Our ability to understand multi-decadal to centennial-scale trends in tropical cyclone activity is limited by the short duration of, and limitations in, historical records. In order to extend these records for tropical Western Australia, we have analyzed mud layers in stalagmite KNI-51-11 from the Kimberley region of north-central Australia that appear to be formed by cyclone-induced flooding.  KNI-51-11 grew over the last 250 years and contains 39 mud layers. Read More…

Mining, even with modern precautions, puts the world’s delicately balanced biosphere in peril. While staying in the Province of Azuay, Ecuador, I witnessed firsthand the people’s resistance against the Canadian mining company “IAMGOLD” that is currently in the preliminary process of exploitation at the source of the community’s water system. Read More…

In Camilio José Cela’s La familia de Pascual Duarte, the reader follows the reflective journey of the protagonist, Pascual, as he recounts the events of his life by writing letters from the jail cell where he awaits his execution. What is apparent through his letters is the connection between Pascual’s sexuality and violence, which is seen in the sexual nature of his domination of others. Read More…

The small town of Tremont experienced a traumatic event at the high school this past school year. The repercussions of this event were felt everywhere in this small community. This qualitative study examines how two female students at the junior high school responded to this event by performing gender through the expression of personal grief. Read More…

Roman historian Tacitus (56-101 AD) composed the Germania (98 AD), an ethnographical and historical description of the German peoples. The surviving, comprehensive study of the society was one of the earliest and most complete works of its kind. While it may seem an unlikely source to contain insights into the complexities of the Roman aristocracy, Tacitus was aware of the specific Roman senatorial audience to whom this work would be presented. Therefore, the Germania contains moralizing allegories in which he uses the “primitive” but virtuous German tribe to comment on what he believed to be the moral deterioration of Rome. Read More…

Few paleoclimate records preserve high-resolution information for the middle Holocene in (near) coastal Portugal, but this region contains many caves within a few kilometers of the coast.  In addition, shells of shallow marine invertebrates record sea surface conditions and some of these were harvested and preserved in archaeological middens. Read More…

Ecological health depends on a wide diversity of all life forms. The greater the biodiversity the more opportunities there are for adaptive responses to environmental challenges such as climate change and economic development.  Loss in biodiversity may limit medical and pharmacological discoveries.  Biodiversity-rich ecosystems are more resilient and boost ecosystem productivity. Read More…

As women now hold masculine characteristics with less resistance than previously, traditional male masculinity has lost its “uniqueness.” Thus, many men have “hypermasculinized” themselves to still appear dominant over women. This study examines representations of masculinity and the shift toward a male hypermasculinity within heavy metal music. Read More…

Despite not regarding herself as a “poet,” much of Virginia Woolf’s literary prowess came from the extremely poetic nature of her prose. For Woolf, it was necessary for her work to be all-encompassing, weaving together both the mundane and beautiful aspects of life, a feat which she found both prose and poetry to fall short of doing. Read More…

The North Qaidam Mountains on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau show evidence of ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphism, indicating subduction and exhumation of continental materials to > 90 km deep, within the mantle. The area most likely represents a suture zone, as an ophiolite is present, indicating the closing of an ocean. This ocean was located between the North China and South China cratons about 514 million years ago, as dated from zircons in the ophiolite. Read More…