Princeton Research Articles

From Piety to Profit: Shariah Scholars and the Rise of Islamic Finance - Ryan Calder, The Paradox of Islamic Finance: How Shariah Scholars Reconcile Religion and Capitalism (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2024, 347 p.)

From Piety to Profit: Shariah Scholars and the Rise of Islamic Finance - Ryan Calder, The Paradox of Islamic Finance: How Shariah Scholars Reconcile Religion and Capitalism (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2024, 347 p.)

Journeys of The Mind: A Life in History by Peter Brown, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2023, pp. xv+713, £38.00, hbk

Journeys of The Mind: A Life in History by Peter Brown, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2023, pp. xv+713, £38.00, hbk

Advice for academic authorsAcademic Writing as if Readers Matter Leonard Cassuto Princeton University Press, 2024. 224 pp.

A new guide teaches scholars how to write with readers in mind.

Uniqueness, Reproducibility and Discrimination of Nuclear Warhead Gamma Signatures

Nuclear verification includes confirmation measures of nuclear weapons and fissile material, which often rely on the detection of radiation signatures. It is an open research question whether these signatures are unique. Or in reverse, could a malicious actor imitate these signatures and compromise verification of disarmament processes by using hoax objects instead of real warheads? This article presents several warhead emission models and a simulation framework to assess the uniqueness of their passive gamma radiation signatures. A red team approach includes detailed simulations of three proposed confirmation systems: The Information Barrier eXperimental, and the Information Barrier eXperimental II, both developed at Princeton University, and the Trusted Radiation Identification System, developed at the Sandia National Laboratories. For these simulations, various hoaxes are analyzed: warheads using reactor-grade plutonium instead of weapon-grade plutonium, combinations of different gamma emitting isotopes, and combinations of neutron sources with radioactive isotopes. Our findings reveal that numerous radioactive signatures are not unique and may be susceptible to imitation. Moreover, confirmation systems based on passive gamma radiation signatures using low bin numbers demonstrate a limited ability to accurately handle warheads of varying ages.

The Grand Dragoman and the Bibliophile: Thoughts on an Unknown Fragment from the Greek Translation of Memorie Istoriche De’ Monarchi Ottomani

A Greek translation of the Memorie istoriche de’ monarchi ottomani authored by the Venetian diplomat Giovanni Sagredo was produced in the eighteenth century by the grand dragoman and future lord of Wallachia Nikolaos Karatzas. The Greek intellectual made his translation not from the original Italian but from the French translation by Jacques Laurent, which was printed in seven volumes in 1724 (Paris) with a second edition in 1732 (Amsterdam). The Greek translation circulated only in manuscript, and it was considered lost. However, a hitherto unknown miscellaneous Phanariot codex from Princeton University Library (Sarakēnika, Princeton University Library, MS Gr. 112) features a brief fragment from the translation. This paper offers a discussion about the fragment and intends to bring it into the scholarly circuit by providing in the appendices a semi-diplomatic edition of the Greek text in parallel with the corresponding passage from the French edition.

Large-scale data fusion in astronomy

Large-scale data fusion in astronomy Peter Melchior, Assistant Professor of Statistical Astronomy from Princeton University, provides a compelling analysis of large-scale data fusion in astronomy. Observational astronomy constantly pushes the limits of what can be observed. We seek to peer deeper into the Universe, extend the wavelength range, or increase the spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution. Observing with the premier telescopes and the latest instruments leads to the groundbreaking advances that move astronomy forward. The discipline is defined by its instruments. Because these instruments are expensive to build and operate, significant specialization and increasingly large scientific collaborations are needed to extract the best science from the data.

Liliana Cavani at the fourth edition of the Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies conference, Re-examining the Past and Envisioning the Future of Italian Cinema and Media, The American University of Rome, 13–15 June 2024

Liliana Cavani accepted the invitation to participate in the fourth edition of the Journal of Italian Cinema & Media (JICMS) studies conference, held at the American University of Rome from 13–15 June 2024. Cavani attended a panel dedicated to her depictions of St Francis before taking the podium for an interview that was moderated by Flavia Laviosa (Wellesley College), the co-organizer of the conference and principal editor of JICMS, and Gaetana Marrone-Puglia (Princeton University), a leading scholar on Cavani’s body of work from Princeton University. Cavani reflected on her enduring fascination with St Francis despite her upbringing in a secular household, discussed many of her other films, and shared her opinions on the current state of affairs in Italy and beyond. At the end of the session, after Cavani hinted at her plans for the future, the moderators and Catherine Ramsey-Portolano (The American University of Rome), who co-organized the conference with Laviosa, presented the director with a plaque in recognition of her Inimitable Contribution to World Cinema.

Ágoston, Gábor. The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021, XV+664 Sayfa

Bu yazı Gábor Ágoston’un Osmanlı’nın savaş stratejisi, askerî teknolojisi, sefer lojistiği ve diplomasisi ile istihbarat edinme tekniklerini, Osmanlı ve Habsburg imparatorlukları özelinde ve daha geniş bir bağlamda incelediği The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe (Son Müslüman Fethi: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ve Avrupa’daki Savaşları) adlı kitabının incelemesidir. Eserin önemli hedeflerinden biri, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun bilhassa Balkanlar özelinde Avrupa’yı nasıl şekillendirdiğini ortaya koymaktır. Kitap, Osmanlı tarihçilerinin, tarih öğrencilerinin ve ilgililerinin baş ucu kaynağı olacaktır.

Iran: Revolution of Things: The Islamism and Post-Islamism of Objects in Tehran, by Kusha Sefat (book review)

Revolution of Things: The Islamism and Post-Islamism of Objects in Tehran, by Kusha Sefat. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2023. 184 pages. $99.95 cloth, paper; $29.95 e-book.

The Book Review Column

Graph Theory in America: The First Hundred Years (Princeton University Press, 2023) by Robin Wilson, John J. Watkins, and David J. Parks chronicles the first hundred years of graph theory in North America, starting with the arrival of James Joseph Sylvester at Johns Hopkins University in 1876 and ending with the proof of the four color theorem by Kenneth Appel and Wolfgang Haken in 1976. Computability and Complexity: Foundations and Tools for Pursuing Scientific Applications (Springer, 2024) by decorated author Rod Downey is a new undergraduate textbook that covers advanced topics such as parameterized complexity, generic case complexity, and smoothed analysis. How to Think about Algorithms, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2024) by Jeff Edmonds aims to teach students to think like a designer of algorithms. This new edition includes a short chapter on machine learning algorithms and more than 150 new exercises. A review of the first edition of this book appeared in this column in 2009. Differential Privacy (The MIT Press, 2025) by Simson L. Garfinkel, a senior data scientist at the US Department of Homeland Security, explains the algorithmic technology used by Google, Apple, and the US Census Bureau to protect the privacy of individuals in large datasets.

Introduction to the Debate on Pioneers of Capitalism

On 30 June 2023, the Centre for Urban History at the University of Antwerp, the Posthumus Institute, and the Antwerp Interdisciplinary Platform for Research into Inequality hosted a workshop dedicated to Pioneers of Capitalism. The Netherlands 1000-1800, a book by Maarten Prak and Jan Luiten van Zanden published by Princeton University Press in 2022. Participants in the workshop were challenged to reflect on the broader geographical applicability of the ‘coordinated market’ variety of capitalism that Prak and Van Zanden see emerging in the Dutch Republic after the Fall of Antwerp in 1585. Both during the workshop and in this special issue, the participants engaged in a lively, stimulating discussion with the authors of Pioneers in Capitalism.

Until We have Won Our Liberty: South Africa After Apartheid. By Evan Lieberman. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022. 344p. $29.95 cloth.

Until We have Won Our Liberty: South Africa After Apartheid. By Evan Lieberman. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022. 344p. $29.95 cloth.

Epistemic logic with partial grasp

We have to gain from recognizing a relation between epistemic agents and the parts of subject matters that play a role in their cognitive lives. I call this relation “grasping”. Namely, I zone in on one notion of having a partial grasp of a subject matter—that of agents grasping part of the subject matter that they are attending to—and characterize it. I propose that giving up the idealization that we fully grasp the subject matters we attend to allows one to more realistically characterize the epistemic life of agents. To show this, I propose an epistemic logic with partial grasp that has in mind considerations from first-order aboutness theory with the aim of avoiding certain forms of logical omniscience, and which provides an alternative to immanent closure (Yablo Aboutness, Princeton University Press, 2014).

Review of Adam M. Auerbach and Tariq Thachil 2023: Migrants and Machine Politics: How India’s Urban Poor Seek Representation and Responsiveness. Princeton: Princeton University Press

Review of Adam M. Auerbach and Tariq Thachil 2023: Migrants and Machine Politics: How India’s Urban Poor Seek Representation and Responsiveness. Princeton: Princeton University Press

Leveraging Peer Resources to Promote Undergraduate Education and Well-being

Princeton University is a private research university with approximately 250–280 juniors and seniors majoring in economics. In the past decade, the university has made significant strides in expanding and diversifying its undergraduate student body by admitting more students overall as well as by admitting more first-generation, minority, transfer, and international students. With this expansion comes the responsibility to build community and broaden access to valuable social and knowledge capital to help all students thrive in their academic and post-graduation careers. Traditionally, there has been an uneven playing field in access to such capital, with insiders passing academic, career, and social advice to younger students in restricted access circles like athletic teams, eating clubs, student organizations, and fraternities. This paper describes university, economics department, and student-led efforts to foster peer mentorship more broadly to promote the academic and social well-being of all students.

Waveform modelling of hydroacoustic teleseismic earthquake records from autonomous Mermaid floats

SUMMARY We present a computational technique to model hydroacoustic waveforms from teleseismic earthquakes recorded by mid-column Mermaid floats deployed in the Pacific, taking into consideration bathymetric effects that modify seismo-acoustic conversions at the ocean bottom and acoustic wave propagation in the ocean layer, including reverberations. Our approach couples axisymmetric spectral-element simulations performed for moment-tensor earthquakes in a 1-D solid Earth to a 2-D Cartesian fluid–solid coupled spectral-element simulation that captures the conversion from displacement to acoustic pressure at an ocean-bottom interface with accurate bathymetry. We applied our workflow to 1129 seismograms for 682 earthquakes from 16 Mermaids (short for Mobile Earthquake Recording in Marine Areas by Independent Divers) owned by Princeton University that were deployed in the Southern Pacific as part of the South Pacific Plume Imaging and Modeling (SPPIM) project. We compare the modelled synthetic waveforms to the observed records in individually selected frequency bands aimed at reducing local noise levels while maximizing earthquake-generated signal content. The modelled waveforms match the observations very well, with a median correlation coefficient of 0.72, and some as high as 0.95. We compare our correlation-based traveltime measurements to measurements made on the same data set determined by automated arrival-time picking and ray- traced traveltime predictions, with the aim of opening up the use of Mermaid records for global seismic tomography via full-waveform inversion.

Italy’s colonial archives and its history of racial violence. An interview with Gaia Giuliani, author of Bianco e nero. Storia dell’identità razziale degli italiani (2013) and Race, Nation and Gender in Modern Italy. Intersectional Representations in Visual Culture (2019)

ABSTRACT This interview is dedicated to the pioneering work of Gaia Giuliani in critical race, whiteness and postcolonial Italian studies in Italy and internationally, over ten and five years, respectively, from the publication of Bianco e nero: Storia dell'identità razziale degli italiani (with Cristina Lombardi-Diop, Mondadori Education, 2013) and Race, Nation and Gender in Modern Italy: Intersectional Representations in Visual Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). Shelleen Greene is an associate professor of Cinema and Media Studies in the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. Her Equivocal Subjects: Between Italy and Africa – Constructions of Race and Nation in the Italian Cinema (Bloomsbury, 2012) set a milestone in scholarship on Italian visual culture and race. Lorgia Garcia Peña, scholar and activist, is a professor of Latinx Studies at the Effron Center for the Study of America and the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. Her Translating Blackness (Duke, 2022) conceived Latinx Caribbean diaspora (also in Italy) as part of both Black migrants’ oscillating border-crossings and their forms of resistance to colonialism and racism. Both scholars have long been in dialogue with Giuliani’s scholarship.

Undoing business: revealing critical narratives in an edge-city business park through nature-based auto-photography

Business parks are a ubiquitous feature of city-edge development. They have attracted attention for their lack of sustainability, spurring interest in how they can be reconfigured or reimagined in the face of ecological collapse and social fragmentation. Inspired by calls to notice everyday practices at the city edge (Tzaninis et al. 2021. “Moving Urban Political Ecology Beyond the ‘Urbanization of Nature’.” Progress in Human Geography 45 (2): 229–252; Tsing 2015. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton: Princeton University Press; Gandy 2022a. “Ghosts and Monsters: Reconstructing Nature on the Site of the Berlin Wall.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 47: 1120–1136.) and drawing on data from a participant-led photography exercise at a suburban business park in the north-east of England, this article explores how workers employed at businesses on the park engage with and value its natural assets. We set out from Tzaninis et al.’s (2021) contention that the dominant framing of suburbia as ‘non-place’ or ‘no man’s land’ has the effect of denying the many intriguing practices unfolding at the city’s edge. Resonating with Tsing (2015), we highlight the significance of everyday interaction with nature in an ecologically vulnerable landscape as a creative, open-ended and, potentially, hopeful process. Focused on denizens of the business park, our data draws attention to the possibilities and potentialities of more-than-human encounters, the feeling of tranquillity generated by green spaces, and the sense of freedom that derives from bodily movement in a natural setting. These open-ended practices are distinct from, and ‘other than’, the dominant way of doing business in the park. Such encounters, drawn out by auto-photography, foment a radical connectedness with nature through which a powerful sense of custodianship and responsibility can find expression.

A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States, 1961–2021 – Alan S. Blinder’s reviewed by James L. Caton

In the realm of economics, fostering debates and embracing diverse opinions is paramount for driving innovation and achieving optimal outcomes. Alan S. Blinder’s seminal work, “A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States, 1961-2021,” published in October 2022, exemplifies this ethos. Blinder, a renowned economist and Professor at Princeton University, draws from his extensive experience, including roles as Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and a member of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers, to offer a unique perspective rooted in Keynesian economics. Through his book, Blinder not only enhances our comprehension of various economic concepts but also underscores the significance of critical thinking and vigorous debate in shaping public research.

Tsing, A. (2015). The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Review by Sarah Postema-Toews

Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing opens her book by discussing the enlightenment paradigm that relegated nature as passive background and resources for humans to extract and profit from. She states that previously it was mainly non-western storytellers who explored the realm of interconnection between all beings, human and non-human alike. This notion of ‘interspecies entanglement’ has become a growing topic within contemporary biological research thus destabilising modernist assumptions that place humans at the forefront of knowledge and perceived value (Tsing, 2015, p. vii).