Intellectual Curiosity Research Articles

An exploration of the antecedent to increase society’s use of predictive models: Trust in science or predictive models

Research has resulted in profound societal changes, impacting lives and health worldwide. As a result, the public esteems researchers and funds further research. This critical societal process is obstructed if society chooses not to implement research results. Much of this research is the result of predictive models. This study will characterize the antecedents and impact of framing on trust in predictive modeling. Prior research focused on trust in science. There is evidence that there is no commonly understood definition of science. Trust in predictive modeling is a more appropriate area of study. This study contextualized the antecedents from trust in science research to trust in predictive modeling. A new construct was developed,and three trust-in-science constructs contextualized to fit the trust in predictive models were useful. This research surveyed 207 students. The framing questions used were divided into two categories, one that many people are familiar with (GPS automobile routing) and one that they were less familiar with (COVID-19 infection prediction models), where COVID modeling is embroiled in controversy. The political influence construct did not impact questions framed by a familiar noncontroversial example, but the COVID-framed questions were impacted. Through the use of predictive models, this research provides a novel approach to the field of study. It discovers four antecedents to trust in predictive models (conspiracy ideation, intellectual curiosity, self-efficacy, and political influence) and provides a new construct for framing questions (political influence).

Exploring Characteristics of Academic General Surgery Residency Applicants: A Group Concept-Mapping Approach

Holistic review, which emphasizes qualitative attributes over objective measures, has been proposed as a method for selecting candidates for surgical residency in order to improve diversity in graduate medical education, and, ultimately, the field of surgery. This study seeks to articulate desirable traits of applicants as a first-step in standardizing the holistic review process. Using Group Concept Mapping, a web-based mixed-methods participatory research methodology, residency selection committee members were asked to 1) list desirable characteristics of applicants, 2) group these into categories, 3) rate their importance to academic/clinical success on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not at all important, 5 = extremely important), and 4) rate the degree to which each characteristic is feasible to assess on a 3-point Likert scale (1 = not at all feasible, 3 = very feasible). Grouped characteristics submitted to hierarchical cluster analysis depicted committee's consensus about desirable qualities/criteria for applicants. Bivariate scatter-plots and pattern-matching graphics demonstrated which of these criteria were most important and reliably assessed. A single academic general surgery residency training program in Western Pennsylvania. Members of the selection committee for the UPMC General Surgery Residency program who had participated in at least 1 prior cycle of applicant selection. Desirable characteristics of highly qualified applicants into an academic general surgery residency were clustered into domains of 1) scholarly work and research, 2) grades/formal assessments, 3) program fit, 4) behavioral assets, and 5) aspiration. Behavioral assets, which was felt to be the most important to clinical and academic success were considered to be the least feasible to reliably assess. Within this domain, initiative, being self-motivated, intellectual curiosity, work ethic, communication skills, maturity and self-awareness, and thoughtfulness were viewed as most frequently reliably assessed from the application and interview process. High quality applicants possess several behavioral assets that faculty deem are important to academic and clinical success. Adapting validated metrics for assessing these assets, may provide a solution for addressing subjectivity and other challenges scrutinized by critics of holistic review.

좋은 수업에 대한 관광전공 대학생의 주관적 인식 유형 분석

In recent years, Korean universities have made various efforts to improve the quality of classes for students in order to compete for survival in a difficult business environment, such as a decreasing school-age population. This study examined the types of subjective perceptions that university students majoring in tourism have regarding the attributes of good teaching by using Q-methodology. Twenty-seven Q-statements were generated, and 30 university students were selected as the P-sample to conduct Q-classification. The Q-factor analysis revealed three types of perceptions: the professor’s passion & consideration of students (type I), intellectual fulfillment (type II), and employment-related content (type III). The university students correspond to the types I perceived the professor’s passion for teaching and thorough preparation for classes and considering the students’ point of view as important. The students corresponding to type II had the characteristic of considering intellectual curiosity and the feeling of learning a lot as important. The students corresponding to type III perceived practical content related to employment and continuous lecture upgrades with the latest class materials as important. In the analysis of differences among types, it was found that there were differences in the statements by type. Based on the results, the detailed implications necessary for each type of class were presented. The results of research can be used as useful implications by professors to improve the design of instruction.

The Contributions of Public Libraries to Satisfy Intellectual Curiosity of Rural Inhabitants in West Bengal: An Indian Case Study

Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate the contributions of public libraries to the satisfaction of the intellectual needs of rural inhabitants in West Bengal, India. The study applied a quantitative survey method with the help of a well-structured questionnaire. Questionnaires were distributed among to the users (students, officers/professionals, self-employed individuals, businessmen, jobseekers, retired persons, and housewives) of 45 rural public libraries in five selected districts of West Bengal. The study found that the largest group of respondents belonged to the students and jobseekers categories, who visit the rural public libraries for seeking academic and job-related information. Many students from humble backgrounds were solely dependent on public libraries because they have procured some textbooks from middle school up to graduation level. Jobseekers were mostly consulting the Career Guidance Section of the library to prepare for various competitive exams. The study also revealed that public libraries have been trying to satisfy the intellectual and informational needs of the rural inhabitants by providing various services and facilities. Respondents have further reported that public libraries should adopt modern technologies and provide ICT-based library services as well. The outcome of this study would help to develop and upgrade the public library collection, services, and facilities in developing countries in a way that reflects patrons’ stated needs.

Avatusse astudes. Jaan Kaplinski ja Ilmar Laabani loome kokkupuuted ja mitmekesisus. / Approaching Openness: Convergence and Diversity in the Creative Universes of the Poets Jaan Kaplinski and Ilmar Laaban.

The special issue of Methis on literature and openness brings together the oeuvres of two remarkable Estonian authors with an international scope: Jaan Kaplinski and Ilmar Laaban. They were poets, translators, essayists, original thinkers and public intellectuals whose works have travelled far beyond the boundaries of Estonian literature. Jaan Kaplinski (1941–2021) published more than 60 books in Estonia and equally many abroad, as his work has been translated into more than 30 languages. Ilmar Laaban (1921–2000) fled Estonia for an exile in Sweden to escape Soviet occupation in the spring of 1943. He has left his mark on Estonian literary history with his surrealist collection of poetry Rroosi Selaviste (1957) and practising the genre of text sound poetry in Estonian, Swedish and French.
 
 Jaan Kaplinski’s name was put forward as a possible candidate for the Nobel prize in literature on several occasions. Laaban, who was well acquainted with contemporary European literature and its authors, translated into Swedish poems by the German-Jewish poet Nelly Sachs who received the Nobel prize in 1966, while Kaplinski rendered into Estonian poetry by Tomas Tranströmer, the Swedish recipient of the prize in 2011. Kaplinski also pointed out that it was the anthology 19 moderna franska poeter (1948), co-edited by Laaban and Erik Lindegren, that had given Tranströmer an impetus towards becoming a poet. In addition, similarities of outlook have also been observed between Tranströmer and Kaplinski himself. For instance, Ivar Ivask, a long-time editor-in-chief of the Oklahoma-based journal World Literature Today, underscored the significance of openness in Tranströmer’s poetry, while his dedicatory poems to Kaplinski and Laaban connect the authors with such notions as scope, infinity, openness, eternity and freedom. Openness appears as the core concept in this cluster of notions related to a lack of boundaries and contractedness in time, space and society that becomes manifest in the oeuvres of both Kaplinski and Laaban. Their works are also characterised by an intense engagement with the semantic possibilities afforded by different languages as well as employing linguistic regularities towards the end of formal innovation.
 
 20th-century intellectual history, that provided the context for the creative growth of both authors, involved remarkable cases of addressing of the openness concept, notably by figures such as the philosopher Karl Popper and the semiotician Umberto Eco. Popper famously launched his concept of open society as one in which an individual has to face personal decisions, which opposes it to a magical or tribal totalitarian society. In the artistic realm, Eco discussed the open work that involves the audience’s collaboration with the author in detecting meaningful arrangements in the work, making artistic response an interactive process. Such plurality and multiplicity accompanies formal innovation that correlates with a modern, avant-garde feeling for life. The 20th century also gave rise to personality psychology that considers openness to be one of the key personality dimensions, the so-called Big Five. In psychology, openness involves receptivity to new experiences, creativity, intellectual curiosity, and an advanced aesthetic sense. Recent studies have shown that particularly the presence of the latter two components tends to be in correlation with an environmentally aware outlook.
 
 Kaplinski and Laaban belonged to different generations and spent their formative years in markedly different conditions yet were united in the attention they paid to language as a system of signs and to studying its possibilities in their creative work, which in Kaplinski’s case was framed by an explicitly ecological take on life. The present special issue on literature and openness comprises six studies concentrating on facets of Jaan Kaplinski’s and Ilmar Laaban’s creative universes by literary scholars from both sides of the Atlantic. In addition, the issue includes two articles that deal with representing trauma in literature and theoretical issues in digital humanities. The issue concludes with the section of theory mediation presenting a translation of Ilmar Laaban’s Swedish-language article “Musiken, samhället, revolutionen” (“Music, society, revolution”, 1969) that is accompanied by a commentary by Hasso Krull.

Multifaceted Nature of Human Perception and the Power of Language in Wallace Stevens

Wallace Stevens, a poet celebrated for his intricate and layered language, employs symbolism, metaphor, and allusion to invite readers into a multi-dimensional exploration of his work. Through poems like "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," Stevens transforms ordinary subjects into symbols that evolve, offering diverse perspectives on existence, beauty, and life's mysteries. His mastery of wordplay and lexical dexterity creates poems rich in connotations and meanings, challenging the idea of a fixed interpretation and aligning with modernist literary movements. The interplay between language and perspective not only underscores the multiplicity of interpretation but also engages readers actively, encouraging intellectual curiosity and emotional resonance. Ultimately, his poetry showcases not only his artistic skill but also his belief in the boundless possibilities that language and perspective provide for comprehending the complexities of the world.

Economics of Health Care in India

A person’s entire development cycle is dependent on his intellectual abilities, curiosity, and constructive thinking, yet all of these attributes are contingent on his physical well-being. Health is a function of society’s total integrated development, and health status is one of the quality of life indices. Health is a positive term that emphasises social and personal resources as well as physical capabilities. It is a resource for everyday life, not the goal of living. Human health is inextricably linked to the health of the life-sustaining ecosystems with which we interact and are connected. Furthermore, the health of future generations is contingent on the ecosystems’ integrity and sustainability, regardless of how healthy the current generation is. Because health is such an important aspect of development, everyone is concerned about it. The health, ability, and well-being of the people are the most valuable human resources required for every country’s development and economic growth.

Looking Back and Learning Forward: Cultivating Robust Literacy Instruction and Joy among Black Elementary Boys

Two Black women literacy educators engage in literacy teaching and learning with fourth grade Black boys to cultivate their intellectual curiosities and joy.

How Wild Can It Be?

How Wild Can It Be?

Lost Worlds of Ancient and Modern Greece: Gilbert Bagnani: The Adventures of a Young Italo-Canadian Archaeologist in Greece, 1921–1924 by D. J. Ian Begg

Reviewed by: Lost Worlds of Ancient and Modern Greece: Gilbert Bagnani: The Adventures of a Young Italo-Canadian Archaeologist in Greece, 1921–1924 by D. J. Ian Begg Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan (bio) D. J. Ian Begg, Lost Worlds of Ancient and Modern Greece: Gilbert Bagnani: The Adventures of a Young Italo-Canadian Archaeologist in Greece, 1921–1924. Oxford: Archaeopress Publishing, 2020. Pp. xxxvii + 309. 5 maps, 14 illustrations. Hardcover £25.00. Gilbert Bagnani, an Italo-Canadian of privileged origin, came to Greece in late 1921 as a student of the Italian School of Archaeology. Greece had been at war with Turkey since 1919, but what originally looked to be a victorious Greek campaign resulted in one of the country's greatest calamities. Bagnani [End Page 260] witnessed life in Greece before and after the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922. What makes his case special is that, unlike other students of foreign archaeological schools in Athens, his intellectual curiosity reached far beyond the ivory tower of academia. Socially charismatic, he was quickly admitted to the best salons of local society. His personal papers at Trent University contain long letters to his mother that describe, with flair and in great detail, his social interactions. Based on what Bagnani learned, he composed and published acute political reports in the British Morning Post. Archaeologist Ian Begg, the author of Lost Worlds, not only struck gold when he came across Bagnani's personal papers but was able to mine the rich raw material in this archive and turn it into a fascinating history book. The book consists of 24 chapters, not including the introduction, prologue, and epilogue. The introduction provides the reader with biographical information about Bagnani's early years. Born in 1900, he was raised in a cosmopolitan environment in England and Italy that gave him access to distinguished people. An only child, he maintained a close relationship with his Canadian mother after the death of his Italian father in 1917. A broad timeline and a few maps, including one that marks locations referred to in Bagnani's letters, provide useful aids for the reader. Begg follows his introduction with a prologue, titled "Odysseus vs. Achilles," in which he summarizes lucidly the political situation in Greece after the Great War, discussing the ambiguous role of the Allies during the Greek-Turkish War of 1919–1922 while painting with broad brush strokes the portraits of archrivals Prime Minister Eleutherios Venizelos and King Constantine I. Chapter 1, a fast-forward in the narrative, describes the Great Fire and destruction of Smyrna on 13 September 1922. The story is told again in greater detail in chapter 15. Bagnani enters the scene in chapter 2 with his arrival in Athens nine months earlier, in December of 1921. Among his companions at the Italian School, one name stands out, that of Doro Levi, who would later become the most important Italian archaeologist in Greece. Bagnani wasted no time with the expatriate community, which he found stifling. In the next two chapters, we find him attending one of the fanciest balls in town in the presence of the Greek royal family and striking up friendships with older and younger members of the most distinguished families of Athens, who found him engaging and knowledgeable enough to invite him regularly to their gatherings. Begg is to be praised for providing ample biographical information about the people Bagnani encountered, especially the women (hard to trace since they took their husbands' names). Naturally, Bagnani's [End Page 261] social life included interactions not only with Greek archaeologists, such as Alexander Philadelpheus, but also with members of other foreign schools such as Alan Wace and Stanley Casson of the British School and Bert H. Hill and Carl Blegen of the American School. Chapters 5 and 6 explore Bagnani's role as an undercover correspondent for the Morning Post. Despite his royalist leanings, he maintained access to both royal and Venizelist circles, thus adopting a bipartisan approach in his articles, which he never signed. Through Bagnani's comprehensive letters to his mother, his political essays, and Begg's narrative, the reader gains a firsthand understanding of the emerging tension between the Greek government and the Allies...

Review: How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others, by T. M. Luhrmann

Review: <i>How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others</i>, by T. M. Luhrmann

A Challenge-Based Learning Intensive Course for Competency Development in Undergraduate Engineering Students: Case Study on UAVs

Accelerated advances in science and technology drive the need for professionals with flexible problem-solving abilities towards a collaborative working environment. The advances pose a challenge to educational institutions about how to develop learning environments that contribute to meeting the aforementioned necessity. Additionally, the fast pace of technology and innovative knowledge are encouraging universities to employ challenge-based-learning (CBL) approaches in engineering education supported by modern technology such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and other advanced electronic devices. Within the framework of competency-based education (CBE) and CBL are the design, implementation, and evaluation of an intensive 40 h elective course which includes a 5-day challenge to promote the development of disciplinary and transversal competencies in undergraduate engineering students whilst relying on UAVs as the medium where the teaching–learning process takes place. Within this credit course, a case study was carried out considering the framework of an exploratory mixed-methods educational research approach that sought a broad understanding of the studied phenomena using various data collection instruments with quantitative and qualitative characteristics. An innovative academic tool was introduced, namely a thematic UAV platform that systematically exposed students to the principles underlying robotic systems and the scientific method, thereby stimulating their intellectual curiosity as a trigger to solve the posed challenge. Moreover, students came up with innovative teamwork-based solutions to a designed challenge while having an enjoyable and motivating time flying drones on an indoor obstacle course arranged by themselves. The preliminary findings may contribute to the design of other CBL experiences, supported by technology applied for educational purposes, which could promote the development of more disciplinary and transversal competencies in future engineers.

Review: From the Bayou to the Bay: The Autobiography of a Black Liberation Scholar, by Robert C. Smith

Robert C. Smith’s autobiography, From the Bayou to the Bay, is revelatory. It is a primer on the requirements for becoming a first-tier Black intellectual in the United States during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.Black scholars share time and space with a wide range of colleagues, but they inhabit a different world from scholars who are not Black. Black scholars have created a world that is sui generis, distinct from the intellectual mainstream. Black political scientists deliberately created an organization unconnected to the American Political Science Association (APSA). Its name is the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS).Before the creation of NCOBPS in 1969, APSA had no panels, no conferences, no courses, and no concentrations on Black politics. The subject did not exist. That absence did not deter Robert C. Smith’s intellectual curiosity. He was born and raised in Louisiana, one of thirteen children. After he graduated from high school, he moved to California, where he lived for a year with his elder sister and became a California resident. At that time, California afforded residents with a free college education, provided by the finest public college and university educational system in the country—indeed, in the world.Smith attended classes at Los Angeles City College, UCLA, and UC Berkeley. He received his PhD from Howard University because at that time it was the only university in the country that offered PhD courses in Black politics.Smith calls his book a conversation with himself. One reason he calls it that is because few scholars in the world have the same breadth of reading, study, research, and publications on Black politics as Smith; he has few if any peers. He would never say that himself, but it is true. Indeed, Smith faults himself for being unable to learn a foreign language (although he did have to pass a foreign language course—French—to graduate from Berkeley. Smith says he passed because of a student strike that caused Berkeley to give credits to all students enrolled and in good standing when the university shut down and ended the semester). That’s what he says. The real reason is he is simply not interested enough in a foreign language to learn one. His scholarship doesn’t require it.Smith sees himself as a kind of common man who is brainy. He talks frequently with both scholars and lay people. He enjoys conversations—with almost anyone who is not an ignorant racist. He enjoys eating and drinking a vast range of cuisines and beverages, and smoking cigarettes, though he has cut back on them.Smith sees himself as a person on a mission. That mission was deeply instilled in him by his own experiences, and by his friend and mentor, Ronald Walters. Walters had a simple mantra that influenced all of his teaching and scholarship. Robert C. Smith took it to heart. When evaluating the significance of any scholarship brought to his attention, Walters said, “What does that have to do with the liberation of Black people?” Smith’s subtitle for From the Bayou to the Bay is “The Autobiography of a Black Liberation Scholar.” He is, in Ron Walter’s understanding (and his own, as his subtitle announces) a Black liberation scholar. His scholarship is dedicated to contributing to the liberation of Black people.From the Bayou to the Bay is in part a seminar on the depth, breadth, and concentration a scholar must expend to be ranked as a pre-eminent thinker in a major academic discipline. This book lays bare the distinction between talking the talk and walking the walk. Robert C. Smith, for the good of us all, has mastered both.

Digging at the Roots: A Reply to Naoko Saito's American Philosophy in Translation

Digging at the Roots: A Reply to Naoko Saito's <i>American Philosophy in Translation</i>

Disruptions at the edges: Ecotone crossing with Black and Indigenous creative pedagogues

In this article, I lean toward the ecological site of ecotone and the act of crossing to think about the pedagogical decisions I made as a scholar and practitioner teaching Black studies and English education classes. Within the classroom, I suggest centering Black and Indigenous women’s poetry to help students think about interdependence, ecological precarity, and ethical engagements. Black and Indigenous poets invite us to move beyond our disciplines into a cultivated ecotone, or space where we can unearth anti-Blackness in environmental education and invite intellectual curiosity and self-reflection. What is documented here is how I used my location between two disciplines, and intellectual curiosity in other fields/disciplines, to activate ecotonal crossings with my students that can move us toward more transformative ways of teaching, learning, and knowing.

Who Believes the “50 Great Myths of Psychology”?

Background Furnham and Hughes (2014) previously reported that a sample of adults was only able to recognize 37% of 249 myths based on those presented in Lilienfeld et al.’s (2009) Great Myths of Popular Psychology. Objective We sought to replicate these findings and to investigate predictors (e.g., education, cognitive ability, and personality) of beliefs in these myths in both lower- and upper-division courses. Method Over 150 psychology students completed a test of psychomythological beliefs, demographics, tests of cognitive ability, and measures of personality. Results Our sample identified a similar, but slightly higher percentage of the myths than those recognized by Furnham and Hughes’ sample. Myth acceptance was high among both introductory- and senior-level psychology students, but seniors believed significantly fewer myths, and the number of psychology courses taken was negatively related to false beliefs in the full sample. A larger general knowledge base and high intellectual openness predicted myth rejection; group membership did not moderate these effects. Conclusion Education and some individual differences variables likely play a role in psychomythological beliefs. Teaching Implications Psychology faculty should continue working to dispel psychological myths, and also redouble their efforts to enhance students’ core knowledge base, critical thinking, and intellectual curiosity.

Diversity Unlocks Creativity and Innovation

A research lab where international students are working toward their PhD and Master’s degrees along with senior researchers is like a unit cell in the body of the university. What better model can be available for analyzing the success of research by providing a supportive and inclusive work environment that welcomes and encourages students, coming from a diversity of countries, languages, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds? This paper presents the mechanism that was instrumental in making the women researchers as well as the international students feel comfortable and helped them to explore and contribute to the multidisciplinary aspects of our lab.We highlight the important milestones in our lab work environment over the last fifteen years, with a focus on diversity, and we stress the beneficial role of the direction of the lab and the diversifying faculty in providing critically needed role models to our students. We emphasize the strength of diversity that unlocks imagination and intellectual curiosity. The paper includes stories showing the building of strong and creative lab culture.

Roger Valentine Short

A veterinary surgeon whose intellectual curiosity and scientific rigour led to international acclaim and numerous honours and awards in the field of reproductive biology.

Editor's Welcome

It is with great joy and humility that I present to you my first issue of Italica as editor in chief. I know that I am walking on the shoulders of giants like Rudolph Altrocchi, Herbert H. Austin, John Van Horne, Joseph G. Fucilla, Olga Ragusa, Robert J. Rodini, Albert Mancini, Andrea Ciccarelli and Michael Lettieri, in chronological order, who served as editors before me, each of them with newly found opportunities and obstacles, and I am honored for this new charge I have been assigned. But it is also true, and those of you who know me are fully aware of it, that I love challenges. I generally face them with a genuine desire for collaborations and innovations, with attentive care and dedication, and with an unparalleled determination. Leading such an important journal that has delighted our eyes and minds since 1924 could not be possible without the commitment of the associate editors, in alphabetical order, Theodore Cachey, Luca Caminati, Roberto Dainotto, Clorinda Donato, Mark Pietralunga, Colleen Ryan, and Deanna Shemek; book review editor for this issue, Silvia Giovanardi-Byer; our newly-appointed book and media review editors, Jason Laine and Silvia Valisa; and the members of our board, Stefania Buccini, Clodagh Brook, Margherita Heyer Caput, Andrea Ciccarelli, Clarissa Clò, Silvia Contarini, Luca Cottini, Tiziana De Rogatis, Jonathan Druker, Lina Insana, Giuseppe Faustini, Patrizia LaTrecchia, Michael Lettieri, Armando Maggi, Andrea Manganaro, Carla Marello, Deborah Parker, Paolo Proietti, Costanza Quatriglio, Jeffrey Schnapp, Luca Serianni, and Massimo Vedovelli. I am especially indebted to Michael Lettieri who has been ever so patient and kind during this transition and punctually guided me despite his several professional responsibilities. The enthusiasm of these generous colleagues is even more palpable when I think of the voluntary hours spent discussing the direction of the journal, the submissions, and the details of our future publications. Words of gratitude are penned in this issue by Robin Pickering-Iazzi to remember our dear colleague Carole Lazzaro-Weis, who exemplifies such generosity and ongoing intellectual curiosity and legacy. I am also excited to work alongside the editorial staff of Italica's new publisher, the University of Illinois Press. Heather Munson has been instrumental in setting the design and in gathering the material needed to make this issue a reality. I would like to recognize the invaluable, though anonymous, assistance of the peer reviewers (you know who you are). It was a pleasure working with the contributors. Reading their submissions gave me the opportunity of discovering topics and approaches that are not so typical for my fields of research.As with preceding issues, you will notice here a wealth of themes and areas. The journal will continue to encourage and cultivate perspectives on the study of Italian language, literature, culture, media studies, and pedagogy. It will continue to publish high quality material produced by early-career authors as well as senior scholars. Each issue brings you research articles, review articles, and reviews. The new addition is a section freely titled Special Focus. This section will be dedicated to specific writers or filmmakers when there is a fortuitous (or not so fortuitous) high volume of submissions demonstrating notable interest and relevance; at times, it will serve as a venue to celebrate the anniversaries of said artists. Moreover, Italica's faithful readers will also be able to enjoy our first interview in a series of discussions with writers, filmmakers, linguists, and pedagogues. I invite you to read all the contributions as not only important intellectual processes and outcomes but also as tokens of love to the academic profession, with its undying intellectual inquiry. Engage with our authors as you are provided with their contact information. Networking and exchanging ideas is pivotal even in the “cubicles” of research in which scholars are, at times, bound to be confined (these past couple of years more so than ever).I feel privileged to be able to serve as the editor of this internationally renowned journal, and in this role to interact daily with colleagues all over the world, in different institutions and in different fields of study and instruction. Thank you for entrusting me with this precious work. I am just an email away if you need to connect with me. Looking forward to reading together with you all these new issues of Italica.Buona lettura!

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Cynthia Enloe about Gender and Global Politics

Ask a Political Scientist: A Conversation with Cynthia Enloe about Gender and Global Politics