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This comprehensive study provides an essential examination of customary international law, addressing one of the most fundamental yet frequently misunderstood sources of international legal norms. The work bridges critical gaps in contemporary understanding through rigorous doctrinal analysis, extensive jurisprudential discussion, and illuminating case illustrations that demonstrate how custom operates within the global legal framework. As an authoritative reference tool, this volume serves legal scholars, practitioners, and students seeking to understand the complex mechanisms through which customary international law develops and functions, providing clear frameworks for identifying and interpreting customary norms across diverse legal contexts through its systematic approach to analyzing state practice and opinio juris. Beyond its reference value, the book offers practical methodological guidance for researchers investigating customary law formation. By examining evidentiary challenges and providing analytical frameworks, it equips scholars with robust tools for conducting empirical research on state practice and assessing the legitimacy of emerging international norms. The work’s structured approach to jurisprudential analysis serves as a valuable template for systematic legal research, while international law professionals will find the study particularly valuable for its practical applications in legal practice and policy development. The comprehensive exploration of norm formation processes, combined with detailed case studies, provides practitioners with insights essential for advocacy, treaty negotiation, and dispute resolution. Researchers benefit from the work’s contribution to theoretical understanding while gaining access to methodologies that enhance the consistency and reliability of customary law interpretation. This study ultimately advances the field by clarifying persistent ambiguities in customary international law, offering a more coherent understanding of its evolving role in contemporary global governance and legal order.

The purpose of this book is to demonstrate that Cathar doctrine is the main source of Dante's poem and to encourage readers to approach this work with fresh eyes, beyond the interpretative frameworks that are often worn. With detailed references to Dante's text, persuasive arguments, lucid and concrete exposition, and a direct and easy-to-follow style, Maria Soresina progressively presents the links between the ‘Divine Comedy’ and Catharism, which she has been investigating since the end of the last century. The text analyzes Cathar characters with respect to the doctrine. The Cathars were Christians, but their beliefs were very different from those of the Catholic Church. The author analyzes their philosophy, followed by verses of Dante that demonstrate agreement with it and distance from the Catholic Church. In addition to the great doctrinal questions, there are many Cathar beliefs and customs, all of which, such as their being vegetarians, find precise confirmation in the verses of the ‘Divine Comedy’. The Cathars had only one sacrament, the ‘consolamentum’. A long chapter is dedicated to demonstrating that Dante's journey through Purgatory corresponds to the various phases of this sacrament, within which the figure of Beatrice has a particular meaning, a woman whom Dante probably never met and never loved. This text offers non-Italian-speaking readers the chance to engage with these interpretive theories, destabilizing the canonical criticism and forcing a re-examination of sources and historical context.

In an era where digital transformation is reshaping education, this book is a vital guide for educators, researchers, and policymakers navigating technology integration into learning. It explores educational technology’s theoretical foundations and practical applications, emphasizing innovative strategies to enhance teaching and learning. From artificial intelligence and machine learning to blended learning models and virtual reality, the book provides actionable insights into leveraging cutting-edge tools effectively while addressing critical issues like the digital divide, ethical technology use, and equitable access. Positioned at the intersection of pedagogy and technology, the work draws on global case studies and frameworks such as TPACK to present adaptable solutions for diverse educational contexts. It is unique in its focus on foundational and emerging trends, and it supports educators in building digital competencies and fostering student-centered learning environments. Designed for classroom adoption, professional development, and research, this book is an indispensable resource for teacher educators, in-service teachers, policymakers, and educational researchers committed to transforming education for the digital age. Its blend of actionable strategies, ethical considerations, and future-focused discussions equips readers to embrace technology as a tool for innovation and inclusivity in teaching and learning.

'The Gendered Self: LGBTQ+ Narratives in Global Media, Volume II' challenges the restrictive frameworks that have long defined gender and sexuality. Moving beyond simplistic dichotomies, this volume explores how LGBTQ+ identities are shaped, represented, and contested across diverse cultural, historical, and political contexts. Through case studies from Turkey, the United States, China, and India, contributors reveal the lived complexities of queer experience. Chapters trace transgender journeys of identity transformation, dissect the weaponization of queer bodies in moral panics, and analyze the digital self-representations of Chinese gay men. Others investigate how Indian OTT platforms and Malayalam cinema expand space for queer narratives, while historical accounts of activists like Paula Grossman illustrate the fraught relationship between representation, activism, and backlash. Across these explorations, the volume highlights how media, politics, and cultural traditions simultaneously affirm and erase queer lives. It uncovers the deep roots of erasure in mythology and religion, while also showing how digital platforms and popular culture create new opportunities for resistance and recognition. This collection insists that the “gendered self” must be understood as fluid, intersectional, and culturally situated, pushing readers to reimagine identity beyond binaries and toward broader visions of inclusion and justice.

For years, the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has called for colleges and universities to implement high-impact practices (HIPs), or educational procedures that provide significant academic advantages to students. 'High Impact & Experiential Learning as Enhancing Quality on Campus' provides examples of such strategies from thirteen colleges and universities as they have been applied in the classroom and in service of each featured college and university’s mission statement and quality enhancement plan. Each institution included in this collection has committed to some such project or initiative (in some cases, the commitment goes back multiple decades), and each reflects the diversity of contemporary higher education in the United States. Public and private, small and large, selective and open access, religiously affiliated and non-sectarian, are all included here. The institutions provide a variety of creative examples of implementing experiential learning and the myriad HIPs as identified by the AAC&U, including: Capstone Courses and Projects, ePortfolios, First-Year Seminars and Experiences, Service Learning/Community-Based Learning and Undergraduate Research. Each chapter is framed around the project’s scope and significance, a clear expression of the purpose of the project, evidence of the institution’s commitment and capacity for the effort and how the project is aligned with stated goals and institutional priorities. Drawing from fields as broad as sociology, psychology, the humanities, and environmental sciences and studies, 'High Impact & Experiential Learning as Enhancing Quality on Campus' appeals to multiple classrooms and institutional goals. Given the expanded interest in experiential learning/HIPs in higher education over the past two decades, this first-of-its-kind collection offers a roadmap for faculty and administrators to implement the practices outlined in each chapter in service of students’ learning and their larger institutional goals.

‘¿Invisibles? Trans-identidades en la España contemporánea’ analiza la experiencia, corporeidad, identidad y representación de las personas trans en las producciones culturales españolas. Este volumen examina los fenómenos culturales que giran en torno a las trans-identidades, analizando la visibilidad del colectivo en los últimos 50 años y respondiendo a estas preguntas: ¿Cómo se representa a la comunidad trans en España? ¿Qué modelos de referencia hay en las producciones culturales? ¿Cómo combatir la transfobia existente? El libro denuncia la ausencia de un espacio realmente inclusivo en el panorama cultural y plantea la necesidad de aumentar la agencia y derechos de las identidades trans en el discurso público. Sus trece capítulos ofrecen una variedad de referentes sobre la diversidad genérico-sexual para visibilizar a unas personas vulnerables cuyas experiencias se han visto reducidas en numerosas ocasiones a rechazo y discriminación.

Este libro nos presenta un panorama muy amplio de la percepción del rock en América Latina desde la cultura dominante, y la forma en que esa percepción adulta, blanca, heteronormativa y prejuiciada desarrolló estrategias de persecución y censura contra el nuevo género. El paso del rock and roll de los años cincuenta al rock de los sesenta coincide con el tránsito de la adolescencia a la juventud de sus seguidores, por lo que ya no se trataba de diversiones adolescentes, sino de demandas de poder de un nuevo sector social. De esa manera, la censura, aunque errática, trató de contrarrestar la amenaza que el rock representaba para el statu quo dominante, en dictadura o democracia, con gobiernos de derecha o de izquierda. La apariencia física de los rockeros se transformó en asunto de Estado, como nos ilustran los autores del libro, donde la represión pasó del control de la música al control de los cuerpos. Frente a la escasa bibliografía existente sobre el rock y la censura en América Latina, este libro constituye un estímulo para ampliar el concepto de música y censura, como para profundizar en la historia del rock en la región.

Despite using the metaphors of kin-states and blood-brothers for the India-Pakistan conflict, there is limited work exploring this phenomenon. India-Pakistan relations have mostly been theorized by situating them along with a bipolar ethnic and religious framework. This book presents a fresh conflict model to theorize their rivalry by positioning them as warring family branches with common ancient and cultural history. Therefore, this book not only competes with the existing literature but also claims to break new theoretical ground in the subject. This book will be of interest to researchers looking to theorize intergroup conflicts, academicians, students, social activists, politicians, practitioners, track-2 diplomats and above all, the policy makers in both countries. This book has theorized the tensions and dynamics of the India-Pakistan conflict as a process akin to a typical large South Asian family dispute after dividing its tangible assets. Categorizing and depicting India and Pakistan as two segments of such a large family, quarreling over gaining more prestige against the other after dividing ancestral land, this study does not remain unaware of other, larger pushes and pulls experienced in this intractable conflict, interfering in significant ways in the relationship between the partitioning members of the extended family. Arguing for the centrality of the concept of family relations in this context made increasing sense also as an explanation for the intensity of local emotions visible in this complex conflict. The core argument here is that the intractability, intensity, and intimacy associated with various dimensions of the India-Pakistan conflict can be better explained by analyzing it as a dispute between two warring branches of a huge joint family with an enormously rich and diverse ancient history.