Building on Maria Mälksoo’s influential 2015 article “Memory Must Be Defended”: Beyond the Politics of Mnemonical Security (Security Dialogue, 46(3), 221–237), the volume Defending Memory in Global Politics: Mnemonical In/Security and Crisis, edited by Erica Resende, Dovilė Budrytė, and Douglas Becker, examines contemporary politics of memory politicisation and securitization captured in eleven case studies, structured according to actor types (state versus non-state). The book’s primary conceptual proposition is predicated on the concept “mnemonic in/security”. As with the broader concept of ontological security, this term encapsulates the tensions between the imperative to safeguard a collective memory against perceived external and internal threats to create and stabilize collective identities, and the inherent vulnerabilities and marginalizations that accompany the selection of memories to be enshrined in such an effort. In this perspective, conflicts over recognition, or even mnemonic “battles,” are inevitable. Such struggles manifest themselves, for instance, when governments promulgate specific memory narratives that neglect or reinterpret historical wrongdoings against other states. However, they can also occur within political communities. In such cases, political actors—particularly following periods of internal crisis and violence—promote amnesia or, conversely, memorialization of historical events. The purpose of this promotion is to legitimize a political order and its hegemonic forces.

This article introduces the scope, content, and capabilities of a new born-digital archive. The Medieval Londoners Database (MLD) uses an online platform to collect from and connect to both documents (printed and archival) and digitized resources (such as British History Online and the History of Parliament Online). As a digital prosopography, MLD is a freely available resource that offers sophisticated search options to discover more about the lives of both the civic elite and ordinary individuals who resided in the city of London or its suburbs of Southwark and Westminster between ca. 1100 and 1520. MLD exemplifies how digitization and the semantic web enhance historical research by creating super-powered archival collections that are ever-expanding, accessible via multiple entry points, and able to facilitate highly analytical research.

Pseudocyesis, also known as false pregnancy, is defined as the belief of being pregnant with physical signs and symptoms in the absence of a confirmed pregnancy. Notable cases include Queen Mary, who suffered from phantom pregnancies under societal pressure to conceive in the 16th century. Although now extremely rare, at its peak it accounted for 1 in 250 pregnancies following the Second World War, and was thought to be linked to heightened gender norms and sociocultural expectations around motherhood during this time. Pseudocyesis presents with complex and unique diagnostic challenges in clinical practice. It differs from delusional pregnancy, which is a fixed belief of pregnancy without physical signs or symptoms. The condition is often associated with infertility, psychological distress and neuro-endocrine conditions affecting the reproductive system. Management requires a multidisciplinary approach, integrating psychological support and addressing underlying reproductive health issues.

In 1805, during a lull in hostilities between England and France, minor Warwickshire landowner and slaveholder Bertie Greatheed was on a European tour with his family when his son died, leaving behind an illegitimate child. Greatheed acquired his granddaughter from her Dresden-based mother and brought the child up as his own. This article revisits Steedman's earlier scholarship on Greatheed, which focused on questions of domestic service, through the lens of slavery. It uses the seventeen volumes of his diary-writing compiled between 1805 and 1825 to explore the connections between Greatheed's ownership of enslaved people on his St. Kitts estate and his possession and nurturing of his grandchild. It considers the contradiction between Greatheed's position as an abolitionist and his profit from slavery and slave ownership, which he used not only to sustain a way of life, but also to develop Leamington, Warwickshire, into a spa town and pleasure resort.

The Neptune Islands Group and Western Kangaroo Island Marine Parks were declared as part of South Australia’s representative system of Marine protected areas (MPAs) in 2009. Sanctuary zones, located within these MPAs, prohibited commercial fishing in the state’s Northern Zone Rock Lobster Fishery from 2014. In 2022, dedicated surveys were undertaken both inside and outside two of the sanctuary zones to estimate the relative abundance (catch per unit effort; CPUE) and size of southern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii). Survey results were then compared to estimates of abundance obtained from long-term commercial fishery-dependent data within each area. The legal-size CPUE by weight of lobsters was 389% and 411% higher inside sanctuary zones of the Neptune Islands Group and Western Kangaroo Island, respectively, compared to outside, based on survey data. Survey catch rates inside the two sanctuary zones were also considerably higher than historical catch rates estimated from commercial fishing data. Lobsters inside both sanctuary zones were larger than those outside in terms of mean weight compared to historical estimates. However, surveys recorded similar mean size in lobsters both inside and outside the Neptune Islands Group sanctuary zone, indicating a possible spillover effect of MPA protection. The Northern Zone Rock Lobster Fishery is currently in a biomass rebuilding phase. The results highlight the productivity potential of temperate reef ecosystems within South Australia in terms of southern rock lobster abundances.

This article examines the measurement systems used in the built environment of Xochicalco, a significant Epiclassic archaeological site located in Central Mexico. Through careful analysis of the dimensions of the various structures, we identified two primary measurement units: U7 (1.47 m) and U8 (1.68 m). These units exhibit similarities to the Mayan zapal and Nahua maitl, which have been previously documented across diverse temporal contexts and other regions within Mesoamerica. The investigation revealed patterns in the application of these units related to orientation, functionality, and construction methods, indicating meticulous planning and potential symbolic importance. The frequent use of measurements that are multiples of three, four, nine, and twelve times the base units suggests the utilization of standardized measuring instruments. This study enhances our understanding of Mesoamerican measurement practices, particularly at Xochicalco, and provides insights into cultural interactions and construction traditions during the Epiclassic period.

We revisit the recently introduced concept of return risk measures (RRMs) and extend it by incorporating risk management via multiple so-called eligible assets. The resulting new class of risk measures, termed multi-asset return risk measures (MARRMs), introduces a novel economic model for multiplicative risk sharing. We point out the connection between MARRMs and the well-known concept of multi-asset risk measures (MARMs). Then, we conduct a case study, based on an insurance dataset, in which we use typical continuous-time financial markets and different notions of acceptability of losses to compare RRMs, MARMs, and MARRMs and draw conclusions about the cost of risk mitigation. Moreover, we analyze theoretical properties of MARRMs. In particular, we prove that a positively homogeneous MARRM is quasi-convex if and only if it is convex, and we provide conditions to avoid inconsistent risk evaluations. Finally, the representation of MARRMs via MARMs is used to obtain various dual representations.

This article takes a micro-history approach, focusing on the life of a man identified only in the British records as “Ned” in order to illuminate the complexity and slipperiness of categories of “race.” Ned had lived in the Zulu Kingdom and, after fleeing a civil war there, became employed in Natal by an English colonist-settler, Thomas Handley. Ned traveled with the Handley family to England in 1859, and during this time, unexpectedly “disappeared” from the Handley's residence near Sheffield. A manhunt ensued and, as locals ruminated on Ned's possible status as a “slave,” the case attracted the interest of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Ned was eventually taken to London and housed in the Strangers’ Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders before his tragic death a few months later. His repeated escapes transfixed the public and resulted in detailed press coverage. Numerous parties became interested in his case, and complex and changing processes of racialization were key to the shifting ways in which he was represented. In this article, we both search for Ned's agency and volition, and demonstrate how the case also speaks to major issues in British history, including race, humanitarianism, and enslavement.