September 2022 open access books
We're a little later than normal with our update this month, but the start of Autumn brought a bumper crop of new titles!
The absorbing Violent Affections: Queer sexuality, techniques of power, and law in Russia is based on analysis of over 300 criminal cases of anti-queer violence in Russia, and uncovers techniques of power that work to translate emotions into violence against queer people.
We're also huge fans of Music and Digital Media: A planetary anthropology, which is the first comparative ethnographic study of the impact of digital media on music worldwide, covering popular, folk and art musics in the global South and North. This groundbreaking book also features the first ethnography of a global software package, the interactive music platform Max.
The Bentham Brothers and Russia: The Imperial Russian Constitution and the St Petersburg Panopticon chronicles the brothers’ involvement with the Russian Empire, when Jeremy focused his legislative hopes on Catherine’s grandson Emperor Alexander I and Samuel found a unique opportunity in 1806 to build a Panopticon in St Petersburg. It's includes details of the unique opportunity the Benthams had to build a Panopticon in St Petersburg in 1806 – the only panoptical building ever built by the Benthams themselves.
The important Towards a Global Core Value System in Doctoral Education provides an evaluation of changes and reforms in doctoral education since 2000. Building on perspectives from scholars and young researchers in more than 25 countries of the Global North and South, it advocates for a core value system to overcome existing inequalities in access to doctoral education and the development of responsible researchers.
The fascinating Church Courts and the People in Seventeenth-Century England: Ecclesiastical justice in peril at Winchester, Worcester and Wells offers a detailed survey of court records across three dioceses to examine the relationship between Church and the people during a time of significant societal change.
Finally, Delhi's Education Revolution: Teachers, agency and inclusion offers a critical evaluation of education reforms in Delhi since 2015 by exploring policy and practice through the eyes of the government-school teachers tasked with making them a reality. Analysis of their views about the impact of reform on everyday life in schools paints a qualified picture of success.