Humanities

In the contemporary computer dominated era, digital presentations have become a prevailing component in information presentation in governmental, business and educational settings. Microsoft software application PowerPoint is currently the most dominant presentation tool but its use and efficiency have been widely discussed by scholars, thus becoming not only the most used but also the most controversial presentation application. In recent years, the prevalence of slideware tools is challenged by new type of information presentation, which uses the technology of zooming user interface. This article will explore the potential of this type of interface by using the case study of the application editor Prezi. The paper argues that Prezi can be categorized as a new type of cultural interface which has the potential to overcome the drawbacks of PowerPoint. The paper will also show that the style of the interface presents new type of setbacks which can harm the information presentation and can interrupt the audience’s attention. By analysing the affordances of Prezi, the paper will finally suggest that this application highlights a moment of cultural transformation in the way digital presentations are used and consumed as epistemic objects.

In the recent years social networks have given a rise to the game genre of social games, which currently enjoys an exponential growth among millions of users. In 2010 Facebook and the largest social game producer Zynga were on the edge of a potential split in their relations. The situation was overcome, but it marked a crucial moment in the policy of the social network towards social game producers and third parties. This paper explores the political economy between Facebook and Zynga by drawing a network of relations using the method of Actor-Network Theory. Social games will be examined from the perceptive of two-sided platforms that have matured into a potential competitor of the hosting platform of Facebook. By following the trail of the money in this network, the article will analyse the economic logic that underpins the decision of Facebook and Zynga to prolong their partnership. The paper argues that currently, there is an emerging new type of relation between the social network and the social games which is regulated by a specific business model. This tie creates an economic symbiosis, designed to benefit primary the social network but it also has an economic value to the social games developers as well as to other third parties. Based on this research, the article will suggest a model that illustrates this market logic which can be a valuable source in the future analysis of the economy of social games.

The editorial article, part of magazine edition, written for the mastercourse 'Spaces of New Media'. The articles in this issue were written by a team of students that together created the best journal of the entire course under the name "Digital Artifacts: New Roles, Skills and Practices". This piece introduces the articles in the journal and elaborates on the theoretical approach of actor-network theory (ANT) which is a common standpoint for all papers in the magazine.

"In the contemporary technologically dominated era, powerful software programs and applications have the agency to redefine the traditional stable perception of the cultural artifact of the book. By the affordances of computer technologies, books are not only digitalized in the format of e-books but have also reshaped them as multi-modal interactive objects known as interactive book. This new artifact of the book is enabled by the properties of the software which transfer it into a rich multimedia environment that includes text, pictures, sound effects and video in an integrated, holistic form. Interactive books present a transformative experience for readers and writers as they engage in new practices for consumption and creation of stories. This article will explore how the software reconfigures the space of the book and can give an agency to a new type of digital artifact. The goal of the article is to present how the digital artifact invites readers and writers to adopt new practices, skills and roles which give a new meaning to the perception of the book. By examining the case study of the educational digital book Inanimate Alice, the article aims to illustrate the new ways of experiencing literature.
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"This thesis aims to contribute for the discussions on online research methods, by suggesting the concept of a holistic approach to the study of social media. This idea argues that data, online platforms and tools cannot be perceived as isolated objects, but as assemblages of heterogeneous agents. Employing this view, I build a case on research with data from the microblogging site Twitter, analysing the processes of knowledge-making afforded by the platform, the APIs, the database and the software tool for data visualisation Gephi. As a result of this empirical exploration, I argue that social interactions are inherently implicit and appropriated by Twitter users and thus, scholars need to develop tactics that would allow them to look beyond the logic of the database. Moreover, I show that social media research takes place on several levels and on each stage, the method of research is shaped by the actors. Thus, I argue that the concept of online research method cannot be confined within the traditional frames, but instead, it should be perceived as an evolving process, being in a state of constant flux, where heterogeneous actors influence the research decisions, mobilise traditional and new methods and negotiate the research choices of scientific exploration. The main argument of this thesis is that social media studies are not only a technological accomplishment, but should be understood as a complex holistic process.

Key words: online research methods, holistic approach, Twitter, big data, actor-network theory, software tools."

In this study, we examine the strategies translators have at their disposal to render the meaning of Dutch modal particles in the Russian language. Modal particles are difficult to translate because the meaning of these words is abstract, highly context-dependent and sometimes open to multiple interpretations. Based on parallel Dutch-Russian texts we show which strategies translators use to express the functions of the Dutch modal particle maar ‘but’ in Russian. The modal particle maar is very often omitted in translations, because it has no equivalent in Russian and the image of reality given by the sentence does not become different in a translation when a modal particle is not translated. We find that maar is most often omitted in the function of mitigating the imperative. Translators compensate for the lack of an appropriate modal particle by using verbs with a narrower meaning in Russian which allows them to more accurately describe the drawn context. We also find that in some ...

This study looks at the representation of polygamous marriage in selected dramatic texts from Nigeria and juxtaposes it against global discussion on the acceptance of the "otherness" in society. It concludes that monogamy and polygamy (polygyny and polyandry) are systems of marriage practised in different cultures, most especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In the continent, marriage enjoys cultural, religious and constitutional backing. However, the focus of this paper is on polygamy in dramatic texts in relation to the social reality of the environment from which the texts emerged. The paper further narrows its interest down to three levels of contractual marriage in sub-Saharan Africa. It reveals that the traditional and religious marriage systems in sub- Saharan Africa embrace polygamy while state institutions or legal marriage system frowns at it. It is against this backdrop that this work adopts postmodernism as a theoretical framework to examine the place of polygamy in...

The argument that “women are their own worst enemies” has become a cliche in social and political gathering where the issue of gender balance is in discussion, especially in Africa. In this paper I look at the import of the statement against the backdrop of Zulu Sofola’s popular play Wedlock of the Gods. For clarity of purpose, I adopt the concept of “Womanpressionism” - a term developed by Julius-Adeoye ‘Rantimi Jays in relation to intragender repression - as a working theory to interrogate the behavioural pattern of the female characters in the chosen play against spousal aspiration of one their kind. In the paper, I conclude that the female characters in the world of the play are reflection of most women in Africa’s socio-political and economic space. It is my opinion that in Wedlock of the Gods, Sofola reflects the social reality of women as commodity that are exchange based on the value placed on them by external factors like parents and community they come from in the Igbo soc...

In a previous study, we demonstrated that the experience of learning a new language positively influences the metacognitive awareness of young plurilingual children in terms of willingness to communicate and strategic competence. In the present study, we expanded the analyses of the observations of 101 children to examine two hypotheses. First, we hypothesized that the strategies reported by the children would group into a limited number of strategic clusters. Second, we predicted that the children's awareness of strategies would depend not only on the experience of learning a new language but also on age. The factor analysis of the strategies used indicated three clusters, which we termed Speaker, Hearer, and External orientations. The analyses showed a significant effect of learning a new language in a formal context and after the age of four years, abbreviated LLE, that is Language Learning Experience, on the Speaker orientation. In addition, age showed a linear effect on the three identified clusters of strategies. These findings are highly relevant as they may help to shed light into why young plurilingual learners use strategies differently.

2 Two children standing in a field. A little boy poses for the camera, his face obscured by a grotesque mask of animal bone. A little girl (his sister?) stares at the ground, raising her hand undecided, holding…(another piece of the carcass?). This travel portrait is for me a portrait of home. Walking the fields of my hometown, I see their hipbones screaming too loudly to the open air, sticking through a living skin, a black and white terrestrial torn into the blood of every day. A field of heavy udders, the labour of a pelvis that ended as a crown, adorning the head of this little Man-to-come. These wounds exposed to a sunny countryside have now become the horns of a devilish monster, and I am unwillingly the little sister (be-)holding the crime. I avert my eyes because I no longer recognize my brother. But what do I see positioning myself behind this borrowed camera, looking-with the death of cows at this Human made with Animal-death? What is it that my brother, the monster, might tell me, this Inhuman whose legacy of life and death I hold in my hand? What sisterhood do I fashion from this bone? 1 1 Inspired by "Reveries of the Wild Woman" (2006) by Hélène Cixous.

Fig 1: 'Cow Benches', by Julia Lohmann, 2005. 2 "As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behavior toward creatures, all men were Nazis. The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right." -Isaac Bashevis Singer (1972, p. 257) 1 -"All social inequalities are linked. Comprehensive systemic change will happen only if we are aware of these connections and work to bring and end to all inequalitiesnot just our favourites or the ones that most directly affect our part of the universe. No one is on the sidelines; by our actions or inactions, by our caring or our indifference, we are either part of the problem or part of the solution." -Michelle Loyd-Paige (2010, p. 2) 2 -1 As quoted in Kemmerer (2010, p. 16). 2 As quoted in Kemmerer (2010, p. 4).

Partial Perspective" . 2 In relation to fragment [1] this alternative opposes the ultimately improductive (and perhaps irresponsible) alternative, namely the disavowal of the whole of knowledge production as a phallocentric "boy"s thing". 3 2 nd edition with a new preface by the author, 1 st edition: 2005. 4 In a broader context, the notion of "our budding sense of collective historical subjectivity and agency and our "embodied" accounts of truth" as threatened goods to dominating objectivity doctrines stretches itself deep into the whole of the Humanities as a field of knowledge production, and discussions relating to its relation to other fields of science. For examples of such discussions in relation to the literature for this course, see: McAllistar (2002) & Galison, (2010).