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‘The Best-regarded Virgins of Our Clime’: Unseen Black Women, Race, and the Construction of White Femininity in The Merchant of Venice

2026-10-04T02:00:29Z

Title: ‘The Best-regarded Virgins of Our Clime’: Unseen Black Women, Race, and the Construction of White Femininity in The Merchant of Venice Authors: Sheeha, Iman Abstract: Using the tools of premodern critical race studies and whiteness studies, this article brings to critical visibility the Black women Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice evokes in passing, only to leave them on the margins of the text. Unseen and unheard, those women's alleged preferences in romantic partners are reported second-hand by the Prince of Morocco. It has become something of a critical and theatrical tradition to interpret this moment as revealing his alleged lustfulness, thus indulging in a sensational (and Orientalist) reading of him and them. I challenge this reading, proposing, instead, that the Prince's evocation of his countrywomen should be inserted within the play's (and early modern England's) larger investment in the construction of white femininity and the attendant fashioning of an emerging national white identity. The Moroccan virgins, I argue, are one strategy the Prince adopts to signal his proximity to patriarchal whiteness by announcing to his audience both on- and offstage his subscription to the gendered, white values which elevate white women at the expense of Black women. A white man's fantasy of a Black man, the Prince of Morocco deploys Black women as a tool to elevate white femininity and to announce his assimilability into Portia's white world.

The Ceuta border incident shows how EU migration can be ‘weaponised’ – but overall levels are declining

2026-09-13T02:01:05Z

Title: The Ceuta border incident shows how EU migration can be ‘weaponised’ – but overall levels are declining Authors: Rosina, Matilde Abstract: It took one night in Ceuta to end a relatively quiet summer on Europe’s southern border. Over 70,000 people entered the Spanish enclave from Morocco between July 30 and 31, most of them swimming around the heavily guarded border fences. ...

The Neurodivergent Musician: A Methodology Report on A Participatory Action Research Study

2026-09-02T02:00:41Z

Title: The Neurodivergent Musician: A Methodology Report on A Participatory Action Research Study Authors: Détári, Anna; Dawson, Georgia; Ballam, Lydia; Chapman, Alex; Redelinghys, James; Baines, Emily; Furniss, Pete; Hugill, Andrew; Heaton, Pamela Abstract: According to estimates, the prevalence of various forms of neurodivergence is much higher among musicians than in the general population. Despite this fact, we know very little about the lived experiences of neurodivergent (ND) musicians in professional settings, such as educational institutions and places of employment. The lack of information leads to a lack of understanding, appropriate support, and inclusion of ND personnel in these spaces; therefore, it is crucial to gather accurate information directly from the population. A Participatory Action Research (PAR) study was planned and organised by ND musicians, which consisted of an in-person event and online follow-up conversations, where members of the community (ND musicians, music educators, music researchers, and neurotypical allies) were invited to discuss various aspects of their vocational education and professional lives. In alignment with the guiding principles of PAR, all participants were invited to contribute to the outputs to ensure their autonomy and utilise their unique expertise to the fullest. Given the quantity and richness of the data and the limited space, detailed discussions about the findings will be published separately. Here, we opted to focus on the methodological approach and procedure to provide a template for using PAR with adult ND communities.

From Patterns to Attractor‐Like Modes: A Systems Sensemaking Framework for Recurring Conflict in Healthcare Teams

2026-08-22T02:00:33Z

Title: From Patterns to Attractor‐Like Modes: A Systems Sensemaking Framework for Recurring Conflict in Healthcare Teams Authors: Havsteen‐Franklin, Dominik Abstract: Recurring conflict in healthcare teams frequently persists despite well‐intended interventions (Page et al. 2024; Mazzei et al. 2024). Dynamic systems theory helps to map how such recurrences reflect systemic feedback loops linking individual experience, behaviour, shared beliefs and organisational structures, supporting intervention design at a depth that matches the problem. This methods paper presents a visual framework and facilitation protocol for leadership sensemaking and intervention design. It combines (i) quadrant‐based multi‐perspective mapping (inner/outer × individual/collective), (ii) ecological scaling and (iii) temporal differentiation across events (t 0 ), patterns (t 1 ) and attractor‐like modes (t 2 ). The paper proposes four candidate stress‐attractor modes in healthcare teams— restricting , blaming , compensating and disengaging —grounded in research on threat‐rigidity, attribution, workarounds and employee silence. The framework is intended as a practical method to trace what maintains recurring conflict, align intervention depth with problem depth and identify early signs of both improvement and harm. Description: Data Availability Statement: Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.