A fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at non-religious funerals in contemporary London

An Honest Death is an intimate and moving ethnographic account of funerals for people who don't believe in God or an afterlife. Focusing on secular funeral celebrants of the British Humanist Association (now called Humanists UK), the book examines how their ritual work is geared toward helping realize a secular world. There is a strong ethical commitment behind this effort, which is to face death with honesty based on the belief that this life is all we have. For the humanist celebrants and those they serve, this is what allows for a life with meaning and purpose.

Written in a vivid style, the book centers on the lives and the funerals of particular people, from a three-year-old child to a man in his nineties. Anthropologist Matthew Engelke, who trained as a humanist celebrant as part of his research, describes how these officiants try to craft "sincere" funerals, avoiding language and music that might suggest that the person who died had any religious beliefs. The book also captures the highs and lows for humanist celebrants of working in the funeral business-a business that is, for many of them, a kind of vocational calling.

Above all, An Honest Death draws out the tensions in secular humanist thought and practice between reason and the body, rationalism and materialism. Nothing matters more to the humanists than "daring to know" in the Enlightenment tradition, but nothing is so certainly known as the fact that we are finite and embodied creatures.

This book explores how translation technologies, such as Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools and machine translation to large language models (LLM), are reshaping the translation profession and society at large. Drawing on case studies from the Americas, Europe, and Middle East, the book examines how translators, educators, agencies, and clients adapt to evolving workflows, ethical dilemmas, and cultural challenges. It highlights generational divides, the political role of translators, and the preservation of endangered languages. It offers a global perspective on the benefits and limitations of digital tools. With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners, this book bridges professional practice with broader societal implications, making it essential reading for translation professionals, researchers, educators, and anyone interested in the social impact of AI and digitalization. Whether readers navigating the future of translation or studying its cultural consequences, this book offers critical insights into a rapidly transforming field.

An African Approach to Population Ethics offers an important and long-overdue shift away from Western, individualistic models of population ethics, grounding its analysis in Indigenous African communal ethics. The contributors explore a wide range of historical and contemporary issues affecting African population dynamics. They critically examine urgent questions of procreation, resource allocation, and environmental sustainability, from the ethics of climate change to the reinterpretation of traditional fertility proverbs. By prioritizing African voices and experiences, the book establishes a unique and much-needed framework for addressing population challenges with respect for African needs and priorities. It is an essential resource for scholars, policymakers, and all readers focused on Africa's future.

How Zambian Pentecostal activists worked to transform their country into a self-styled "Christian nation"

In 2015, Zambia began an ambitious program to "actualize" the country's constitutional declaration that it was a "Christian nation." For Pentecostal Christian nationalist activists, this was a "divine season," an opportunity to change their country by submitting it to God's control. In this book, Naomi Haynes examines these efforts at national transformation, offering a careful ethnographic exploration of Christian nationalist theology, ritual, and policy initiatives. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork in Lusaka, Zambia's capital, Haynes describes how activists promoted Zambia's Christian identity, whether by writing books and newspaper articles, posting on social media, building new monuments, praying for the nation, or lobbying for constitutional changes.

By tracing Zambian Christian nationalism's internal contradictions and tensions, Haynes charts its ultimate failure, which she ascribes in part to institutional opposition from the civil service and Catholic and mainline Protestant denominations. She also points to what she terms its fatal theological flaw, going beyond the usual secular analysis in anthropology to engage with theological critiques of Christian nationalism. The example of Zambia offers the most fully realized expression of Christian nationalism outside the West, demonstrating what this movement can look like when given free political rein. With this book, Haynes provides an instructive account of an increasingly influential global movement.

This book examines the enduring appeal of Odysseus in artistic representation from antiquity to the present. The volume aims to provide a sense of how this character changes from ancient Greek myth through modern poetry, and how this capacity for change both perpetuates the motif of a mutable and devious character while reflecting essential anxieties over what it means to be a person. Why Odysseus? demonstrates that Odysseus was already a figure of dynamic reception in Homer's Odyssey, then examines his varied uses in antiquity, his resurgence in the twentieth century, and his flexibility in modern reception. It concludes with the challenges of translating the character from one period to the next. Why Odysseus? explores how a uniquely indeterminate character becomes an important "shifting signifier" for reflecting different periods' and peoples' values on what it means to survive-and sometimes thrive-in a world that is definitively non-heroic.

This book reframes urban acupuncture- small, precisely targeted design interventions- as a catalyst for rebuilding place attachment and reinforcing social resilience in gentrifying historic neighborhoods by discovering a newly human-centered approach to heritage regeneration. This book bridges environmental psychology and tactical urbanism, introducing place attachment as the key metric of success. It pairs in-depth theory with hands-on case studies, showing how micro-interventions can restore identity, culture, and community agency.

Scope:

• Foundations of gentrification place attachment, and social resilience.
• Principles and methods of urban acupuncture in heritage settings.
• Rich case studies and cross-case analysis
• A practical framework and policy recommendations for architects, designers, planners and psychologists.

This book is of particular value to urban designers, architects, planners, psychologists, and heritage professionals who are seeking practical and innovative strategies. It is also suitable for graduate students and researchers in the fields of urban studies, architectural studies, and environmental psychology.

This open-access volume explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming STEM education and reshaping teaching and learning for today's world. AI is no longer a distant promise; it is actively redefining classrooms, challenging educators to rethink pedagogy, curriculum, and student engagement. Focusing on the powerful intersection of AI and STEM, the book showcases innovative learning strategies, future-ready curriculum models, and cutting-edge approaches to teacher professional development. It demonstrates how AI can strengthen critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and ethical awareness while offering practical solutions to real-world educational challenges. Combining advanced AI tools with evidence-based instructional design, the volume provides actionable insights that inspire educators, researchers, teachers, and learners. With its inclusive, forward-looking perspective, this book serves as an essential guide for educators, policymakers, and researchers seeking to modernize STEM education and prepare students for an AI-shaped future.

This book contains an Open Access Chapter.

Innovative Learning Environments offers a comprehensive conceptual and theoretical toolkit to support thorough investigations of transformative, innovative, and non-traditional learning spaces in schools. In these spaces, innovative design and pedagogy are at the nexus of new school constructions and the redevelopment of existing schools.

Addressing a gap in existing research, contributions from leading scholars in Learning Environments research present clear entries elucidating concepts and theories that are relevant to the study of Innovative Learning Environments. Readers will find these entries valuable for practical application as they illustrate how these concepts and theories enhance practice within non-traditional schooling spaces.

This concise yet comprehensive volume is invaluable for both newcomers and experienced practitioners, scholars, or designers in the field of Innovative Learning Environments. By focusing on pedagogy and design, Innovative Learning Environments elucidates the origins and purposes of the spatial turn and its impact on learning.

This volume provides a comprehensive exploration of the transformative journey educational leaders undertake, emphasizing the symbiosis of transformational and servant leadership. Chapters seek to address the critical need for educational leaders to adapt to contemporary challenges, adopting leadership styles that not only inspire positive change but also prioritize service and ethical decision-making.The book encompasses a multifaceted examination of leadership theories, starting with an introduction that sets the stage for understanding the evolution of leadership in education. The subsequent sections delve into the core tenets of both transformational and servant leadership, offering real-world applications and case studies to illustrate their practical implications in educational settings. Highlighting the voices of prominent educational leaders through interviews and personal reflections, the book brings a human touch to leadership metamorphosis. By incorporating real-world narratives, readers can gain valuable insights from those who have successfully embraced and navigated the complexities of transformational and servant leadership.

How the police in Minneapolis used electoral politics to accrue power and avoid accountability.

The 2020 murder of George Floyd made Minneapolis synonymous with unjust policing and the pain and outrage left in its wake. The city became ground zero for police reform in the United States-even though liberal politicians in Minnesota had promised, and delivered, police reforms for decades. Centered on professionalization, these changes inadvertently exacerbated injustice. Better training and higher standards broadened the influence of the police, who then claimed expertise in public safety. They deployed it to bargain for governmental support, even when they treated residents unfairly. Though Black, Indigenous, and gay residents resisted, the political power amassed by the police rendered real change almost impossible.

In A Police State, historian and fourth-generation Minneapolis resident Michael J. Lansing chronicles how the police became a political force in one of the nation's most liberal cities. Lansing shows how, in the years after World War II, public safety policies that appealed to voters in the overwhelmingly white city protected and expanded police discretion. As union members, administrators, and citizens, officers shaped these policies to shield themselves and their violent actions from scrutiny. They campaigned for better wages, secured legal safeguards, resisted race-neutral policing, and elected one of their own to the mayor's office. Ultimately, they used democratic institutions to cultivate and sustain a police state that protected white people and harmed people of color. Lansing uncovers this dysfunctional relationship between a city and its cops while illuminating a larger American story about reform, resistance, and democracy.

A significant exploration of policing politics, this book helps us understand the history that led to George Floyd's murder-and insists that the future of community safety depends on reenvisioning the role of police in our society.

An essential guide to giving effective and engaging talks for academics at all career stages, across the humanities, sciences, and social sciences

This book is for anyone in academia who will ever have to give a talk-which is just about everyone in academia. Presenting research is one of the most important tasks academics undertake, but few receive formal training in effective public speaking. In How to Give a Good Academic Talk, Sharon Marcus fills this gap, offering a practical, research-informed guide to an activity that can challenge even seasoned scholars. Marcus, who has given many academic talks in her career-and listened to even more-blends insights from learning and cognitive science, communications, rhetoric, and performance theory with her own seasoned judgment and firsthand observation to provide a pragmatic repertoire of dos and don'ts.

Each chapter addresses a central component of successful presentations, illustrated with examples drawn from a wide variety of academic talks, many available online. Marcus's cross-disciplinary perspective allows her to identify elements that all good academic talks have in common, while remaining attentive to field-specific norms. She defines what an academic talk is and isn't, and identifies its most important and challenging task: engaging the audience. How to Give a Good Academic Talk covers the beginnings and endings of talks, Q&A sessions, the design and use of slides, delivery, rehearsals, video conferencing platforms-and even offers wardrobe advice. Marcus's essential guide equips academics to communicate their ideas with confidence, precision, and intellectual generosity.

This open access book offers a profound exploration of Bracha L. Ettinger's theory of the matrixial borderspace through the lens of Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic teachings. By situating Ettinger's work within a Lacanian context, this volume illuminates the intricate interplay between psychoanalysis, sexuality, and the concept of the m/Other. Too often, Ettinger's contributions are examined in isolation, missing the critical Lacanian underpinnings that inform her scholarship and art practice.

Key concepts such as the matrixial borderspace, feminine sexuality, and the m/Other are meticulously analyzed alongside Lacan's archetypes of Tiresias, Dora, Lol Stein, and Antigone. Ettinger's critiques and modifications of Lacanian ideas, including the 'weaning complex,' das Ding, the phallus, and the Real, are explored to reveal the nuanced dialogue between these two influential thinkers. This comparative study not only highlights the contiguities and critical differences between their theories but also enhances our understanding of the Feminine and the m/Other.

Scholars of psychoanalysis, gender studies, and philosophy will find this book an invaluable resource. It invites readers to engage deeply with the complexities of Ettinger and Lacan's theories, offering fresh insights into the enduring questions of feminine sexuality and identity.

Positioned at the intersection of indigenous knowledge systems and spatial practice, this volume explores how ritualised, place-based epistemologies can reframe design and planning responses to global ecological crises. Departing from reductive Cartesian abstractions, it interrogates the systemic erasure of sacred space and advances a generative turn toward relational ontologies and decolonial spatial imaginaries. Landscapes are approached not as static heritage artefacts, but as living, agentive systems that co-produce meaning, identity, and ethical responsibility. Drawing on global case studies and innovative methodological approaches, including VOICE, Spiritual Tectonics, and Afro-Cosmological Design, the contributions explore the temporal thickening of sacred sites, where ancestral continuities intersect with emergent technologies. By integrating traditional ecological knowledge with contemporary metrics of resilience and sustainability, the book outlines actionable pathways for spatial practitioners. It speaks to researchers and professionals across architecture, urban planning, religious studies, cultural geography, and the environmental humanities.

This book explores the profound connections between Nam June Paik's artistic vision and Korean shamanism, a theme that has been largely overlooked in English-language scholarship. Drawing from key historical performances and theoretical insights, this volume examines Paik's role as a shamanic figure who mediated between past and future, technology and tradition, and material and spiritual realms. The book situates Paik's work within broader discourses on emerging media, emphasizing how his engagement with shamanism extends beyond ritual performance to a conceptual framework of communication, transformation, and spiritual resonance. It also investigates Paik's legacy in relation to dark shamanism and neoliberalism, offering new perspectives on the cultural and political dimensions of his art. By bringing together critical essays from leading scholars, Electronic Shaman provides an essential resource for those interested in media art, shamanism, and the intersections of technology and spirituality in contemporary culture.

Heathenism has changed. In the 2010s, the global popular culture market saw a surge in the production and consumption of Viking-themed and Norse-inspired media products, with music, movies, television series, and video games shaping public perception of Vikings, Norse mythology, and its often-presumed links to contemporary Heathenism. In this book, scholar of religion Jane Haug Skjoldli, Ph.D., traces and analyzes self-identifying Heathens' experiences of entering their religion, their encounters with deities they hold dear, their experiences with Norse-inspired music, movies, television series, and video games-and the roles such media products play in their religious conversion and practice. Using her innovative religious interaction framework to analyze Heathens' visual and aural practices, Skjoldli demonstrates how the influx of Norse-inspired media products-particularly music-give rise to charismatic authority as Heathens mix their religion to remix their reality. Offering an original way of critically studying Heathenism that challenges conventional wisdom in Pagan Studies, and to analyze links between aesthetics, media technology, and power dynamics within religious groups, this book is a must for scholars and students interested in the complex relationships between religion and popular culture.

In Seneca Village, Alexander Manevitz showcases the ideas of freedom that underpinned this remarkable community, built in upper Manhattan with the intent to foster Black social, economic, and political self-determination. Between 1825 and 1853, free African Americans bought land and built an innovative settlement. Then, through the 1850s, New York City forcibly evicted the residents, seized the land, and destroyed the buildings, burying this thriving neighborhood under the landscape of the new Central Park.

In this most in-depth investigation to date of Seneca Village, Manevitz reconstructs the essential history of the community from the overlooked traces they left behind, focusing on the interconnected lives of Seneca Villagers and the daily work of liberation. Decades before the Civil War and Reconstruction, they honed a vision of Black freedom on their own terms, fighting to create space for themselves in a country that promised liberty for all but denied it to many.

From The New York Times bestselling author, a bold new account of animal rights, why they may be on the verge of mass popularity, and why animals need a Bill of Rights

In Animals Matter, Cass Sunstein offers a pathbreaking new argument for why we must change our practices to reduce the unjustified suffering of animals. This surprisingly personal book offers a simple proposition: The interests of animals count, and we should work to promote their well-being, just as we should work to promote the well-being of humans. Drawing on psychology, behavioral economics, and his White House experiences, Sunstein reveals why people are likely, in time, to increase their support for the legal protection of animals and why, ultimately, we should adopt a Bill of Rights for animals that affirms their right to live free from cruelty and deprivation.

Applying his research on "social cascades," Sunstein compares the animal rights movement to previous causes such as civil rights that exploded in size once they passed a threshold moment. But this change won't happen on its own. Sunstein demonstrates that we need to overcome deliberate ignorance about the mistreatment of animals, to make their suffering conspicuous and visible, and to create animal welfare cascades. Our governments need to recognize benefits and harms to animals in their policymaking. We need to give political and legal representation to animals who are being mistreated, and we need to use "nudges" to increase their well-being.

Animal rights are not radical or utopian; they are rooted in widespread moral judgments. Sunstein shows how we can eventually create a world in which most people will come to embrace them.

Artificial Intelligence has entered religious contexts. This edited volume focuses on AI as it is developed for religious settings and increasingly embedded in concrete religious practices. It offers an interdisciplinary and interreligious perspective on a rapidly evolving field.

Technically oriented contributions provide insights into the development of specific AI tools for religious applications and explore the technical, conceptual, and design-related challenges involved. Contributions from theology, religious studies, and ethics analyze how Artificial Intelligence is reshaping religious communication and practices, reflect on the implications of these developments, and formulate guidelines and impulses for the responsible use of AI in religious contexts.

By systematically bringing technical development into conversation with theological and ethical reflection, the volume bridges theory and practice. It is intended for researchers, students, and practitioners interested in religion in the age of Artificial Intelligence.

This book explores how the Trajectory Equifinality Approach (TEA), which was introduced in Japan two decades ago by Tatsuya Sato, representsa central milestone for cultural psychology. It involves the use of both real (life events that happened) and imagination-based materials (life events that could have happened, but did not) in psychological data analysis. The potential of TEA is still to be found beyond our current understanding. While the origin of the TEA lies in Japan, where it has grown in popularity over time, today, an extraordinary community of researchers from multiple scientific fields recognises this approach and applies it to their research endeavours. Due to its uniqueness and wide range of application possibilities, this volume enhances the Trajectory Equifinality Approach for new pathways, perspectives and applications in the field. An essential aim of this contribution is to encourage individuals to connect themselves and their endeavours to TEA and thus possibly explore new viewpoints for their work.

Still Shaking the Table: Activism, Unity, and Supporting Students is the second volume in the Shaking the Table series, which centers the voices of identity center practitioners navigating increasingly complex, politicized, and constrained higher education environments. As colleges and universities continue to struggle to meaningfully support students across marginalized identities-including race, gender, sexuality, ability, class, religion, and citizenship status-those working within identity-based centers remain at the forefront of advocacy, care, and institutional change, often at great personal and professional cost.

Building on the foundation of Shaking the Table, which focused on survival and healing, this volume moves more explicitly into the terrain of campus activism, coalition-building, and sustained support for students. Amid mounting resistance to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts nationwide, practitioners are increasingly asked to navigate competing institutional interests, political pressures, and shifting student needs, while showing up for the communities they serve. Through first-person narratives, contributors illuminate the tensions, contradictions, and possibilities that emerge when identity-centered work exists in opposition to institutional norms and state-level constraints.

Organized around three interconnected themes-Navigating Activism, Fostering Unity, and Supporting Students-this volume highlights how practitioners engage in advocacy within and beyond their institutions, wrestle with questions of privilege and intersectionality, and develop responsive practices to meet students' evolving needs. Across the chapters, authors explore the labor of coalition-building, the emotional toll of identity-based work, and the critical importance of self-reflection, critical hope, and collective care as strategies for longevity.

Still Shaking the Table serves as both a mirror and a roadmap: a reflection of the lived realities of identity center practitioners and a guide for those committed to advancing justice-oriented work in higher education. It is a resource for practitioners, scholars, and graduate students, and a call to action for supervisors, senior leaders, and institutions to move beyond performative commitments toward meaningful, accountable support for identity centers and the people who lead them.

Navigating Academia as a Neurodivergent Academic sheds light on the various emotional and physical tolls that navigating an unsupportive academic landscape can take on neurodivergent researchers, with calls for systemic changes to better support neurodivergent people within higher education institutions. It also celebrates finding connection and purpose within neurodivergent research communities.

Delving into experiences of a global cohort of neurodivergent scholars as they navigate professional journeys, chapters draw on personal narratives, theoretical insights, and research conducted with and by neurodivergent academics. Opening with an overview of current challenges faced by neurodivergent scholars in a time that offers both increasing mainstream acceptance and systemic pressures that disproportionally harm neurodivergent staff, the editors highlight the complexities of navigating shifting institutional attitudes and policies. Subsequent chapters identify specific challenges faced by neurodivergent academics, from PhD scholars to academics in leadership positions, alongside intersecting issues relating to gender diversity and race. Each story brings a unique perspective, showing the wide variety of neurodivergent people and the challenges that they face, with common themes of navigating spaces, systems, and social and communication norms that can create barriers to people who experience the world in different ways.

Navigating Academia as a Neurodivergent Academic highlights the need for more inclusive spaces within higher education institutions for neurodivergent individuals, with particular emphasis on neurodivergent early career academics. However, it also celebrates the successes of neurodivergent people, including the joys of finding community, the relief of finally being understood, and the positive changes neurodivergent academics are able to make when they stand together.