Sustainability Matters

For centuries, slavery was prominent, driving economies and defining cultures. But in today’s socio-economically liberal world, it seems to have retreated into the shadows: where can it be found?

In the second episode of our new themed series In Chains, we speak with Dr Alexis Jonathan Martig, Adjunct Professor at the University of Alberta, Instructor at MacEwan University, and author of the article “Slaving Zones, Contemporary Slavery and Citizenship: Reflections from the Brazilian Case”. 

Dr Martig explores modern day slaving zones, their relation to socio-economic precariousness, and what their existence means for citizenship in the 21st century.

Guest: Dr Alexis Jonathan Martig
Host: Leigh Giangreco 

The term “slavery” brings to mind transatlantic ships and human trade—both very disturbing visualizations of human experience. Historically, such slave trade has been at the center of the practice of slavery, which is still prevalent in the modern world. 

In the first episode of our new themed series called In Chains, we speak with Dr. Raphaël Lambert, Professor at the Department of British and American Cultural Studies, Kansai University, Kyoto. Prof. Lambert is the author of the Brill book “Narrating the Slave Trade: Theorizing Community.”

Prof. Lambert offers a glimpse into slave trade through the prism of community, telling us how community is relevant to slave trade as they’re both closely related to human experience.

Guest: Prof Raphaël Lambert
Host: Leigh Giangreco 

Viruses are not very different from machines that process information, and thus, how the virus functions can be simulated on a computer. This ability to “imitate” the way viruses behave is particularly useful today, as we battle the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and struggle to prepare for similar events.

Dr. Klaus Mainzer, Co-founder and Senior Professor at the Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker Center of the University of Tübingen and President of European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg, explains this further in a new podcast episode, in which he talks about his book Leben als Maschine: Wie entschlüsseln wir den Corona-Kode? published by Brill. He explains how bringing together the fields of bioinformatics, machine learning, AI, and big data can help us to decipher the workings of the novel coronavirus and, perhaps, be better equipped to deal with such crises in the future.

Guest: Dr Klaus Meinzer
Host: Leigh Giangreco  

Amidst the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Dr. Daniel J.N. Weishut, psychologist and lecturer at Hadassah Academic College in Israel, developed a cross-cultural friendship with a Palestinian Bedouin man. 

In Brill’s new In this podcast episode, Dr. Weishut assesses the vast cultural differences that he observed through this close friendship, which he describes as a ‘life-changing experience’, from the perspective of the psychologist Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Further, he provides interesting insights into this intercultural bond from a sociopolitical context. This discussion is an extension of his book titled “Intercultural Friendship: The Case of a Palestinian Bedouin and a Dutch Israeli Jew,” published in the International Comparative Social Studies series of Brill.

Guests: Dr Daniel Weishut and Ahmad Abu Galia 
Host: Leigh Giangreco 

The story of the Passion of Christ has lived through the ages in the Netherlands despite secularism growing in the popular narrative of the nation. 

In this episode, Dr. Mirella Klomp, of the Protestant Theological University, the Netherlands, discusses her book “Playing On: Re-staging the Passion after the Death of God,” published by Brill, and talks about how the Passion has seeped out from the liturgy to the wider cultural domain, why its story remains so popular today, whether depicting Christ in conjunction with popular music and pursuits is disrespectful, and whose story the Passion really is.

Guest: Dr Mirella Klomp
Host: Leigh Giangreco 

The British Library preserves a unique collection of pictorial maps and descriptions of places and cultures along the road from Lhasa to Leh.

But finding the people behind this collection and decoding it have been journeys of their own. In this latest podcast episode, Dr. Diana Lange of Humboldt University, Germany, opens her book “An Atlas of the Himalayas by a 19th Century Tibetan Lama: A Journey of Discovery” published in Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library, and talks about how she made these journeys, what her experiences were of travelling to the region in the modern day, and the differences between Western and Eastern art and cartography.

Guest: Dr Diana Lange
Host: Leigh Giangreco 

There is no doubt that teaching is a meaningful profession, but teachers often find themselves in stressful, emotionally challenging situations. How do they cope? How do they tackle commonly experienced emotions like anger and shame? 

In this podcast episode, Roger Patulny, Associate Professor at University of Wollongong, Australia, and Alberto Bellocchi, Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow, Faculty of Education at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia answer some of these questions on the coping mechanisms of teachers, in terms of their emotions. This discussion is an extension of their study titled ‘Happy, Stressed, and Angry: A National Study of Teachers’ Emotions and Their Management’, published in the Brill journal Emotions: History, Culture, Society.

Guests: Dr Roger Patulny and Dr Alberto Bellocchi
Host: Leigh Giangreco

There is no doubt that teaching is a meaningful profession, but teachers often find themselves in stressful, emotionally challenging situations. How do they cope? How do they tackle commonly experienced emotions like anger and shame? 

In this podcast episode, Roger Patulny, Associate Professor at University of Wollongong, Australia, and Alberto Bellocchi, Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow, Faculty of Education at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia answer some of these questions on the coping mechanisms of teachers, in terms of their emotions. This discussion is an extension of their study titled ‘Happy, Stressed, and Angry: A National Study of Teachers’ Emotions and Their Management’, published in the Brill journal Emotions: History, Culture, Society.

Guests: Dr Roger Patulny and Dr Alberto Bellocchi
Host: Leigh Giangreco