This article combines allegorical, symbolic and metaphorical readings with modern theoretical approaches (primarily, affect theory) to explore the representations of objects and bodies within Peristephanon 9. In Prudentius’ poem, the tortured body of Cassian overlaps with the tormented soul of the poet; the written text is both a co-actor in Cassian’s death and a vehicle for the perpetuation of his extra-textual memory. Figurative language provides words and concepts with new meanings so that a pen can transform into a sword, writing into torture. Through a process of materialization and resemantization, the physical objects become agents in the narrative construction.

Using the case of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies in the United Kingdom as illustration, this essay offers a framework for understanding the role of narratives and competition among narratives in mediating the relationships between scientific advisers and policymakers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, competing judgments about scientific independence and democratic accountability, about the risks of action and inaction, and about the appropriate balance of costs and benefits to society as a whole and to subgroups of the population were filtered through the narrative perspectives of different discourse coalitions. This narrativization of the process had both positive and negative effects. On the one hand, it provided common platforms for the integration of disparate types of knowledge relevant to policymaking. On the other hand, narratives provided platforms for rival coalitions in ongoing contests that left unresolved the central normative questions of distributional fairness and democratic accountability.

The decisions of courts and tribunals, and the statutes that societies live under, are the building blocks to the rule of law. Access to this information for legal professionals can be difficult while access for the general public is often impossible. This article by Gavin Sheridan, the co-founder and CEO at Vizlegal, considers a first principles approach to the barriers to access, how the legal industry has adapted, how technology companies can address and improve it and how the future of legal information involves open access, open standards and innovation built on top of legal data.

This article examines how clerical reformers in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries utilized the Old Testament figure of Deborah to legitimize and encourage the active participation of elite laywomen in ecclesiastical reform. Focusing on key figures such as the countesses Matilda of Tuscany and Adelaide of Turin, the study shows how reformers crafted allegorical and historical links between biblical women and contemporary noblewomen, promoting the latter as agents of reform. Ecclesiastical reformers such as Peter Damian and Bonizo of Sutri made particular use of the Book of Judges’ Deborah to explore concepts of female secular authority defending the Latin Christian Church. The article argues that these reformers newly emphasized Deborah’s militant and authoritative role in the Old Testament rather than promoting existing late antique and early medieval readings of Deborah as a wife, widow, and mother. This shift in exegetical interpretations of Deborah directly supported the roles of elite laywomen in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries as vital co-participants in the ecclesiastical reform movement.

While mathematics and technologic systems have been intrinsically developed with purposes of representing and computing problems with a human-centric orientation, they nonetheless can be considered to have non-human agency. Drawing on anthropology and architecture studies, this article argues that the human-based logics underpinning mathematics and technologies does not delimit them as human entities, and that they can exhibit influential capacities when engaged with during processes of artistic making. This idea is demonstrated through the development of a visitor-interactive audiovisual artwork. The software environments IanniX and Max were actants in the experimental process of sonifying hyperbolic paraboloid (hypar) planes, as well as the mathematic equations themselves. This article discusses how mathematic and technologic agency affected the development of three hypar models used in the piece, as well as an initial unused version. It also discusses how hardware interface objects influenced human-computer interaction design. The article will interest scholars of technologic agency and practitioners interested in converting three-dimensional planes into sound or creating interactive exhibition technology.

The discourse of music reflects historical and cultural changes, interwoven with a multitude of social dynamics. Beyond lyrics, music—through voices and performance—conveys gender stereotypes, often legitimised through repetition. This article examines the construction of voice in Kerala’s popular music, tracing the evolution of the gender stereotyping of voice across three distinct phases: from the period of social dramas following the advent of film music to film music at the beginning of the 21st century. A discourse analysis approach is employed to explore how gendered vocal expressions are shaped and transmitted through popular music culture. Qualitative interviews with practitioners and music experts supplement the analysis, offering deeper insight into Kerala’s sonic landscape and the ways in which music participates in the cultural construction of gender.

This paper examines a long-standing doctrine in charities law – that if an organisation's main purpose is political then it cannot be charitable. This doctrine is not without controversy because it has the potential to exclude many worthwhile organisations from charitable status, and fetter worthwhile advocacy by those that do have status. While no jurisdiction remains unwaveringly committed to the orthodox political purpose doctrine, we argue that none so far have confronted the public benefit – and detriment – of political advocacy adequately. This paper proposes a way of assessing the public benefit of political advocacy in liberal democratic societies. It argues that political advocacy can give rise to clear public benefit: this is an indirect or process benefit associated with advocacy itself regardless of the end advocated for. However, recognising political advocacy purposes as charitable should still be subject to two constraints: the altruism requirement (reflected in the ‘public’ aspect of public benefit); and consistency with liberal democratic values (as part of the ‘benefit’ aspect). These constraints are needed because, while political advocacy can generate benefit, detriments may also be associated with political advocacy.