Stories for [Boys] Girls: Female Fans Read The X-Files

This article is a discussion of the ways that meaning is made by female fans of the (once) popular American television series, The X-Files. The findings are based on a year long ethnography case study with members of 3 private e-mail lists ostensibly dedicated to the former lead actor: The David Duchovny Estrogen Brigades. I argue that the interpretative practices of the participants, in the form of interaction on a list set up for research purposes, were imbricated with performances of both normative and oppositional femininities. Specifically, I examine the ways that the female participants worked to gain shared pleasures from texts produced predominantly by men for men. Two gendered communal practices are examined in detail in this article-"identification" with the characters and the reading of romantic story lines into the existing texts. I also consider the classed practice of reading the primary texts critically and the collective narratives produced as a result.     

The Will to Be Unveiled: Sufi Autobiographies in Classical Sufism

While autobiography as a special genre increasingly occupies an important position in modern scholarship, independent Sufi autobiographies still require additional and detailed examination. The current paper seeks to examine two spiritual autobiographies known very well in the history of Sufism: Al-?akīm al-Tirmidhī's Bad? sha?n, and Rūzbihān al-Baqlī's Kashf al-asrār. References to these works in modern research do not go beyond the assumption that they may represent visionary autobiographies, dreams, and mystical, extraordinary experiences and states. In the framework of this paper, we consider it essential to regard both texts as serious indicators of different realities, contexts, and mystic discourses.     

Mrs. Miniver's Girls: Plucky Girls in Hidden Figures,The Zookeeper's Wife,Their Finest,and Colossal

Four recent movies, Hidden Figures, The Zookeeper's Wife, Their Finest, and Colossal exemplify a new cultural version of the movie heroine. This version combines feminism with commitment to solving an overwhelming problem. These heroines, thus, display the character virtues of Wonder Woman and Mrs. Miniver. This new version reflects changing concerns about the cultural understanding of women and a new direction for women moviemakers.     

Runaway Train: Ex Machina and the Rebel Girls

Courtship is a fertile setting for culturally defined strategies. A common form of competition is criticizing the other group for being inadequate mates. Stories about romance between human beings and non-human participants allow such criticism. Movies about men finding mechanical partners are common. Non-human females are seen as more satisfactory than women, especially when women are transforming their roles to be less subservient.     

Authoring Future Identities: Latina Girls Reading and Writing the University

In this article, we describe the campus visit we organized for Latina girls (grades 6–12) that participated in Somos Escritoras/We Are Writers. Somos Escritoras is a creative space that invites Latina girls to explore their lives and examine their worlds through art, writing, and theater. We focus on the writing marathon we designed for our visit and share the ways this activity invited girls to read and write the campus, while re-imagining their stories and authoring their futures. Drawing on figured words, we discuss how a campus visit can support Latina girls in constructing identities as future college students and graduates.     

Museum Should Also Be Smart

The development of the internet of things, cloud computing, big data and other mobile telecommunications technology led to the emergence of the concept of smart museum, the core of which lies in a two-way and multi-party information transfer mode.     

取名与时代

名字唤用一世,从摇篮到坟墓,大家自然十分重视。一般来说,儿女之名,大多承载着父母的希冀。古代,那些诗礼传家的书香门第,给儿孙取名缀字很有一番讲究,“名之与字,义相比附”。像戴笠,字雨农,撇开其人不说,仅就名字而言,实在不坏,若非读书人家,哪里取得出来?再如竹林七贤之一的     

Chinese Arts to Be Showcased in Belgium

Europalia.China, a four-month arts festival to be opened in Belgium in October, 2008, will feature more than one hundred projects involving such diverse forms of arts as performing arts, literature, exhibition and film. Some one thousand Chinese artists from Mainland China as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan will bring fascinating art galas to Belgian audiences with their unique and outstanding performances of Chinese styles.     

The Symbolic Boundary of Sports: Middle School Athletic Culture and Mexican Immigrant Girls

In this article the author presents an analysis of the hidden curriculum of school sports in mediating the achievement of Mexican immigrant girls in middle schools in the southwestern United States. Using Bourdieu's theory of taste, the author shows how symbolic boundaries expressed by students and teachers legitimize cultural practices that privilege youth who value sports while marginalizing those who do not.