This 2000 book examines Tacitus' Annals as an ironic portrayal of Julio-Claudian Rome, through close analysis of passages in which characters engage in interpretation and misreading. By representing the misreading of signifying systems - such as speech, gesture, writing, social structures and natural phenomena - Tacitus obliquely comments upon the perversion of Rome's republican structure in the new principate. Furthermore, this study argues that the distinctively obscure style of the Annals is used by Tacitus to draw his reader into the ambiguities and compromises of the political regime it represents. The strain on language and meaning both portrayed and enacted by the Annals in this way gives voice to a form of political protest to which the reader must respond in the course of interpreting the narrative.

The specter of the apocalypse has always been a semiotic fantasy: only at the end of all things will their true meaning be revealed. Our long romance with catastrophe is inseparable from the Western hermeneutical tradition: our search for an elusive truth, one that can only be uncovered through the interminable work of interpretation. Catastrophe terrifies and tantalizes to the extent it promises an end to this task. 9/11 is this book’s beginning, but not its end. Here, it seemed, was the apocalypse America had long been waiting for; until it became just another event. And, indeed, the real lesson of 9/11 may be that catastrophe is the purest form of the event. From the poetry of classical Greece to the popular culture of contemporary America, The End of Meaning seeks to demonstrate that catastrophe, precisely as the notion of the sui generis, has always been generic. This is not a book on the great catastrophes of the West; it offers no canon of catastrophe, no history of the catastrophic. The End of Meaning asks, instead, what if meaning itself is a catastrophe?

The book reveals how Victorians biologized appearance, reimagining imitation, concealment and self-presentation as evolutionary adaptations.

In Deadly Virtue, Heather Martel argues that the French Protestant attempt to colonize Florida in the 1560s significantly shaped the developing concept of race in sixteenth-century America. Telling the story of the short-lived French settlement of Fort Caroline in what is now Jacksonville, Florida, Martel reveals how race, gender, sexuality, and Christian morality intersected to form the foundations of modern understandings of whiteness. Equipped with Calvinist theology and humoral science, an ancient theory that the human body is subject to physical change based on one’s emotions and environment, French settlers believed their Christian love could transform the cultural, spiritual, and political allegiances of Indigenous people. But their conversion efforts failed when the colony was wiped out by the Spanish. Martel explains that the French took this misfortune as a sign of God’s displeasure with their collaborative ideals, and from this historical moment she traces the growth of separatist colonial strategies. Through the logic of Calvinist predestination, Martel argues, colonists came to believe that white, Christian bodies were beautiful, virtuous, entitled to wealth, and chosen by God. The history of Fort Caroline offers a key to understanding the resonances between religious morality and white supremacy in America today.

This timely analysis brings greater clarity to the question of how ICT-supported innovations are experienced in small low- to middle-income countries and developing regions with implications for international education and development. By bringing together a group of international technologists, researchers, and scholars, this book explores the building of local capacity for educational technology policy and application in such regions and ably links theory to practice to illuminate how the issues at hand play out in professional practice. The volume offers itself as an invaluable resource by offering a salient assessment of the existent methodological and ecological challenges and constraints in developing, implementing, and evaluating technology and technology research, while simultaneously providing recommendations and strategy for future policy and implementation. Among the topics covered: The research agenda for technology, education, and development. ICT curriculum planning and development: policy and implementation lessons from small developing states. New challenges for ICT in education policies in developing countries. Playful partnerships for game-based learning in international contexts. Addressing persistent ICT-in-education challenges in small developing countries. ICT-Supported Innovations in Small Countries and Developing Regions is of significant interest to educational technology researchers, policymakers, and officials with influence over resource allocation and implementation of technology innovations. It is also relevant to administrators, teachers, instructional designers, and technology evaluators interested in advancing educational communications and technology in public and private settings.

The need for children and young people to learn about violence against women and girls (VAWG) has been voiced since the late 1980’s. This is the first ever book on educational work to prevent VAWG, providing the most comprehensive contribution to our knowledge and understanding in this area. By bringing together international examples of research and practice, the book offers insight into the underpinning theoretical debates and key lessons for practice, addressing the complexities and challenges of developing, implementing and evaluating educational work to prevent VAWG. This multidisciplinary book will be of interest to educationalists, VAWG and child welfare practitioners, policy makers, researchers and students.