„Gesund beginnt im Mund“ besagt eine bekannte Volksweisheit, der wir in

Early on in the Arab Spring, a blog that had already existed for several years went viral: A Gay Girl in Damascus by Amina Arraf, a Syrian-American Muslim woman, who wrote about the uprisings in Syria and her life as a lesbian in Damascus. In June 2011, the world was shocked to learn that Amina had allegedly been abducted by the secret police. But the real surprise was yet to come. Not long after, journalists and activists realized that Amina Arraf was a hoax, invented and impersonated by Thomas “Tom” MacMaster, a forty-year-old straight white American man who studied medieval history in Scotland.

What made McMaster so successful in deceiving the blog’s readers? Specifically, why were educated and politically engaged westerners so susceptible to believing a falsified account of the Syrian revolution? And how did the western need for self-validation as anti-racist, LGBTQ-friendly and anti-imperialist come into play?

Andrew Orr, Professor of Military History and Security Studies at Kansas State University, has delved into these questions in his newly published book, “The Gay Girl in Damascus Hoax.” To shed some light on what we can learn from this incredible story, and how queer theory helps understand history, we invited him for this book talk. The interview was conducted by Rabea Rittgerodt, Senior Acquisitions Editor History at De Gruyter.

Dr. Andrew Orr is Professor of Military History and Security Studies at Kansas State University. His work focuses on the 19th and 20th centuries and explores the boundaries of civilian and military identity.

Link to the book ► https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111057231/html

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One of the first professional women authors of the Middle Ages, Italian-French writer, strategist and historian Christine de Pizan (1364–c.1429) possessed extensive knowledge of military tactics and advocated for women’s equality centuries before the feminist movement.

Last year, De Gruyter published her highly influential military and warfare treatise, “Le livre de faiz d’armes et de chevallerie” (Book of Deeds of Arms and Chivalry, 1410) together with its contemporary German translation.

On the occasion of Women’s History Month, we take a look back on the life and work of this extraordinary figure with Pizan experts Earl Jeffrey Richards and Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski.

Prof. Dr. phil. (em.) Earl Jeffrey Richards is Professor of Romance Literatures at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal. In 1982, he translated The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan and has been actively writing about her and her works ever since.

Prof. Dr. phil. (em.) Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski is Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Pittsburgh and was President of the Medieval Academy of America in 2020/2021. Her research focuses on French medieval literature and culture, in particular Christine de Pizan.

Alexandra Koronkai-Kiss is Editorial Communications Manager at De Gruyter. She holds degrees from the University of St Andrews and the University of Edinburgh and has worked in the art world across Europe, specializing in online communication and digital strategy.

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Nanomaterials are an emerging technology increasingly portrayed in science fiction. But what are these mysterious materials in reality about? How are they made? And what are they used for? To answer these questions and more we invited co-editors Prof. Xuan Grace Wang, Prof. Sajid Bashir, and Prof. Jingbo Louise Liu to chat about their new book, “Nanochemistry: From Theory to Application for In-Depth Understanding of Nanomaterials” with De Gruyter Acquisitions Editor Dr. Christene Smith.

Xuan Grace Wang is an Instructional Assistant Professor Texas A&M Higher Education at McAllen, where she holds appointments in the College of Science. Currently, she devotes her efforts to leadership roles, such as the Chair of the South Texas Local Chapter of the American Chemical Society.

Sajid Bashir is a Full Professor at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and the American Chemical Society, Energy and Fuels Division Technical Secretary. Moreover, he collaborates with local law enforcement as a consultant in forensic chemistry.

Jingbo Louise Liu is a Full Professor at Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Director of the Center of Teaching Effectiveness. She is also affiliated with the Texas A&M Energy Institute and Councilor of the Energy and Fuels Division in ACS. Among many other awards, she received the 2021 Women in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Award by IUPAC.

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Digital humanities are a hot topic nowadays, but what about digital linguistics? How can digital language data be used in other areas of research? To tackle these complex questions, we invited Prof. Andreas Witt and Dr. Darja Fišer to talk to us about De Gruyter’s new series “Digital Linguistics” and its first volume “CLARIN. The Infrastructure for Language Resources,” which the two co-edited.

Andreas Witt is Professor of Computational Humanities and Text Technologies at the University of Mannheim and heads the department of Digital Linguistics at the Leibniz Institute for the German Language in Mannheim. Furthermore, he is the series editor of “Digital Linguistics”.

Darja Fišer is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana and Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Knowledge Technologies, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana. She has recently been appointed CLARIN Vice Executive Director.

With De Gruyter Acquisitions Editor Svetoslava Antonova Baumann, they talked about their motivation for publishing the book, the use of language data outside of linguistics, as well as the importance of the diversity of languages and language resources for the digital humanities.

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Films not only entertain – they also probe social injustices and tell  marginalized stories. Against a backdrop of increasing economic  inequality, more and more people today are experiencing precarious  living situations, poverty, and social exclusion. The book “Precarity in  European Film: Depictions and Discourses” is a major new contribution  to research into the representation of class in contemporary visual  culture. 

In this book talk, Dr. Pablo Dominguez Andersen, communications director  at De Gruyter, meets the volume’s three editors — Elisa Cuter, Guido  Kirsten, and Hanna Prenzel — to discuss questions of precarity in  European cinema. What does precarity mean exactly? Is class still a  relevant issue today? And can we identify common themes in these films,  selected from across Europe? 

The volume brings together renowned scholars and early  career-researchers in mapping the ways in which European cinema —  whether mainstream or arthouse, fictional or documentary, traditional or  experimental — engages with phenomena of precarity, poverty, and social  exclusion. It looks at how the filmic traditions of different countries  reflect the socioeconomic conditions of precarity, and it illuminates  similarities in the iconography of precarious lives across cultures. 

The three editors are members of the Emmy Noether Research Group on  Cinematic Discourses of Deprivation at the Film University Babelsberg  Konrad Wolf in Potsdam. The book “Precarity in European Film” is the  first volume in the new De Gruyter series “Film, Class, Society.”

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Over the last few years, the misuse of contested terms such as “critical race theory” and “white privilege” have exacerbated social rifts – especially since these terms are often misunderstood or not clearly defined in the first place. What’s to be done? Can we counteract polarization by creating a better understanding of these concepts? Perhaps the answers lurk behind the doors of a historic townhouse at 1014 Fifth Avenue in New York City.

Founded in 2017 upon the initiative of the German Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institut, the non-profit organization 1014 – space for ideas aims to facilitate transatlantic relationships through talks, performances, and exhibitions. Their latest venture is the conversation series “Humanities for Humans,” presented in collaboration with the Walter de Gruyter Foundation. In eight virtual and in-person events over two years, renowned scholars from a variety of disciplines and from both sides of the Atlantic will take a deeper look at the polarizing issues of our era.

According to Dr. Irene Kacandes, Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College and curator of the series, the lectures aim to bring out the “human” in the humanities and to contribute to a level-headed debate among the general public. In the run-up to the first event on September 27, De Gruyter’s director of communications Dr. Pablo Dominguez Andersen spoke to Irene about the origins of the series, the vital role of the humanities in times of crisis, and her plans for the future.

Link to the interview transcript on our blog De Gruyter Conversations ► https://blog.degruyter.com/humanities-for-humans-an-interview-with-irene-kacandes

More about "Humanities for Humans" ► https://www.1014.nyc/humanities-for-humans 

More about the first event "Racism and Fascism: A Love Story" (27 September) ► https://www.1014.nyc/events/humanities-for-humans-racism-and-fascism-a-love-story 

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For two decades, Rockstar Games have been making games that interrogate and represent the idea of America, past and present. Commercially successful, fan-beloved, and a frequent source of media attention, Rockstar’s franchises are positioned as not only game-changing, ground-breaking interventions in the games industry, but also as critical, cultural histories on America and its excesses.

In an interview with acquisitions editor Rabea Rittgerodt, Dr. Esther Wright, author of the newly published book “Rockstar Games and American History. Promotional Materials and the Construction of Authenticity”, talked about historical authenticity in video games, what makes “Red Dead Redemption” and “L.A. Noire” great examples to show subjective versions of history, and what researching video games in academia as a woman is like.

Esther Wright is a Lecturer in Digital History at Cardiff University (School of History, Archaeology and Religion), and formerly an Early Career Fellow at the University of Warwick’s Institute of Advanced Study (IAS). She is also a co-convenor of the Historical Games Network, which aims to bring together academics, game makers and other cultural workers to explore the relationship between history and games of all kinds.

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Why do decent people in positions of power do dreadful things in certain circumstances? Why do some leaders carve out a different moral path when faced with challenging situations? Why do some people become ethical leaders in morally challenging and complex social environments?

Aidan McQuade, who consults on ethical leadership and campaigns against modern slavery, explores these important questions in his new book “Ethical Leadership: Moral Decision-Making under Pressure”, which is the second title in the new book series “De Gruyter Transformative Thinking and Practice in Leadership and Its Development”.

In an interview with Steve Hardman, Senior Acquisitions Editor at De Gruyter, Aidan McQuade explains how his extensive experience in humanitarian work in Africa has influenced his thinking and understanding of how leaders behave when faced with difficult choices.

Link to the book: degruyter.com/document/isbn/9783110745849/html

Wie geht man ein derart komplexes und tabuisiertes Thema, wie die vielfältigen Verbindungen von Gewalt und Sexualität, an? Warum ist es notwendig, ein Buch darüber zu schreiben? Gibt es tatsächlich einen Unterschied zwischen "sexueller Gewalt" und "sexualisierter Gewalt"? 

Dr. Gerhard Schreiber ist Akademischer Rat am Institut für Theologie und Sozialethik der TU Darmstadt und hat zurzeit die Vertretungsprofessur für Systematische Theologie an der Universität Bonn inne. Mit seinem Buch "Im Dunkel der Sexualität" möchte er für das Thema sensibilisieren und dazu beitragen den Überlebenden von "sexueller*sexualisierter" Gewalt Gehör zu verschaffen. Zudem gibt der Autor seinen Leserinnen und Lesern ein begriffliches Instrumentarium an die Hand, um sich mit den verschiedenen Facetten von Gewalt sprachmächtig auseinandersetzen zu können.

Darüber und über vieles mehr spricht Katrin Mittmann, Content Editor aus dem Fachbereich Theologie und Religion bei De Gruyter, im Interview mit dem Autor.

Link zum Buch: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110717648

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