky's 'Propaganda Model'. European Journal of Communication, 17(2), 147–182. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267323102017002691 Klaehn, J. (2003). Behind the invisible curtain of scholarly criticism: Revisiting the propaganda model. Journalism Studies, 4(3), 359–369. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616700306487 Klaehn, J. (2017). The propaganda model: Theoretical and methodological considerations. Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, 6(2). Klaehn, J. (2018). Media, power and the origins of the Propaganda Model: An interview with Edward S. Herman. Media Theory, 2(2), 95–100. https://hal.science/hal-02047633 Lin, C. Y. (2020). Social reaction toward the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Social Health and Behavior, 3(1), 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/SHB.SHB_11_20 Larsson, A., Oxman, A. D., Carling, C., &amp; Herrin, J. (2003). Medical messages in the media—barriers and solutions to improving medical journalism. Health Expectations, 6(4), 323–331. Mensah, K., Awini, G., &amp; Mensah, G. K. (2021). Fake news and SDG16: The situation in Ghana. The Palgrave Handbook of International Communication and Sustainable Development, 325–344. Mullen, A., &amp; Klaehn, J. (2010). The Herman–Chomsky propaganda model: A critical approach to analysing mass media behaviour. Sociology Compass, 4(4), 215–229. Naeem, S. B., &amp; Bhatti, R. (2020). The COVID-19 'infodemic': A new front for information professionals. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 37(3), 233–239. https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12311 Nyarko, J., Serwornoo, M. Y. W., &amp; Azanu, B. (2021). Communication lapses to combating COVID-19 pandemic: Evaluating Ghana's COVID-19 campaign. Journal of African Media Studies, 13(2), 159–175. Nyarko, J., &amp; Teer-Tomaselli, R. E. (2018). Print media standardization and professionalism: Determinants of independence of Ghanaian media. Journalism Practice, 12(1), 76–93. https://doi.org/10.1177/0973258617743620 Okereke, M., Ukor, N. A., Ngaruiya, L. M., Mwansa, C., Alhaj, S. M., Ogunkola, I. O., Jaber, M. H., Isa, A. M., Ekpenyong, A., &amp; Lucero-Prisno III, D. E. (2021). COVID-19 misinformation and infodemic in rural Africa. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 104(2), 453. https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.20-1488 Shardow, M. S., &amp; Asare, B. E. (2016). Media ownership and independence: Implications for democratic governance in the fourth republic of Ghana. Journal of Pan African Studies, 9(9), 179–198. Smith, M. S., &amp; Tietaah, G. K. (2017). Online media surveillance: Coverage of meningitis outbreaks in Ghana. Athens Journal of Health, 4(4), 303–319. https://doi.org/10.30958/ajh.4-4-2 Yendork, J. S., &amp; James, S. (2020). COVID-19 in Ghana: Changes and the way forward. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 51(3-4), 369–384. https://doi.org/10.3138/JCFS.51.34.012 Zarocostas, J. (2020). How to fight an infodemic. The Lancet, 395(10225), 676. Books &amp; Book Chapters Anokwa, K. (1997). In the public interest: Freedom of expression and public debate in Ghana. Freedom Forum. Boateng, J. K., &amp; Darkwa, E. (2021a). Unpacking the dilemma of alternative dispute resolution and access to justice by women in the Ghanaian context. In Advancing civil justice reform and conflict resolution in Africa and Asia: Comparative analyses and case studies (pp. 171–189). IGI Global. Boateng, J. K., &amp; Darkwa, E. (2021b). Strengthening criminal justice systems and institutions to consolidate democratic governance in Ghana: The role of state and civil societies. In Y. E. T. &amp; Kofie, N. F. (Eds.), Contemporary issues in criminology in Africa (pp. [page range]). Nova Science Publishers. Boateng, J. K., Boadi, C., Boateng, J., &amp; Darkwa, E. (2024). Social media and electoral disagreements in Ghana’s 2020 election. In Communication and electoral politics in Ghana: Interrogating transnational technology, discourse, and multimodalities (pp. 91–118). Springer International Publishing. Chomsky, N. (1995). Necessary illusions: Thought control in democratic societies. House of Anansi. Hasty, J. (2005). The press and political culture in Ghana. Indiana University Press. Herman, E. S., &amp; Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing consent: The political economy of the mass media. Pantheon. Klaehn, J. (Ed.). (2005). Filtering the news: Essays on Herman and Chomsky's propaganda model. Black Rose Books. McQuail, D. (1992). Media performance: Mass communication and the public interest. Sage. Voltmer, K. (2013). The media in transitional democracies. Polity. Government &amp; Legal Documents Ghana Constitution. (1992). Constitution of the Republic of Ghana. Government of the Republic of Ghana. Reports &amp; Online Sources Conroy-Krutz, J., &amp; Appiah-Nyamekye, S. J. (2020). Africans are concerned about the ills of social media but oppose government restrictions. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/africans-are-concerned-about-ills-of-social-media-but-oppose-government-restrictions-137653 World Health Organization. (2020). World Health Organization novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) situation report-3. https://www.who.int/ World Health Organization. (2021). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public: Myth busters. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters Videos Newsfile. (2020, March 18). COVID-19 and new voters’ poll Pt. 1 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCM6x2kpYTE Newsfile. (2020, March 18). COVID-19 and new voters’ poll Pt. 2 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8WO4WYHVOk Newsfile. (2020, July 18). Should the schools close or stay open? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT0bF7kIfR8 Newsfile. (2021, February 27). COVID-19 vaccines: 600k doses, in sharing rollout plan, busting myths [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NeDjythTqU Newsfile. (2021, March 22). Conflicting information about safety of the AstraZeneca jabs [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NeDjythTqU

A review of Richard E. Aquila’s representational mind: a study of Kant’s theory of knowledge, Indiana University Press, 1984

The Betrayal of the Humanities: The University during the Third Reich. Edited by Bernard M. Levinson and Robert P. Ericksen. Studies in Antisemitism. Indiana University Press, 2022. Pp. xx + 600. $40 (paper).

In her powerful monograph, An Ethnography of Hunger, Kristin Phillips contends, “Despite all the daily hype about development by international aid organizations, national politicians and the village elite, it is subsistence and the management of risk that for many rural villagers is the key project of everyday life” (p. 5). Drawing on over a decade of ethnographic fieldwork in the Singida region of rural central Tanzania, Phillips' book centers subsistence and the strategies rural residents employ to “sustain life in the face of mounting unpredictability and increasingly precarious livelihoods” (p. 6). Food can mean nourishment, labor, or the achievement of adulthood; it can communicate friendship, generosity, or the promise of allegiance; it can send messages of obligation, identity, alliance or adultery. It can be conceived as money, belonging or development. And these meanings shift from season to season, moment to moment, and person to person. (p. 104) The second half of the book builds on this context to advance Phillips' core argument: that “subsistence citizenship” provides a theoretical framework to explain the “sociopolitical practices that allow people to survive episodic hunger and/or to protect themselves against it in rural African contexts” (p. 109). Chapter 4 describes subsistence citizenship during a time of acute famine, from 2005 to 2006, when Phillips conducted her most sustained period of fieldwork. She shows how residents deftly mobilized to access vital food aid during this crisis by drawing on notions of the state's paternal obligation to its people before turning to human rights advocacy and refusing to labor in community development projects. Chapters 5 and 6 cover the period 2005–2010, when “demand on villagers to contribute labor and resources to development projects snowballed amid normal seasonal food insecurity and years of irregular rainfall and more intense food crisis” (p. 131). As a result, relations between the state and citizens further ruptured, as human rights-based discourses replaced claims to political patronage as the key discourse of political engagement. This shift reached its crescendo in 2010, when rural Singidans for the first time elected someone outside the ruling CCM party, Tundu Lissu, to represent them in Parliament. Lissu ran on a platform of citizens' rights to services and against exploitation models of community development. Yet, once in office, Lissu was limited in his ability to access state resources for constituents. Although he was re-elected in 2015, many residents questioned whether his representation was worth losing access to patronage relationships that, while sometimes corrupted, also brought results. Across these chapters, Phillips demonstrates the power of long-term ethnographic fieldwork to build social theory. Staying with her case for more than a decade enables her to reveal important shifts in rural residents' sense of precarity and their experience of development, as “participatory” approaches grow more coercive over time. She shows how residents adapt their political engagement, jettison longstanding patronage relationships for mobilization around a depersonalized notion of rights, and then ultimately find ways to “code-switch between these two ostensibly distinct modalities of membership in the nation…to achieve subsistence” (p. 174). A critic might ask how the subsistence politics Phillips observes in Singida play out in relation to other regions of Tanzania. Such comparative analysis would indicate whether and how her concept of subsistence citizenship applies to other cases and contexts. Also, as someone relatively new to the field, I craved a more detailed description of her methods and analytical choices at key junctures in the study. For example, she indicates that she didn't initially set out to study hunger but adopted this focus in the field in response to events. It would have been helpful to students reading the book to learn more about how she made this shift. How did it impact the bodies of literature she used to situate her study, for example? How did it change the spaces she chose to conduct fieldwork or approaches to data analysis? Despite these quibbles, An Ethnography of Hunger remains an outstanding example of the practice and promise of ethnographic research. Thick with description and theoretical insight, it is also a highly enjoyable read. Students and experienced scholars alike are sure to benefit from this excellent contribution to the field of anthropology. Jonathan Marino is a doctoral candidate in Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Miklós Konrád. Jewishness and Beyond: Jewish Conversions in Hungary 1825–1914. Trans. Jason Vincz and Miklós Konrád. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2024. xiii, 429 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Illustrations. Photographs. Tables. $49.99, eBook. - Volume 84 Issue 4

Stephan F. Miescher. A Dam for Africa. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2022. 598 pp. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $50. Paper. ISBN: 9780253059956.