Public Festivals Research Articles

Public health risk factors at music festivals: “Be Safe Lab” initiative

Abstract Background At large public events such as music festivals there is an increased exposure to the risk factors as alcohol, tobacco and narcotics, unprotected sex, trauma and violence. Non-governmental organizations engage in prevention and support activities at such events. An initiative “Be Safe Lab” has developed in Lithuania to reduce the likelihood of adverse events due to harmful behavior at public festivals. Study Aim To investigate the experience of operating the “Be Safe Lab” initiative at Lithuanian music festivals. Methods In this qualitative study the data were collected from five “Be Safe Lab” volunteer staff using semi-structured interviews lasting in average of 50 minutes. The main guidelines were prepared and informants were asked to tell in general about the initiative, motives and reasons to develop the initiative, its goals and tasks, the questions that visitors apply to them, challenges and obstacles, personal experience in the initiative. Data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis according to Braun and Clarke (2013). Results The analysis revealed 6 main themes: principles of the initiative, variety of services, substance use harm reduction, changes of volunteers' perspectives, the role of teamwork, and initiative challenges. Conclusions The initiative has a number of strengths and challenges. Integrated services are provided not just to drug users, but also to other festival visitors who seek help or advice. The volunteer staff must have special skills, competencies and medical knowledge. The harm reduction measures for drugs and psychoactive substances used in the initiative are believed to be effective and attract music festival visitors. Initiative volunteers benefit both personally and professionally from providing services. However, further success of the initiative requires additional financial support, training, and collaboration with institutions providing emergency medical services at music festivals. Key messages Integrated services are provided to any festival visitor who seek help from “Be Safe Lab” specialists. The initiative volunteers benefit both personally and professionally from providing services.

The Theological and Doxological Reference to the Resurrection and the Pentecost according to the Orations of Gregory Nazianzen XLI and XLV

In the 41st oration, Gregory Nazianzen analyses again the divinity of the Holy Spirit, a subject that is developed in his Fifth Theological Oration. Gregory tries to establish the point by quite a different set of arguments from those adopted in the former discourse, none of whose points are here repeated. In the other oration, forty-five, Gregory refers to the importance of the resurrection for the human race. He presents Christ as the new Adam who saved the human from the death and reunites again the man with God. In this paper, we will examine the teaching of Gregory Nazianzen about the divine status of the Holy Spirit and his equality to the other two persons of the Triune God through theological and biblical images. Also, we will present how he connects his teaching for anthropology based on the Christology. In the end, we will show how Gregory produced these orations for public festivals within the literarily ripe tradition of pagan festival rhetoric but he gives to his orations theological content. Keywords: Nicholas Cabasilas, doxological reference, Gregory Nazianzen, liturgy, Pentecost

Pact with the People?

Pact with the People?

International Particle Physics Outreach Group: Reaching across the globe with science

The International Particle Physics Outreach Group (IPPOG) is a network of scientists, science educators and communication specialists working across the globe in informal science education and outreach for particle physics. The primary methodology adopted by IPPOG requires the direct involvement of scientists active in current research with education and communication specialists, in order to effectively develop and share best practices in public engagement. IPPOG member activities include the International Particle Physics Masterclasses, Global Cosmics, International Muon Week and International Cosmic Day organisation, and participation in activities ranging from public talks, festivals, exhibitions, teacher training, student competitions, and open days at local institutions. These independent activities, often carried out in a variety of languages to public with a variety of backgrounds, all serve to gain the public trust and to improve worldwide understanding and support of science. We present our vision of IPPOG as a strategic pillar of particle physics, fundamental research and evidence-based decision-making around the world.

Roman Diet and Meat Consumption: Reassessing Elite Access to Meat in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10

A persistent exegetical tradition exists linking the Pauline controversy over the consumption of idol meat in the Corinthian correspondence to social and economic assumptions about the Roman world. Specifically, there is the assumption that access to meat was limited to the elite within the Roman world. According to this exegetical tradition, the lower classes only had access to meat through public religious festivals or as derivative through cultic sacrifice by means of the marketplace, resulting in the view that non-elites were sustained on a diet of legumes, grains and wine. Roman access to meat along such class demarcations, furthermore, is founded upon an economic dichotomy of elite and non-elite. This article challenges these social assumptions regarding meat consumption in, especially, Corinth by engaging recent scholarship that re-evaluates Roman diet in regard to access to meat and other animal products. Specifically, methods in archaeological science (especially stable isotope analysis) are used to supplement literary reassessments. What arises is a new picture of Roman diet, wherein meat consumption was not limited to the elite, but was prevalent in nearly all levels of Roman society. With this fresh perspective on Roman dietary practices, Paul’s comments in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10 must be re-evaluated.

DEMENTIA WITHOUT BORDERS: BUILDING COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS TO REDUCE STIGMA AND FOSTER INCLUSION

BACKGROUND: The concept of social citizenship is gaining traction in the field of dementia studies, but as a practical tool to guide development of supports and services, it remains poorly understood. A one year project to promote collaboration between University of Washington in Seattle and University of British Columbia in Vancouver addressed this very question. Activities were undertaken so these communities could know each other better, with researchers, service providers and people with dementia connecting to share knowledge and expertise. PURPOSE: The project culminated with a public festival to put into practice and share some of what was learned over the year. METHODS: People with dementia and care partners helped plan “Dementia Without Borders”, held at an international park straddling the border between Seattle and Vancouver. 150 people came from the US and Canada, including many people with dementia, family members and friends. The day began with a community walk and gift exchange, followed by a meal and creative activities including poetry readings, music, an art exhibit, and quilt making. RESULTS: Evaluation was overwhelmingly positive with people expressing a sense of hope and belonging. For some, it was their first time to speak openly about having dementia, and meeting others in this space was a joy-filled experience. CONCLUSIONS: This project has leveraged the symbolic power of an international border to raise awareness of the importance of social connection for people with dementia. We further explore how the notion of “dementia without borders” extends theoretical and practical understanding of social citizenship.

Buddhist merit in the West: a case study from Australia’s Nan Tien Temple

ABSTRACTThe Buddhism that was introduced into China proposed that secular puṇya follows wholesome religious deeds intended to achieve happiness and prosperity in the human world or rebirth in heavenly realms. Buddhism then assimilated the classical Chinese fude and emphasised the merit field and transfer of merit. With the popularity of Mahāyana Buddhism, the cultivation of fude reached new heights. In the West, the Buddhist concepts of puṇya and fude did not take off. This article explores the extent to which Buddhist merit may be accepted in the West, and the mechanism by which it can be presented for easy acceptance. Australia’s largest Buddhist sanctuary, Fo Guang Shan Nan Tien Temple, hosts over 200,000 visitors and a public festival that attracts over 1,000 volunteers annually for more than 20 years. The studies in this article indicate that religious merit is attractive to those seeking blessings for a healthier, happier and more peaceful future as well as to those who wish to cultivate altruistic behaviour. Blessings and voluntarism may serve as skilful means to meet human needs in the short term as well as to introduce karmic merit and selfless bodhisattva aspiration in the long run.

Augustus’ “New” Festival: The Centrality of Married Women’s Rituals at the Ludi Saeculares of 17 BCE

AbstractThe article explores how Augustus and the priesthood of theXVviri sacris faciundisorganized and performed the rituals for celebrating a new era (ludi saeculares) under the rule of the gods Apollo and Diana. In the Republic, it had been a woman’s personal decision whether or not to take part in women’s festivals. However, theXVviricommanded that 110 married women (matronae) perform rituals (supplications and sacrifices) on the Capitoline. This article argues for the novelty of such a custom, in that it was a new form of top-down appeal tomatronaeto honor the gods in public festivals. The article also argues for the centrality of rituals of thematronaein the festival. At theludi saeculares, the cooperation between men (theXVviri) andmatronaewas ritually staged and seen as indispensable for ensuring the continuity of Rome.

Toward zero waste events: Reducing contamination in waste streams with volunteer assistance

Public festivals and events generate a tremendous amount of waste, especially when they involve food and drink. To reduce contamination across waste streams, we evaluated three types of interventions at a public event. In a randomized control trial, we examined the impact of volunteer staff assistance, bin tops, and sample 3D items with bin tops, on the amount of contamination and the weight of the organics, recyclable containers, paper, and garbage bins at a public event. The event was the annual Apple Festival held at the University of British Columbia, which was attended by around 10,000 visitors. We found that contamination was the lowest in the volunteer staff condition among all conditions. Specifically, volunteer staff reduced contamination by 96.1% on average in the organics bin, 96.9% in the recyclable containers bin, 97.0% in the paper bin, and 84.9% in the garbage bin. Our interventions did not influence the weight of the materials in the bins. This finding highlights the impact of volunteers on reducing contamination in waste streams at events, and provides suggestions and implications for waste management for event organizers to minimize contamination in all waste streams to achieve zero waste goals.

Observant participant: carnal sociology and researcher identity in religious educational spaces

ABSTRACTThe ethnographer’s embodied action during research is a complex of habit, belief, social and institutional positioning, and intention. This article examines what urban anthropologist Wacqaunt calls ‘carnal sociology’ and considers its implications for ethnographers of religious educational spaces. Contemporary ethnographers of education have renewed their interest in religious educational spaces—religious schools, houses of worship, public festivals. In conducting research in the field of religious education, ethnographers often cross familiar and unfamiliar boundaries, engaging in forms of participant observation and practice beyond their own religious categories: we research in religious spaces and with religious communities different from our own commitments. Drawing on interactional data from a multi-year ethnography of an urban Catholic school and parish in Philadelphia (USA), I consider how my own embodied participation in the religious rituals of the school and parish led to a reflexivity on practice, and initiated institutional and youth-driven social positioning in response.

Two Simulation Cases to Prepare for a Public Festival: Pediatric Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) Ingestion and Alcohol Toxicity.

IntroductionEmergency departments (EDs) see a surge of intoxicated patients during large public summer events. These patients can be distracting and complicated for ED staff to care for.MethodsWe developed two cases to prepare emergency department staff for an anticipated surge of patients related to a large music festival that occurs proximal to our pediatric hospital. We developed and performed cases of simulated patients with alcohol intoxication and methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) ingestion to review medical management of these patients, as well as to review many of the social aspects of the cases. We surveyed simulation (sim) session participants to assess the degree to which the sessions were helpful and to glean ideas on how to improve sessions for future use.ResultsOver the course of two years, we have hosted eight simulations, for a total of 57 participants comprising various healthcare roles. We achieved an 85% response rate in the post-simulation surveys. The sessions were overall well-received and left participants feeling better prepared to care for intoxicated patients.DiscussionDespite having a large number of staff from many disciplines working varied schedules, we were able to provide simulation training to many of them in preparation for an expected surge of intoxicated patients. Participants appreciated the training and gave feedback to improve sessions in the future.

Festivals in the Greek East: From the Early Empire to the Middle Byzantine Era by Fritz Graf

Reviewed by: Festivals in the Greek East: From the Early Empire to the Middle Byzantine Era by Fritz Graf Jacob A. Latham Fritz Graf Festivals in the Greek East: From the Early Empire to the Middle Byzantine Era Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015 Pp. xvi + 363. $120.00. Festivals in the Greek East ranges widely geographically (from Palestine and Anatolia to Italy and Gaul), temporally (from Augustus to Constantine Porphyrogennetos), and even topically, with incubation and magic finding a place in a work dedicated to public rituals. The book proceeds more or less chronologically and remains close to the evidence, eschewing theorization, for the most part, in favor of thick description. The depth of coverage, as might be expected, varies considerably, which, in combination with its scope, renders the book as a whole a bit unwieldy. Nonetheless, founded on a rich appreciation of both the festivals themselves and their historiography over the longue durée and grounded in epigraphic and documentary sources, this work demonstrates the malleability and adaptability of public festivals, whose reinvention allowed them to survive greatly changing circumstances. In two long chapters, Part One looks at festivals in the eastern Mediterranean before Constantine. Chapter One offers a kind of greatest hits of Greek civic festivals during the high empire, drawing on some of the best known epigraphic examples, such as the Salutaris foundation from Ephesus. Despite the relative inattention of both ancient Greek authors and modern scholars of Greek religion, public festivals flourished; they were lavish and long-lasting productions. Chapter Two turns to civic festivals of the city of Rome that were exported by the legions or imported at local initiative. More specifically, this chapter treats rabbinic responses recorded in the Talmud of the Land of Israel to a series of widely celebrated Roman city festivals: the Kalends (of January), the Saturnalia, and others such as the Rosalia, for which at least one Jewish funerary bequest provided funds. Unsurprisingly, the rabbis were a bit anxious about these popular festivals, celebration of which was an important element of imperial social belonging. Part Two explores the fate of these Roman festivals after Constantine and the development of a Christian public liturgy. Chapter Three examines the legal treatment of traditional cult festivals, most of which were demoted, while Christian holidays were steadily provided monopoly protection. Some festivals, however—the Kalends and the Natalis Urbis of Rome and Constantinople—were explicitly maintained. Chapter Four addresses Christian concerns about the Kalends, beginning with Libanius's reaction (possibly) to John Chrysostom's full throated denunciation of the festival. Christian opposition continued in both East (Asterius of Amaseia and John Lydus) and West (Augustine, Peter Chrysologus, and Caesarius of Arles) and even occupied a number of church councils (Tours, Autun, in Trullo, Braga) into the seventh century. Chapter Five examines the Lupercalia from Augustus to Bishop Gelasius of Rome (ca. 596) in the West and Constantine Porphyrogennetos (tenth century) in the East. After a brief description of the imperial festival, the chapter offers a kind of commentary [End Page 326] on a letter of Gelasius, in which the bishop attempted to dissuade elites from their continuing patronage of the festival—unsuccessfully, as Gelasius admits. The chapter then jumps ahead several centuries to walk the reader through Constantine Porphyrogennetos's Book of Ceremonies, in which a very different, and now moveable, festival was celebrated under its traditional name. Chapter Six is a bit of an outlier that treats John Malalas's etiologies of Roman festivals in order to demonstrate how these festivals were interpreted. Malalas worked out of the classical tradition, but ultimately updated the origin stories to suit better a late imperial socio-political situation. Chapter Seven returns to public festivals with an analysis of the Brumalia. In the Latin West, the Bruma seems to have been a late fall ritual involving the exchange of gifts, which continued at least into the eighth century. In the Greek East, the Bruma was reinvented as the Brumalia, a twenty-three-day-long festival—a kind of repackaged Saturnalia—that was a festival of social inversion. Chapter Eight revisits the Kalends, a particularly important festival for a very long time. If one expands the rather exiguous...

Spectacular Wealth: The Festivals of Colonial South American Mining Towns by Lisa Voigt

Portuguese Studies vol. 34 no. 1 (2018), 119–32© Modern Humanities Research Association 2018 Reviews Lisa Voigt, Spectacular Wealth: The Festivals of Colonial South American Mining Towns (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2016). 237 pages, 5 b/w photos. Print and e-book. Hardcover and paperback. Reviewed by Barbara Alge (Goethe University, Frankfurt) Public festivals have had an important function in promoting imperial expansion since the beginning of the colonization of the Americas. They were used to commemorate religious and political events, from important Catholic feast days to political acts such as the entrance of important authorities into colonial towns or weddings of the court. Spectacular Wealth, written by Lisa Voigt, complements the vast literature on festivals in eighteenth-century mining towns in colonial South America. While Voigt cites this literature, the novelty of her Spectacular Wealth lies, first, in the ‘mining’ (p. 8) of festival accounts, and, second, in the comparative approach — not only looking at festivals in Spanish and Portuguese America side-by-side, but also working out links, similarities and differences between these two regions. Drawing on archival research, Voigt examines festival accounts and the festive participation of diverse inhabitants in the silver-mining town of Potosí (viceroyalty of Peru) and in the gold-mining towns of Minas Gerais (Brazil). She not only bridges written texts and performances, but brings the festivals to life by giving a voice to different ethnic and social groups involved in the organization and performance of the festivals, as well as to those writing about the festivals in mining boomtowns, mostly for a metropolitan readership. WhilethefestivalsservedtheChurchandtheCrownforostentationinthefirst instance, they also offered an opportunity to Amerindians, Afro-descendants, Europeans and creoles to display their social capital and cultural practices in spectacular performances. Festivals were used to redefine the reputation of these groups, and to celebrate their cultural, spiritual and intellectual wealth. Tracing the multiple meanings and messages of civic festivals and religious feast days, Voigt highlights the conflicting agendas at work in the organization, performance and reporting of festivals. The book is divided by theme and approach rather than geography and corpus: Part I analyses and interprets specific texts on festivals in the Villa Imperial de Potosí (Chapter 1) and on festivals in colonial Minas Gerais (Chapter 2); Part II uses those and other texts to take a closer look at the celebrants of the festivals, with a focus on the natives in Potosí (Chapter 3), and on Afro-Brazilians in Minas Gerais (Chapter 4). Each chapter finishes Reviews 120 with a helpful summary of the main points. Extensive notes, well indicated in relation to pages, complement the information given in each chapter and five figures in black-and-white reproduced from eighteenth-century paintings and manuscripts illustrate Voigt’s observations. A conclusion tops off the complex narrative. In the introduction, Voigt presents a description of the play of the Real tragicomedia del descubrimiento y conquista del Oriente, performed at a Jesuit college in Lisbon in 1619, to outline the main themes of the book, that is, ‘the festive display of mineral wealth; of the feats and fruits of evangelization; of royal authority and ethnic difference, both feigned and real; of intergroup competition and rivalry (again, both feigned and real)’ (p. 11). The description of this play by Mimoso (Lisbon, 1620) serves as an example of what Voigt calls the ‘ambiguous genre’ of festival accounts, lying between the narrative of a performed event and their own rhetorical performances, and as such derived from other texts and oral accounts as well as the performance itself. The introduction further contextualizes the silver rush in Potosí and the gold rush in Minas Gerais historically, and provides insights into the social make-up of the mining towns, composed of those who profited from the minerals, and those who suffered from exploitation working in the mines. Voigt also mentions the writers in Portuguese and Spanish America, who play a role throughout the book, such as Bartolomé Arzáns de Orsúa and Andre João Antonil. She turns her attention to the physical and symbolical presence of different racial and ethnic groups in the festival performances. Chapter 1 focuses on three festive occasions that Arzáns uses to showcase...

Making Prussians, Raising Germans: A Cultural History of Prussian State-Building after Civil War, 1866–1935 by Jasper Heinzen

Reviewed by: Making Prussians, Raising Germans: A Cultural History of Prussian State-Building after Civil War, 1866–1935 by Jasper Heinzen Anna Ross Making Prussians, Raising Germans: A Cultural History of Prussian State-Building after Civil War, 1866–1935. By Jasper Heinzen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017. Pp 386. Cloth £90.00. ISBN 978-1107198791. It is a commonplace that war is and has been a characteristic element of nation-building. In the case of Germany, this is often examined through recourse to past armed struggles against external "others." But, as Jasper Heinzen argues, war against foreign enemies is not the only form of conflict deserving of our attention. In his work Making Prussians, Raising Germans, Heinzen explores the less-studied role of civil war in nation-state formation. The result is a meticulously researched and thought-provoking look at the relationship between civil war and the processes of contestation and negotiation characteristic of nineteenth-century German nationalism. Heinzen's historical starting point is Prussia's war on the German Confederation in 1866. He argues that this conflict amounted to a civil war, after which the inhabitants of Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Hesse-Kassel, Frankfurt, and the like faced the difficult task of coming to terms with a new sovereign, laws, and customs. In particular, he examines the case of Hanover from its defeat in 1866 through to passage of the Reich Commissar Laws of 1933/1935. Heinzen's look at Hanover includes an examination of military state-building in chapter 1, which encompasses the absorption of Hanoverian officers into the Prussian army, their experiences in fighting as brothers-in-arms alongside Prussian soldiers in 1870–1871, and the development of Prussian military culture in the Kaiserreich. Chapter 2 turns to consider how the legacy of internecine conflict was negotiated in memory culture. It traces the evolution of war memorials and the memory politics of monarchy, as well as the adaptation of municipal architecture, public festivals, and heritage preservation up to World War I. Heinzen then discusses the ways in which the Prussian state negotiated and inculcated loyalty in its deployment of press management and sponsorship of public libraries, and expands upon this theme by looking at education, probing curriculum reform, textbook content, and the elaboration of patriotic school holidays. He also explores Hanoverian nursing institutions to show how women reconciled their private hostility towards the Hohenzollerns with the need for pragmatic cooperation. Heinzen concludes the study by looking at the ways in which these strands of activity were recast after 1918 and before 1935. Heinzen's argument is that state-building after civil war was not a smooth process; rather, it was riddled with "contradictions, fears, rivalries, compromises, and contingencies" on the part of government representatives as well as annexed Prussians (14). This resulted in the integration of Hanover into federal structures being a much more interesting, complex, and longer process than we often recognize. In addition, he argues that the German war should be placed within a broader landscape of state-building after civil war. Heinzen does this in each of his chapters by drawing [End Page 626] parallels to the Swiss Sonderbundskrieg (1847), Piedmont's conquest of southern Italy (1860–1861), and the American Civil War (1861–1865). This comparative anchoring, Heinzen claims, helps to avoid any temptations to overstate the uniqueness of the story he is telling and instead underscores the generalizability of his findings. One can get bogged down in Heinzen's many lines of thought, but overall this is an excellent and informative monograph. In particular, Heinzen's account is notable for the attention it draws to Prussia's surprising flexibility in negotiating the legacy of civil war. This includes many thought-provoking passages about the productive tensions (198) that existed within state-building, and were continually fostered by both annexed populations and the Prussian state. The work also offers many treasures about everyday interactions between Hanoverians and state officials directly after 1866 and during the Kaiserreich. This is particularly striking in chapter 5, where Heinzen examines four Hanoverian nursing organizations: the Sisters of Frederica, the Sisters of Charity in Hildesheim, the Henriettenstift, and the Clementinenhaus. Here questions of female patriotism-cum-piety, confession, and...

Infection and the People’s Rights Regarding MERS in the Republic of Korea

The first case was reported on May 20, 2015. The outbreak was traced back to a Korean man who returned from a trip to Bahrain via Qatar in early May and sought medical care at several hospitals before being diagnosed. But this patient did not initially report his travel to the Middle East, which significantly delayed the process identifying the source of the epidemic.In Korea, a total of 26 first generation cases in a single hospital were traced back to a single index case (patient zero). In particular, #14 confirmed case occurred outbreak of SAMSUNG Medical Center, infected at least 90 cases. SAMSUNG Medical Center is one of the five largest hospitals located in Seoul with 3,980 healthcare professionals and more than 8,000 outpatient visits per day.As a matter of fact, most of the people infected with MERS or who faced the risk of becoming infected with the disease appear to be those who stayed at the hospitals where patients of the disease were being housed. However, when the spread of the disease reached its peak in early June, a thousand or more schools and kindergartens were temporarily shut down, and a number of public events and festivals were cancelled. It was reported that the number of tourists visiting Korea decreased by 41% compared with the same time period of the previous year. During this time period, 16,752 people were ordered to stay in isolation within their own homes.

The amplified sacrifice: sound, technology, and participation in modern Vedic ritual

ABSTRACTThe amplification of religious sound in public spaces has become a key medium for negotiating identity, difference, and pluralism in societies worldwide. This paper explores the religious soundscape of Hindu traditions in Kerala, India by examining the role of sonic amplification in the sacrifices of Nambudiri Brahmins. While Brahmanical praxis is based on ancient liturgies from the first millennium BCE, the modern performance now incorporates microphones and loudspeakers that amplify recitations well beyond the power of the human voice. This technological shift coincides with significant changes in patronage and participation, as people from outside the Nambudiri community take a more active role in the funding, organization, and celebration of such rituals. In contrast to the private sacrifices of previous generations, the ‘amplified sacrifice’ is now carried out as a public Hindu festival with thousands of attendees and a full suite of marketing and media coverage. In this way, the local, sonic amplification of performance tracks with a regional, cultural ‘amplification’ of Vedic ritual and Nambudiri identity.

Involving citizens in priority setting for public health research: Implementation in infection research.

BackgroundPublic sources fund the majority of UK infection research, but citizens currently have no formal role in resource allocation. To explore the feasibility and willingness of citizens to engage in strategic decision making, we developed and tested a practical tool to capture public priorities for research.MethodA scenario including six infection themes for funding was developed to assess citizen priorities for research funding. This was tested over two days at a university public festival. Votes were cast anonymously along with rationale for selection. The scenario was then implemented during a three‐hour focus group exploring views on engagement in strategic decisions and in‐depth evaluation of the tool.Results188/491(38%) prioritized funding research into drug‐resistant infections followed by emerging infections(18%). Results were similar between both days. Focus groups contained a total of 20 citizens with an equal gender split, range of ethnicities and ages ranging from 18 to >70 years. The tool was perceived as clear with participants able to make informed comparisons. Rationale for funding choices provided by voters and focus group participants are grouped into three major themes: (i) Information processing; (ii) Knowledge of the problem; (iii) Responsibility; and a unique theme within the focus groups (iv) The potential role of citizens in decision making. Divergent perceptions of relevance and confidence of “non‐experts” as decision makers were expressed.ConclusionVoting scenarios can be used to collect, en‐masse, citizens' choices and rationale for research priorities. Ensuring adequate levels of citizen information and confidence is important to allow deployment in other formats.

«¡España viva!»: Personifications of Spain in Lope de Vega's «comedias de santos»

This study concerns the personification Espana as she appears, briefly, in four saints plays by Lope de Vega. It presents an analysis of her function, character, and likely appearance. It argues that Lope deploys Espana –in the majority of cases in commissioned plays forming part of public festivals of national significance– to advocate the hispanicization of the lives of non-Spanish saints and of universal Catholic dogma. The essay argues further that, influenced by the iconographic and emblematic traditions, Espana is characterized by Lope as courteous and genteel at home, but feisty and belligerent when faced with foreign adversaries, her appearance on stage probably reflecting aspects of that character.

Curated Readings

Established in 2006, Barking Spider Visual Theatre is a Melbourne-based multi-art form company whose mission is to interpret history and place through community and individual narratives. The company collaborates with public institutions, theatres, schools and festivals to develop and create stories using puppetry, percussion, art-installation, animation/film, sound installation and live performance. The company often creates immersive spaces requiring visitors to move, explore and experience collections, spaces and buildings in unexpected and, occasionally, irreverent ways.This paper presents two performances created by Barking Spider Visual Theatre that were commissioned by libraries to focus on history and context—the library as a repository of collective stories. Liberty of the Press was created for the State Library of Victoria (SLV) in 2014, while the second work, Ex Libris, was developed in 2013 for The Melbourne Athenaeum Library to celebrate History Week. Each work addressed how performance serves to engage and enliven the library as a learning space for the public, and how it can increase the social and cultural value of libraries and their collections.

Performing Dante or Building the Nation?: The Divina Commedia between Dramaturgy of Exile and Public Festivities

Performing Dante or Building the Nation? The Divina Commedia between Dramaturgy of Exile and Public Festivities Rossella Bonfatti Dantism during the Risorgimento: A Winning Idea Dante, the “anima di fuoco [soul of fire]”—like Mazzini and Garibaldi, the two other main icons of the Risorgimento—gave off “scintille di senso [sparks of meaning]” across time, as Italian historian Mario Isnenghi so aptly put it. This meant he was surrounded by the same constant “effetto alone [halo effect]”1 that continued even through decades or centuries of apparent silence. Catapulted into modernity by literature and the visual and performing arts, the “Genio gigante [great Genius]”, apostle and prophet of the nation, poet of Italian regeneration, symbol of an individual and collective fate, therefore represented a pulsar memory, both inside and outside the text.2 For this very reason, as Alberto Savinio stated, “Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare are great names but they are timeless: we would say detached from life…they are men-oases, or men-islands, detached from the chain, or better the conveyor belt of ideas.”3 In the nineteenth century, Mazzini’s thought, the romantic myth, Italophilia, and the civil religion of an Italy devoted to unity and national pride (despite some severe divisions) promoted the internationalization and democratization of culture. These phenomena were responsible for reshaping a cult that was already transnational and reflecting its own identity, capable of combining both high and low culture, scholarship and popularization.4 So much so, in fact, that patriotic and literary causes were fought in the name of Dante, who was a national hero in the theater, through the 1865 Dante Festival—an event proposed by the English Dante scholar Henry Clark Barlow in the pages of Athaeneum and the Morning Post between 1858 and 1861,5 following in the footsteps of the national German and English festivities in honor of the literary glory of Shakespeare, Schiller, and Goethe.6 [End Page 37] But how far could Dante’s work be pushed in a Risorgimento key? And what was its impact on mass imagination? To answer these questions, we will try to assess the popular reception of Dante within Italy and abroad under two different lenses. On the one hand, we will examine the “dramaturgy of exile,” fed by Italian refugees through dramatized readings, improvisations, musical evenings, academic lectures, theater performances, and artistic works inspired by the Commedia or by Dante the character or auctor. On the other hand, we will look at the “dramaturgy of the festival,” provoked by the Universal Exhibitions and the Sixth Centenary in 1865: the modern global stages or shop windows for art as a product and the first national congress of the newly formed Italian civil society, defined eloquently by Carlo Dionisotti as the “final scene of the fantastic drama of the Risorgimento,”7 held in Florence, the Kingdom’s new capital. Recent historical and cultural studies have shown that “Dantean literature of the Risorgimento”8 and the Commedia can be considered both an “Italian book” and a “universal book,” as the political message could be transferred from the patriotism of one country to another, and took on different meanings depending on the various ideologies and the corresponding rhetoric that fed it, adapting to the ideas narrated and the roles conferred. One can therefore see in Dante a large collective autobiography of nineteenth-century man, a sought-after father of the nation who could speak to a variety of readers, fusing art and industry and appealing both to the masses and to the elite. Moreover, in the same way, one may consider the Commedia the first “textbook” of the new, secular, post-unification education, which the Risorgimento as teacher would update, furnish with comments, and canonize as a memento of the nation. Dante on Stage: The “Dramaturgy of Exile The Commedia stands out in nineteenth-century theater both as a repertoire for performances during the “Grande Attore [Great Actor]” period and as a model for drame romantique, with its inherent theatrical vision. Peter Armour describes how Dante’s poem initiated a new form of reading: no longer silent, private, and individual, but instead a public act involving declamations and readings, following the medieval tradition of...