Εργαστήριο Σπουδών Φύλου και Ισότητας

Qasmin Amin (1863-1908), an Egyptian lawyer, is best known for his advocacy of women's emancipation in Egypt, through a number of works including The Liberation of Women and The New Woman. In the first of these important books in 1899, he started from foreign domination, and used arguments based on Islam to call for an improvement in the status of women. In doing so, he promoted the debate on women in Egypt from a side issue to a major national concern, but he also subjected himself to severe criticism from the khedival palace, as well as from religious leaders, journalists, and writers. In response to these criticisms, he wrote The New Woman, Amin relies less on arguments based on the Quran and sayings of the Prophet, and more openly espouses a Western model of development. Although published a century ago, these two books continue to be a source of controversy and debate in the Arab feminist movement. The Liberation of Women and The New Woman appear here in English translation for the first time in one volume.

This book sets out to place Cypriot migration to Britain within the context of New Commonwealth migration as a whole and within current developments in the field of racial and ethnic relations. It provides an account of the economic and social position of Cypriots in British society paying particular attention to a number of central theoretical and political debates relating to class, ethnicity, racism and gender. The book argues that migrant groups have to be understood in terms of the interaction between the internal cultural and social differentiations within the group and the wider structural, institutional and ideological processes of the country of migration. Gender divisions and the family are seen as central in understanding the forms of settlement and the economic and social placement of a migrant group.

The attempt to supplant traditional gender roles was an important element of the Bolshevik drive to transform society in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. This book explores the constitution of gender identity in the soviet system and examines the implications of the collapse of communism for the gender roles of both men and women. Gender, state and society in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia, addresses the important questions raised by the rise and fall of the soviet experiment in transforming gender relations. On the basis of qualitative research, the contributors analyze both the state prescription of gender roles and the active role of men and women in defining gender identities within the institutional parameters laid down by the state. This is one of the few English language studies to focus on men and masculinity, something which is vital to understanding gender relations in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia.

Building Bodies is an arresting collection of articles that construct theoretical models in which power, bodies, discourse, and subjectivity interact in a space we can call the "built" body, a dynamic, politicized, and biological site. Contributors discuss the complex relationship between body building and masculinity, between the built body and the racialized body, representations of female body builders in print and in film, and homoeroticism in body building. Linked by their focus on the sport and practice of body building, the authors in this volume challenge both the way their various disciplines (media studies, literary criticism, gender studies, film and sociology) have gone about studying bodies, and existing assumptions about the complex relationship between power, subjectivity, society, and the flesh. Body building - in practice, in representation, and in the cultural imagination - serves as an launching point because the sport and practice provide ready challenges to existing assumptions regarding what constitutes the "built" body.

This book argues that increasing engagement between international institutions and sectors of civil society is producing a new form of global governance. The authors investigate 'complex multilateralism' by studying the relationship between three multilateral economic institutions (the IMF, World Bank, and World Trade Organization), and three global social movements (environmental, labour, and women's movements). They provide a rich comparative analysis of the institutional response to social movement pressure, tracing institutional change, policy modification and social movement tactics as they struggle to influence the rules and practices governing trade, finance and development regimes. The competition to shape global governance is increasingly being conducted on a number of levels with a diverse set of actors. Analysing a unique breadth of institutions and movements, this book charts an important part of that contest.

In his book Peter Brown addresses the practice of permanent sexual renunciation--continence, celibacy, and life-long virginity--that developed in Christian circles from the first to the fifth centuries A.D. Brown vividly describes the early Christians and their strange, disturbing preoccupations. He follows in detail the reflection and controversy these notions generated among Christian writers. Among the topics covered are marriage and sexuality in the Roman world, Judaism and the early church, Origen and the tradition of spiritual guidance, sexuality in the desert fathers and Augustine and sexuality. The Body and Society is a significant study on sexuality and the family in the ancient world by a renowned scholar. Besides being of great interest to readers in ancient history and early church history, and to classicists and medievalists, it will engage readers concerned with women's studies and the history of sexuality.

In Fat and Proud, activist Charlotte Cooper reclaims the word "fat" as she charts the evolution of the fat rights movement. Demonstrating the extent of "fatphobia" in society, she explains not only how it affects fat women, but how the fear of being fat oppresses all women. Fat and Proud also looks at health issues, challenging the "medicalization" of fat people and exposing the myths and dangers of dieting and thinness. Throughout are the voices of fat women relating their experiences of discrimination and pain--but also their affirmations of positive self-image and esteem. Fat and Proud represents a coming to power of the fat rights movement; it calls for a greater appreciation of body-size diversity, so that all of us might live in and enjoy our bodies without fear or shame.

This book contains the work of two of the most astute writers on women, gender and power within the Marxist tradition. This text engages with gender relations as they specifically take shape under capitalism, as shaped by capital-labor relations. Clear and engaging, this book takes a very different approach to sex and class from most other feminist works. The authors critique the excessively masculinist marxist approaches to labour, suggesting that a comprehensive and feminist approach to the production and reproduction of capital must necessarily take into account the predominantly unwaged labour performed by women, labour that is then used in the reproduction of capital. This was the early theoretical expression of the section of the Women's Movement demanding Wages for Housework and it contains a biting critique not simply of sexual oppression, but of capital-labor relations.

How does the concept of racism rear its ugly head and fester in society? How do notions of "us'' and "them'', "inclusion'' and "exclusion'', "center'' and "margin'' originate and operate? Bridging cultural studies and political analysis, Race, Culture and Difference presents timely debates on race and its meanings in contemporary society and in educational and social policy. Linking feminist, post-structuralist and postmodernist concerns in recent social and cultural theory, it examines the contribution of ideas such as "ethnicity,'' "community,'' "identity,'' and "difference.'' The authors present a sustained yet sympathetic criticism of the organized forms of antiracism that have come to dominate educational policy. Their fresh, new approaches also begin to define an alternative agenda sensitive to the problems and the possibilities of difference. A successful balance between important recent articles and substantial contributions specifically written for this volume, Race, Culture and Difference will prove essential reading for professionals and students of sociology, cultural studies and education, and for those concerned with discrimination and antiracist policies.

An intriguing inquiry into how aesthetic surgery has evolved into a major area of modern medicine, this book combines cultural perspectives on the body beautiful with a medical chronology. Gilman focuses extensively on the nose as the original site of aesthetic procedures. He simultaneously explores "the basic motivation for aesthetic surgery as the desire to 'pass,'" starting with 16th-century surgery to rebuild the noses of syphilitics "so they would be less visible in their society" and discusses its cultural implications. Early debate centered on whether surgery restored function or merely catered to human vanity. The "hierarchy of races" created by some scientists in the 18th century inspired procedures to create "American noses out of Irish pug noses," while "the origin of the 'correction' of the black nose is masked within medical literature [because] no reputable surgeon wanted to be seen as facilitating crossing the color bar." Gilman discusses political uses of aesthetic surgery, such as that of the Nazis to achieve the Aryan ideal, the transformation of former Klan Grand Wizard David Duke into what one commentator called "a blond, blow-dried replica of a young Robert Redford," transsexual surgery to permit "restoration of the relationship between the inner and outer selves" and aesthetic surgery as a fountain of youth.

Women, the State, and Welfare is the first collection of essays specifically about women and welfare in the United States. As an introduction to the effects of welfare programs, it is intended for general readers as well as specialists in sociology, history, political science, social work, and women's studies. The book begins with a review essay by Linda Gordon that outlines current scholarship about women and welfare. The chapters that follow explore discrimination against women inherent in many welfare programs; the ways in which welfare programs reinforce basic gender programs in society; the contribution of organized, activist women to the development of welfare programs; and differences of race and class in the welfare system. By giving readers access to a number of perspectives about women and welfare, this book helps position gender at the center of welfare scholarship and policy making and places welfare issues at the forefront of feminist thinking and action.

The image of an armed woman is one rife with tension - it challenges our deep-rooted beliefs regarding the proper role of women in society. The connection between military service and citizenship is explicit to varying degrees in most societies - and therefore the right of women to bear arms is an issue that strikes at the heart of a society's valuation of women. A Soldier and a Woman explores this controversial subject in nineteen chapters spanning three centuries and four continents from the late medieval period to the present day. A Soldier and a Woman builds a picture of the practical and ideological issues surrounding women soldiers, and the ambiguous place they inhabit. In the process uncovering a remarkable continuity across cultures and periods. The female soldier raises questions of military readiness, gender identity, perceptions of the body, power structures and hierarchy, gendered symbolism and language, personal and collective identities, the power of myths, and the disjunction between equality and conformity.

Halberstam presents a unique offering in queer studies: a study of the masculine lesbian woman. Halberstam makes a compelling argument for a more flexible taxonomy of masculinity, including not only men, who have historically held the power in society, but also women who embody qualities that are usually associated with maleness, such as strength, authority, and independence. Fleshing out her argument by drawing on a variety of sources, fiction, films, court documents, and diaries, Halberstam calls for society to acknowledge masculine lesbian women and value them.

Socialist feminist theorizing is flourishing today. This collection is intended to show its strengths and resources and convey a sense of it as an ongoing project. Not every contribution to that project bears the same theoretical label, but the writings collected here share a broad aim of understanding women's subordination in a way which integrates class and gender - as well as aspects of women's identity such as race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation - with the aim of liberating women. The Socialist Feminist Project: A Contemporary Reader in Theory and Politics brings together the most important recent socialist feminist writings on a wide range of topics: sex and reproduction, the family, wage labor, social welfare and public policy, the place of sex and gender in politics, and the philosophical foundations of socialist feminism. Although focusing on recent writings, the collection shows how these build on a history of struggle. These writings demonstrate the range, depth, and vitality of contemporary socialist feminist debates. They also testify to the distinctive capacity of this project to address issues in a way that embraces collective experience and action while at the same time enabling each person to speak in their own personal voice.

The Geography of Rural Change provides a thorough examination of the processes and outcomes of rural change as a result of a period of major restructuring in developed market economies. After outlining the main dimensions of rural change, the book progresses from a discussion of theoretical insights into rural restructuring to a consideration of both the extensive use of rural land and the changing nature of a rural economy and society. The text places an emphasis on relevant principles, concepts and theories of rural change, and these are supported by extensive case study evidence drawn from different parts of the developed world.

Meatloaf, fried chicken, Jell-O, cake--because foods are so very common, we rarely think about them much in depth. The authors of Cooking Lessons however, believe that food is deserving of our critical scrutiny and that such analysis yields many important lessons about American society and its values. This book explores the relationship between food and gender. Contributors draw from diverse sources, both contemporary and historical, and look at women from various cultural backgrounds, including Hispanic, traditional southern White, and African American. Each chapter focuses on a certain food, teasing out its cultural meanings and showing its effect on women's identities and lives.

Thoroughly updated and revised, the second edition of The Gendered Society explores current thinking about gender, both inside academia and in our everyday lives. Part I examines the latest work in biology, anthropology, psychology, and sociology; Part II provides an original analysis of the gendered worlds of family, education, and work; and Part III focuses on the gendered interactions of friendship and love, sexuality, and violence. As a result of his research, author Michael S. Kimmel makes three claims about gender. First, he argues that the differences between men and women are not as great as we often imagine, and that in fact women and men have far more in common with one another than we think they do. Second, he challenges the notions of the many pop psychologists who suggest that gender difference is the cause of the dramatic observable inequality between the sexes. Instead, Kimmel reveals that the reverse is true: gender inequality is the cause of the differences between women and men. Third, he argues that gender is not simply an aspect of individual identity but is also an institutional phenomenon, embedded in the organizations and institutions in which we interact daily. Kimmel concludes with a brief epilogue looking ahead to gender relations in the new century.

How does the gender lens alter our vision of conventional accounts of globalisation and move us to more complex understandings of global restructuring? How does gender affect global restructuring and vice versa? What are the gendered effects of certain aspects of globalisation on women's lives in the rest of the world? How are gendered ideologies and relations changing in different national and regional contexts? These and many other questions are thoroughly analysed in this pioneering study.Taking us beyond the narrow limits of conventional approaches to globalisation, this book reveals the complexities and contradictions inherent in global restructuring. Restructuring does not just relate to the material but also relates to identity and geography. Gender blind analyses have previously ignored the differing national and regional contexts of restructuring states, markets, civil society as well as in the household, profoundly affecting the daily lives of men and women.

This book reassesses theories of agency and gender identity against the backdrop of changing relations between men and women in contemporary societies. McNay argues that recent thought on the formation of the modern subject offers a one-sided or negative account of agency, which underplays the creative dimension present in the responses of individuals to changing social relations. An understanding of this creative element is central to a theory of autonomous agency, and also to an explanation of the ways in which women and men negotiate changes within gender relations.In exploring the implications of this idea of agency for a theory of gender identity, McNay brings together the work of leading feminist theorists - such as Judith Butler and Nancy Fraser - with the work of key continental social theorists. In particular, she examines the work of Pierre Bourdieu, Paul Ricoeur and Cornelius Castoriadis, each of whom has explored different aspects of the idea of the creativity of action. McNay argues that their thought has interesting implications for feminist ideas of gender, but these have been relatively neglected partly because of the huge influence of the work of Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan in this area. She argues that, despite its suggestive nature, feminist theory must move away from the ideas of Foucault and Lacan if a more substantive account of agency is to be introduced into ideas of gender identity. This book will appeal to students and scholars in the areas of social theory, gender studies and feminist theory.

This book traces the social origins of the sexual division of labor. It gives a history of the related processes of colonization and "housewifization" and extends this analysis to the contemporary new international division of labor and the role that women have to play as the cheapest producers and consumers. First published in 1986, it was hailed as a major paradigm shift for feminist theory. Eleven years on, Maria Mies' theory of capitalist patriarchy has become even more relevant; this new edition includes a substantial new introduction in which she both applies her theory to the new globalized world and answers her critics.

In 1974, at the height of the women's movement, Juliet Mitchell shocked her fellow feminists by challenging the entrenched belief that Freud was the enemy. She argued that a rejection of psychoanalysis as bourgeois and patriarchal was fatal for feminism. However it may have been used, she pointed out, psychoanalysis is not a recommendation for a patriarchal society, but rather an analysis of one. "If we are interested in understanding and challenging the oppression of women," she says, "we cannot afford to neglect psychoanalysis." In an introduction written specially for this reissue, Mitchell reflects on the changing relationship between these two major influences on twentieth-century thought. Original and provocative, Psychoanalysis and Feminism remains an essential component of the feminist canon.

Building Bodies is an exciting collection of articles that strive toward constructing theoretical models in which power, bodies, discourse, and subjectivity interact in a space we can call the "built" body, a dynamic, politicized, and biological site. Contributors discuss the complex relationship between body building and masculinity, between the built body and the racialized body, representations of women body builders in print and in film, and homoeroticism in body building. Linked by their focus on the sport and practice of body building, the authors in this volume challenge both the way their various disciplines (media studies, literary criticism, gender studies, film and sociology) have gone about studying bodies, and existing assumptions about the complex relationship between power, subjectivity, society, and flesh. Body building - in practice, in representation, and in the cultural imagination - serves as an launching point because the sport and practice provide ready challenges to existing assumptions about the "built" body.

This book argues that increasing engagement between international institutions and sectors of civil society is producing a new form of global governance. the authors investigate 'complex multilateralism' by studying the relationship between three multilateral economic institutions (the IMF, World Bank, and World Trade Organization), and three global social movements (environment, labour, and women's movements).

Servants of Globalization is a poignant and often troubling study of migrant Filipina domestic workers who leave their own families behind to do the mothering and caretaking work of the global economy in countries throughout the world. It specifically focuses on the emergence of parallel lives among such workers in the cities of Rome and Los Angeles, two main destinations for Filipina migration. The book is largely based on interviews with domestic workers, but the book also powerfully portrays the larger economic picture as domestic workers from developing countries increasingly come to perform the menial labor of the global economy. This is often done at great cost to the relations with their own split-apart families. The experiences of migrant Filipina domestic workers are also shown to entail a feeling of exclusion from their host society, a downward mobility from their professional jobs in the Philippines, and an encounter with both solidarity and competition from other migrant workers in their communities. The author applies a new theoretical lens to the study of migration-the level of the subject, moving away from the two dominant theoretical models in migration literature, the macro and the intermediate. At the same time, she analyzes the three spatial terrains of the various institutions that migrant Filipina domestic workers inhabit--the local, the transnational, and the global. She draws upon the literature of international migration, sociology of the family, women's work, and cultural studies to illustrate the reconfiguration of the family community and social identity in migration and globalization. The book shows how globalization not only propels the migration of Filipina domestic workers but also results in the formation of parallel realities among them in cities with greatly different contexts of reception.

Women and the State: International Perspectives explores the historical and structural boundaries within which women act, relate to each other and deal with the state in the Third World. it is conscious of the fact that 'much Western feminist state theory has largely ignored the experience of Third World Women.' This is true both in terms of knowledge of the diverse forms of activities women undertake and in the application of theoretical constructs about gender relations and the status of women which may be of little relevance to Third World women.

The subject of bisexuality continues to divide the lesbian and gay community. At pride marches, in films such as Go Fish, at academic conferences, the role and status of bisexuals is hotly contested. Within lesbian communities, formed to support lesbians in a patriarchal and heterosexist society, bisexual women are often perceived as a threat or as a political weakness. Bisexual women feel that they are regarded with suspicion and distrust, if not openly scorned. Drawing on her research with over 400 bisexual and lesbian women, surveying the treatment of bisexuality in the lesbian and gay press, and examining the recent growth of a self-consciously political bisexual movement, Paula Rust addresses a range of questions pertaining to the political and social relationships between lesbians and bisexual women. By tracing the roots of the controversy over bisexuality among lesbians back to the early lesbian feminist debates of the 1970s, Rust argues that those debates created the circumstances in which bisexuality became an inevitable challenge to lesbian politics. She also traces it forward, predicting the future of sexual politics.

What differences do welfare state variations make for women? How do women and men fare in different welfare states? Diane Sainsbury answers these questions by analyzing the United States, Britain, Sweden and The Netherlands, whose welfare policies differ in significant ways. Building on feminist research, she determines the extent to which legislation reflects and perpetuates the gendered division of labor in the family and society, as well as what types of policy alter gender relations in social provision. She offers constructive proposals for securing greater equality between women and men.

This collection extends the boundaries of global feminism to include Islamic women. Challenging Orientalist assumptions of Muslim women as victims of Islam, these essays focus on women's negotiations for identity, power, and agency as participants in religious, cultural and nationalist movements. This book gathers Signs essays on women in the Middle East, South Asia, and the Diaspora to explore how women negotiate identities and attempt to gain political, economic, and legal rights, and provide an alternative, revolutionary paradigm to Eurocentric liberal humanism and western feminism? Is Islam more oppressive to women than the modern secular state? How are the lives and texts of Arab and Muslim women constructed for local or western consumption? These essays expose the shortcomings of the secularist assumptions of many recent feminist analyses, which continue to treat religion in general and fundamentalism in particular as a tool of oppression used against women, rather than as a viable form of feminist agency producing contradictory effects for its participants. The essays in this book first appeared in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society.

Many people consider their weight to be a personal problem, but when does body weight become a social problem? Until recently, the major public concern was whether enough food was consistently available. As food systems began to provide ample and stable amounts of food, questions about food availability were replaced with concerns about "ideal" weights and appearance. These interests were aggregated into public concerns about defining people as "too fat" and "too thin." The chapters in this volume offer several perspectives that can be used to understand the way society deals with fatness and thinness, considering historical foundations, medical models, gendered dimensions, institutional components, and collective perspectives. These different views illustrate the multifaceted nature of obesity and eating disorders, providing examples of how a variety of social groups construct weight as a social problem.

"This leftist academic examination of our collective fascination with dieting depicts it as a manifestation of capitalist consumer culture duking it out with the secular remnants of puritanism. Stearns, founding editor of the Journal of Social History and a historian at Carnegie Mellon University (Millennium III, Century XXI, 1996, etc.) approaches our concern over personal poundage as a construct that, exceeding the demands of fashion or good health, can be understood only in larger cultural terms. We Americans relish the consumer goods with which we surround ourselves but feel a mite guilty about indulging in them. So we have contrived a way to--literally and figuratively--have our cake and eat it too: We diet. Focusing intensely on limiting caloric intake lets us feel virtuous and self-controlled even as we ignore our profligacy as consumers. We are not all equally affected; notably, from the 1920s to the 1960s "weight morality bore disproportionately on women precisely because of their growing independence, or seeming independence, from other standards.'' In France, the other society considered, Stearns does not detect a view of weight loss as a moral crusade or fat as an outward sign of guilt. For Americans, rewards (a better job or social life) will come when they become thin and healthy; for the French, being thin and healthy is the reward. Interesting as the cross-cultural comparison is, one senses that its neat findings slight some untidy questions. For example, why does Stearns focus on the gender of the target of antifat comments but not on that of their source? To what extent are unattainable standards of slenderness invaluable in allowing people to devote a portion of each crowded day to self- absorption? Does that count as an expression of guilt? Those who agree with Stearns's premise from the first page will readily accept his illustrations as proof. Others may see this as an interesting study that suggests the complexity of a phenomenon more convincingly than it accounts for it." -- ©1997, Kirkus Associate

"In this persuasively argued social history, Terry, an associate professor of comparative studies at Ohio State University, contends that homosexuality "has acquired a symbolic centrality in American culture" as a dominant marker between the "normal" and the "abnormal" across a diverse range of disciplines and milieus. Drawing upon a wide range of materials from personal memoirs to legal cases, yellow journalism, pulp fiction, religious writings, psychology texts and "scientific" studies (which prove to be not all that scientific. Terry demonstrates how, over the past 100 years, theories about the causes, nature and possible "cure" for homosexuality have focused far more on notions of sexuality, sin, gender and "social good" than on homosexuality itself. Analyzing the work of such 19th-century sexologists as Krafft-Ebing, Magnus Hirschfeld and Havelock Ellis, she illustrates how their naive, often contradictory theories became so influential that they still inform contemporary thought, including "gay gene" studies and the religious beliefs and rhetoric of the Christian right. While her broad survey is vital to the book, Terry's real strength is her detailed explorations of individual groups such as the Committee for the Study of Sex Variants, a multidisciplinary group of physicians and scientists who, in 1935, attempted to understand the "problem" of homosexuality on a scientific basis and events, such as the harsh religious, psychoanalytic and cultural backlash against Kinsey's work in the early 1950s. Her exhaustively researched, astute synthesis is not only an original and important contribution to lesbian and gay studies, but sheds new light on the sociology of American life and the history of science." From Publishers Weekly. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"This well researched study of the Czech Republic challenges conventional wisdom about the fate of women in post-socialist transitions in Eastern and Central Europe and shows how women, although they have lost ground in terms of formal political representation and employment opportunities, are finding ways to participate informally in building democracy from below. Linking her study to the broader international context, Jacqui True convincingly demonstrates how global forces shape and are shaped by gender relations in the family, the workplace, and in politics. True convinces us that we cannot understand the processes of globalization without paying attention to gender. This is not only an important contribution to a growing body of empirical feminist IR; it should also be of great interest to those concerned with post-socialist transitions as well as with the political, economic and cultural aspects of globalization." -- J. Ann Tickner, University of Southern California

From Eve to Madonna, the normative conceptions of female identity have been largely associated with fashion and appearance. Now, in The Masque of Femininity, author Efrat Tseelon draws from interdisciplinary theory, empirical resources, and original research to examine how fashion, the body, and personal appearance have defined the female self. This volume explores femininity through an analysis of key concepts--modesty, duplicity, beauty, seduction, and death--and sheds light on such topics as the religious constructions of woman, the power of the prostitute metaphor, the female gaze, and cosmetic surgery. Elias, Freud, Lacan, Goffman, and Baudrillard are just a few of the scholars and theorists to whom the author makes reference in highlighting the paradoxical nature of the expectations that lie at the root of the contemporary feminine experience in the West. The Masque of Femininity will serve as an ideal supplement for courses in gender studies, cultural studies, and social psychology.

Gender relations and the ways they affect and are affected by national projects and processes, Nira Yuval-Davis argues that the constructions of nationhood usually involve specific notions of both manhood and womanhood, although their explicit inclusion in the analytical discourse around nations and nationalisms is only a very recent endeavor. She promotes this analytical project by examining systematically the crucial contribution of gender relations into several major dimensions of nationalist projects, reproduction, national culture, citizenship, as well as national conflicts and wars. The author sharply differentiates national projects from nation-states and she emphasizes that membership on nations can be sub-, super-, and cross-states. Gender and Nation is an important contribution to the debates on citizenship, gender, and nationhood. Gender and Nation will be essential reading for academics and students of women's studies, race and ethnic studies, sociology, and political studies.