Authors:Yuexi Liu Abstract: We are delighted to present the ninth edition of Exchanges: the Warwick Research Journal, which marks the fifth anniversary of the journal. PubDate: 2017-10-30 Issue No:Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017)
Pages: 1 - 14 Abstract: In her foundational study of Neolithic clay tokens, the renowned archaeologist Denise Schmandt-Besserat identified that different token shapes represented different goods and were used in accounting and distribution. When these tokens came to be stored in sealed clay envelopes (likely representing a debt), each token was impressed on the outside of the envelope before being placed inside (thus allowing people to see quickly what was within). Three-dimensional objects were thus reduced to two-dimensional representations, the first form of writing (and contributing to cuneiform script). These clay envelopes in turn developed into pictographic tablets; here each token did not have to be impressed into the clay in a 'one, one, one' system, but instead quantity was indicated by a numerical symbol - abstract number was born. Much of Schmandt-Besserat’s work can be found online at https://sites.utexas.edu/dsb/. Her book ‘How Writing Came About’ was listed by American Scientist magazine as one of the 100 books that shaped science in the 20th century, and she remains an active expert on all things ‘token’. PubDate: 2017-10-27 Issue No:Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017)
Pages: 15 - 26 Abstract: Professor David Greenwood offers insights into the challenges and current and future development trends in the automotive industry. Based on his broad experience in this sector, Professor Greenwood discusses a wide range of topics, such as global and UK automotive industry markets, emerging technologies in energy storage and its impacts on the environment and vehicle performance, and autonomous and future vehicles. PubDate: 2017-10-27 Issue No:Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017)
Pages: 27 - 40 Abstract: Commonly seen as a religious poem that reflects T. S. Eliot’s conversion to Catholicism, Ash-Wednesday demonstrates intensively the poet’s religious experience, especially the union of the spiritual stillness and the movements in time which verges on mysticism. However, such extraordinary experience can be comprehended from the perspective of Buddhism. It corresponds with the Buddhist concept of suchness, which is further connected to religious meditation and the attitude of non-attachment in face of worldly life. It does not violate the speaker’s pursuit for a kind of Christian salvation, for it concerns more the process and the way to achieve the destination than the destination itself. PubDate: 2017-10-27 Issue No:Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017)
Pages: 41 - 57 Abstract: The movement of people between places is far from being a new or isolated phenomenon and is happening more often than before. This is also the case for individuals who moved from Brazil and Paraguay. Based on the existing literature as well as on data gathered in the landless camp Antônio Irmão, also known locally as the ‘Brasiguaios landless camp’ in Itaquiraí in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, this article explains how their search for a piece of land in either Brazil and Paraguay influenced the formation of the Brasiguaios identities. First, I briefly approach the foundation of transnationalism scholarship, which guided my research. Next, I demonstrate how land policies in Brazil and Paraguay, aimed at developing their respective border regions, played a role in the migration of Brazilians to Paraguayan and then the return of a number of them to Brazil. Last, I share the narrative of individuals in the Brasiguaio landless camp in the pursuit of land in either country. At the core of my argument is that the Brasiguaio identities of this landless group result from their pursuit of land rather than from migration processes. PubDate: 2017-10-29 Issue No:Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017)
Pages: 58 - 76 Abstract: At a time when diasporic identity is being acutely challenged, it is important to pay critical attention to counter-cultural texts which refract hegemonic discourse through alternative spatial landscapes. The French film Latcho Drom (Gatlif, 1993) provides a stylised and radically unique retelling of the journey of the Roma from the Thar Desert in Northern India to Spain, passing through Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and France. Gatlif’s film can be read as a sensory refraction of legal frameworks of exclusion on the ‘edges of Europe’, and acts as a site in which it is possible to explore the way in which a minority filmmaker constructs alternative spaces of justice. Through the practice of textual analysis, this article will examine how various framing techniques subvert the hegemonic qualities of the law through the cinematic depiction of a lyrical and diasporic journey through Southern Europe, in order to deconstruct the way in which the aural and visual space refracts law’s function as a spacing mechanism. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze’s work on cinema and within a theoretical framework of critical space theory, this article will discuss key issues of counter-cultural topographies, alternative spacing mechanisms and the construction of spaces of justice in the context of law and film. PubDate: 2017-10-29 Issue No:Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017)
Pages: 77 - 89 Abstract: This article shows what achievements have been made by existing studies on graduate employability, and what gaps need to be filled in this field. It starts with a retrospective account of the changing concept of employability, followed by a presentation of the practices that have been used to support graduate employability enhancement in different countries. Moreover, this article gives a critical review of Chinese contexts of graduate labour market. Last but not least, limitations of existing studies are identified, which reflect an expectation for future research on graduate employability to meet the demand of an increasingly international dimension of higher education. PubDate: 2017-10-29 Issue No:Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017)
Pages: 90 - 97 Abstract: On 9 June 2017, scholars from a range of disciplines across the United Kingdom and Spain met at the University of Warwick to discuss the ways in which taking a global perspective can enrich research on early modern Iberia and colonial Spanish America. Coming at a time when Spanish exceptionalism is being increasingly challenged but the Americas are still being side-lined in the writing of global history, the presenters addressed gaps in current historiography and challenged Eurocentric narratives of early modern history which have predominated since the Enlightenment. The final roundtable called for definition in the language of movement in global history and concluded that we need to rethink global history as a project that began in the sixteenth century with conceptions of an Iberian or Catholic globe, an orbe hispano. PubDate: 2017-10-29 Issue No:Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017)
Pages: 98 - 105 Abstract: This critical reflection documents a collaboration between an arts practitioner-researcher and a biomedical engineer in the field of interdisciplinary pedagogy. From one perspective, we read movement as a cultural practice engaging theories of embodiment and informed by dance studies; from another perspective, we study movement as a product of internal and external forces acting on the body and we investigate the science behind the structure and function of human motion. This article reflects upon these differences and considers opportunities for new experimentation within interdisciplinary movement studies, in particular, the co-authors reflect upon the various definitions and affordances of the term ‘bio-mechanical’ and its application to movement and motion capture. The article ends with an overview of the experiments yet to be undertaken within transdisciplinary pedagogy at the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL), University of Warwick. PubDate: 2017-10-30 Issue No:Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017)
Pages: 106 - 110 Abstract: This is a ‘Critical Reflection’ piece on the research seminar ‘China Plates and Japanned Trays: British Encounters with Chinese and Japanese Aesthetics in the Long Nineteenth Century’, which was held at the University of Warwick on 20 March 2017. The guest speaker was Dr Jenny Holt (Meiji University). In this seminar, we discussed how the British public responded to the increased availability of Chinese and Japanese art objects in the nineteenth century. PubDate: 2017-10-30 Issue No:Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017)
Pages: 111 - 116 Abstract: A review of a recent one-day conference, Academic Freedom and Society, held on June 2 2017 at the University of Warwick, which sought to pose questions about ideals and practices of academic freedom, historically and in the current moment, across disciplinary and national borders. Speakers discussed the university and human rights practices, Islamophobia and teaching law, ‘Decolonise the University’, links between funding and research, digital piracy, new sites of knowledge commons, and university managerialism, and the challenges and possibilities these topics pose to the practice of academic freedom. Has the university ever been autonomous from state interests, and what modes of freedom are currently available to academics – already unevenly contingent on social and national identifications – in practice' PubDate: 2017-10-30 Issue No:Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017)
Pages: 117 - 126 Abstract: The theme of this year’s Centre for Education Studies Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference, now in its fifth year, is 'Education in a Changing World'. I attended the conference as a paper presenter and a conference attendee. My personal goals were to develop confidence as an oral presenter, seek professional development opportunities, and engage critically and reflectively with my work and the work of others. My relativist epistemological beliefs define knowledge as uncertain, context-bound, fallible, defeasible and therefore changeable, and are compatible with my personal goals. Both the goals and beliefs led to the adoption of knowledge co-constructor, communicator, and analyst roles. Beliefs, goals and adopted roles led to the identification of points of fallibility in my own knowledge and understanding of the phenomenon of interest. Therefore, I formed a perspective of conferences as enabling and facilitating knowledge construction between presenter and audience. Being reflective, critical, adaptable, creative, intuitive, flexible, and open minded are key attitudinal attributes of postgraduates, leading to positive conference experiences and increased self-awareness of own emerging identity as a social scientist. Increasing self-awareness of own identity is important for graduates, as on a broader scale this assists in keeping pace with an ever-changing world. PubDate: 2017-10-30 Issue No:Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017)
Pages: 127 - 136 Abstract: The 28th International Biology Olympiad (IBO) took place at the University of Warwick between 23 – 30 July 2017 with 264 international competitors (aged 14 – 18) competing in a series of practical and theoretical exams devised by School of Life Sciences staff and colleagues from the Royal Society of Biology. These exams sought to provide an educational experience for the competing students and provide a robust theoretical and practical challenge to discriminate between abilities. Their secondary aim was to showcase complex biological concepts to further pique candidate’s interest in biological science and encourage them to pursue careers in this area. The structure of practical and theoretical exams was underpinned by these pedagogical aims by applying a contextual narrative throughout the papers. Whilst a few logistical problems occurred, these did not impact the desired educational aim, leading to one of the most successful IBO’s in recent years. PubDate: 2017-10-30 Issue No:Vol. 5, No. 1 (2017)
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