The contemporary LGBTQ+ history of Northern Ireland has emerged relatively recently. This article examines two negative models that fed into understandings of male homosexuality between the early 1960s and the end of the 1980s, and some of the discourses that emanated from them. Using contemporary comment, theological and medical writings, and oral history testimonies, this article charts the fortunes of models of ‘sickness’ and ‘sinfulness’. A campaign to secure law reform in the 1970s forced churches to confront the ‘problem’ of homosexuality. I demonstrate the complexity of responses from two major Protestant churches, the tentative emergence of a challenge from radical Christians and how this landscape has been obscured by the notoriety of an infamous fundamentalist campaign. As was the case in England, the notion of homosexuality as a pathology gained traction in Northern Ireland only in the 1950s and 1960s, leading to medical conversion practices, such as aversion therapy, which attempted to ‘cure’ men of same-sex desire. However, discourses conflicted, with regional social conditions resulting in ‘sickness’ co-existing uneasily with ‘sin’. And although it was opposed by a strain of evangelical thought, social conditions fostered by conservative religiosity enabled pathologisation to linger on through the 1980s.

This study examines the transformation of the Weather Change Wedding, a seasonal ritual once performed in Isparta, a city in present-day Western Turkey. Rooted in the symbolic marriage between the son of the cold northern wind, Poyraz, and the daughter of the mild southern wind, Lodos, the ritual aimed to alter the severe weather conditions that adversely affected the town. Initially organized by male-dominated guilds, with the participation of local notables and religious institutions, the ritual gradually evolved into a performance increasingly shaped by women. However, this transformation was not merely a matter of women filling a void left by men, nor did it represent a form of substitute agency. Rather, it was the result of a historically specific process shaped by structural changes, such as the rise of women’s labor in the carpet-weaving sector and demographic shifts triggered by World War I and the War of Independence, which tipped the gender balance toward women. This transformation, however, did not emerge as a form of resistance to patriarchal norms; it took shape within a gender regime in which those very norms were being renegotiated.

Detailed legal and court records of household and personal violence do not survive from early modern Ireland in sufficient numbers to allow for statistical analysis. However, close reading of selected court narratives about violence between householders allows analysis of the contested contemporary meanings of violence. In their descriptions, witnesses read the marks on injured bodies and interpreted their meanings according to gendered hierarchies of power within households. This article uses such narratives to analyse interpersonal violence between members of families and households in early modern Ireland.

This article examines the experience of English Catholics within Spanish naval service during the Elizabethan period. It explores their status and roles, as well as the range of motives that led them into Spanish service—religious conviction, familial or military loyalties, the pursuit of fortune, or, in the case of prisoners, the necessity of survival. During the Anglo-Spanish War, the number of English sailors serving on Spanish vessels increased, driven in part by Spain’s demand for English navigational expertise and intelligence-gathering skills. Nonetheless, these mariners often faced mistrust and suspicion from their Spanish hosts, as well as financial hardship and the psychological strain. The article also demonstrates that English and Irish priests played a key role in aiding their adaptation and protection, while also drawing upon the mariners’ expertise to support clandestine operations and contribute to invasion plans aimed at the Catholic restoration of England.

Our aim is to illuminate the persistent problem of evidence in cases of sexual violence in conflict zones by investigating the relationship between archival practices and processes of legal redress. This special issue consists of six essays, with contributors drawn from the disciplines of history and law. In temporal terms, the cases range from the seventeenth century to the late twentieth century; spatially, they address conflicts in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States. The case studies each offer an overview of “their archive,” explain its creation and limitations, and address its political logic and uses. As we interrogate archives, where evidence of sexual violence is located, it is critical that we note three things. First, to understand the nature and political construction of the archive. Second, to use this insight to interpret and assess the nexus of power relations within which historical and contemporary actors operate. Finally, to remember the inescapable limits of the evidence that shape the pursuit of justice, past or present.

The Egyptian is joyful by nature, amused by the simplest things, and laughs loudly at the slightest jest. He lifts his turban and sings along at the slightest musical note. By contrast, the Lebanese-Syrian finds Egyptian music static and out of sync with his fast-paced, modern life. He prefers Western music for its dynamism and energy, which aligns with his lifestyle.

Zakariyya Ahmad (1896–1961) is one of the most prominent composers of modern Egypt. He is remembered today for having composed numerous songs for Um Kulthum (1904–75) and other lead Egyptian singers, and for his long collaboration with the colloquial poet and political satirist Bayram al-Tunsi (1893–1961). He also had a lasting impact on Egyptian vocal music in the early 20th century, a period defined by technological innovation and changing popular tastes. Although contemporary composers such as Muhammad ʿAbd al-Wahhab (1902–91) were considered “innovative” for blending traditional Arabic music with Western musical elements, Zakariyya Ahmad was counted as traditional: he remained loyal to the maqām (a system of melodic scales) while striving to preserve and develop traditional musical forms with Arabic and Egyptian aṣāla (authenticity). In addition to his musical contributions, Zakariyya Ahmad also played an important role in the Egyptian cinema, both as composer and actor. He was also a political activist, composing songs around national concerns.1

What kind of weapon is sex? Scholarship on the Lebanese Civil War (1975-90) has broadened the “war story” by foregrounding women’s perspectives as fighters and by adding complexity to militiamen’s narratives. Yet, while gendering the analysis, scholarship has not examined the role that sexual relations and sexual practices played in the war. Meanwhile, Lebanese Civil War–era cultural production, including films, novels and popular magazines, display sexual transactions and sexual violence as if they were common instances in the war. In this article, I engage an intertextual ethnographic reading of sex and sexual violence, combining the civil war’s cultural archive with oral histories that I conducted with former militiamen and militia women across Lebanon’s political spectrum, and with cis- and trans-women who had transactional sex with militia members, as well as urban participatory mapping and interviews with other participants in the war. Mapping the sex economy and sexual relations in the war reveals the central roles that sex played both as a traffic in and of itself, and as a tool of political governance of civilians, through a traffic in women. I argue that militias used sex and the threat of it for multiple purposes: as a form of mobility that enabled other goods to circulate more smoothly; as a tool of intra-sectarian extraction and coercion and as a weapon of patriarchal governance that kept civilians in their designated neighborhoods. While sex enabled cross-sectarian connections, the violent use of sex thus also reinforced sectarian social boundaries. My findings build on scholarship that has foregrounded the political economy of the war and on intersectional feminist analyses of political governance in Lebanon. The article is indebted to this scholarship as well as to ongoing civil society efforts to document sexual violence in the war.

It has been shown in the literature that the preference or requirement for immediately preverbal focus placement, found in a number of languages (especially verb-/head-final ones), can result from different syntactic configurations. In some languages (e.g., in Hungarian), immediately preverbal foci are raised to a dedicated projection, accompanied by verb movement). In others (e.g., in Turkish), preverbal foci remain in situ, with any material intervening between the focus and the verb undergoing displacement), to allow for the focus–verb adjacency. We offer a unified account of the two types of preverbal foci, raised and in situ ones, based on their prosodic requirements. Specifically, we show that both types of foci require alignment with an edge of a prosodic constituent but differ in the directionality of alignment (right or left). Our analysis rests on bringing together two independent existing proposals, Focus-as-Alignment and flexible Intonational Phrase (ɩ)-mapping. We show that this approach makes correct predictions for a number of unrelated Eurasian languages and discuss some further implications of this approach.

The concept of grafting—described by Gal (2018) as the use of authoritative discourses in distinct, inapposite arenas—is a significant contribution to understanding how individual speech events contribute to processes of enregisterment. While scholars thus far have concentrated on graftings in written and non-interactive texts, this focus occludes the emergent particulars of graftings as they are produced extemporaneously, within local contexts. In this analysis, I examine graftings in public comments during American public school board meetings held from March 2021 through January 2022, a period marked by contentious debates. A sequential analysis of graftings preceded by constructed dialogue contributes a novel view of graftings as interactional achievements. Their citation of prior talk within local contexts not only constructs sequences but also emphasizes that their authority is constructed locally. This analysis therefore expands our understanding of graftings as emergent interactional devices, used within the immediacy of ongoing discourse. (Interdiscursivity, intertextuality, constructed dialogue, reported speech, discourse analysis, sequential analysis, school board meetings)*

There have been strong proponents and opponents in academic debates about the use of social science in legal practice. However, in such academic discussions, little attention has been paid to what legal practitioners think about social science and its use in law. The present study shows that legal practitioners have complex views about social science. Drawing on in-depth interviews, it shows that there are five ideal-types of ‘social science consciousness’: enthusiast, pragmatist, indifferent, critical optimist and opponent. The paper shows what the implications are for law and social science, as well as a new research agenda on social science consciousness.