Mining for European Art
Advances in painting in early modern Europe were the product not just of artistic innovation but of changes in mining and manufacturing technology.
Surrealism in Cinema, 100 Years On
A century after the publication of the first Surrealist manifesto, the role played by film in the movement is still unfolding.
Wilhelm Reich: Twice Burned
A psychoanalyst and physician, Reich fled the Nazis only to be detained by the US as an “enemy alien” during World War II. And then came the sexual revolution.
Recovering the Malay Manuscripts of South Africa
Descendants of those trafficked from Southeast Asia to South Africa by the Dutch, Cape Malay Muslims use surviving kietaabs to connect to their heritage.
Cleopatra’s Nose
Edmonia Lewis, a sculptor of African and Native American descent, gave Cleopatra “white” European features in her 1876 representation of the Egyptian ruler.
Firearms and Family Violence
The intersection of intimate partner violence and firearms is extremely dangerous for American women.
Was the Story of Cortés Plagiarized from Arabic?
The mythic stories of the Spanish conquest of Mexico seem to have been largely taken from earlier tales of the Muslim conquest of southern Spain.
The Contested Legacy of Miné Okubo’s World War II Art
Okubo’s art showed the work of Japanese Americans forced to rehabilitate both the “enemy alien” on the home front and the enemy in the Pacific after the war.
Theologies of Emotion in Medieval Europe
The framework used by theologians to understand emotions changed in the Middle Ages, thanks in part to new translations of Arabic texts.