Global Insight: A Journal of Critical Human Science and Culture

Contributors

Global Insight Editorial Team — 2024-02-15

Contributors

Global Studies Minor and Certificate Program Information

Global Insight Editorial Team — 2024-02-15

Global Studies Minor and Certificate Program Information

Front Matter

Global Insight Editorial Team — 2024-02-15

Front Matter

From the Editor

Sean Woodard — 2024-02-15

From the Editor

Foreword

Katherine M. Hamilton — 2024-02-15

Foreword

The Misrepresentation of American Sign Language and Deaf Culture in Mainstream Film Media: A Call for Inclusive Representation

Katherine M. Hamilton — 2024-02-15

Mass film media has the power to shape popular culture and influence public opinions and perceptions; thus, properly portraying Deaf characters, the correct linguistic model of American Sign Language (ASL), and Deaf Culture in this powerful medium is crucial. This research examines the misrepresentation of Deaf Culture and ASL in film and its impact on realworld interactions between Deaf and hearing c/Communties. By analyzing historical film trends, bringing modern trends to light, and creating educational tools, this study aims to create measurable change in media practice. The study uses online questionnaires and interviews with ASL-fluent participants from the Deaf Community who have film media experience to highlight the Deaf American’s perspective and understand what values are priority. Accurate Deaf life portrayal in storylines, abandoning archetypal Deaf characters, and intentional character composition emerge as key factors; findings demonstrate high value placed on accurate representation and vehement support for projects aligned with these values. The results of this study are intended to impact Deaf and hearing c/Communities by educating production companies on the realities of working with Deaf actors and crew, strategizing methods to do so, and educating consumers.

Note: The capitalization of “Deaf,” “Community,” and “Culture” is important to indicate the pride the Deaf Community has in their Culture. “Deaf ” and “deaf ” are two separate terms which cannot be used interchangeably.

Keywords: Deaf Culture, American Sign Language, media literacy, mass film media, Deaf Studies, television and movies

Social Hierarchy and Purity of Blood in New Spain

Paula Currie — 2024-02-15

Racial inequality, white superiority, and socialized economic poverty are issues currently affecting the world. These problems plaguing our nation seem hopeless with no apparent end in sight. All these issues have been repeated time and again throughout history. When the Spanish colonized the New World, they brought with them an ideology known as limpieza de sangre or purity of blood. This rigid ideology was based on the premise of White Spanish superiority, which was imposed upon the people of New Spain. Limpieza de sangre influenced nobility, socio-economic racial hierarchy, life, and art in New Spain. To fully understand the effects of this ideology, one must understand its origins and its effects on the interracial population of the New World. This study analyzes the research of leading scholars in Spanish art, colonial Latin American history, Spanish history, and religion to create an in-depth analysis of New Spain. Throughout this study, religious beliefs not only played a crucial role in Spanish ideology but also seemed to fuel notions of racial inequality and servitude. Art was also used to spread racial propaganda to further the concept of White Spanish superiority in New Spain. Consequently, Spanish art and ideology created lasting effects still evident in Latin America today.

Keywords: white supremacy, racial hierarchy, systemic racism, pure blood, colonization

Russian Political Warfare: What It Is, What It's Not, and Why It Isn't Working

Lance Bokinskie — 2024-02-15

This article defines Russia’s multifaceted approach to political warfare and analyzes its effectiveness in achieving foreign policy objectives. The ongoing conflict in Ukraine is an exemplary case study to define the aspects of 21st-century Russian political warfare and analyze its efficacy as an approach to foreign policy. This case study will lend meaningful support to the claim that the utility of Russian political warfare is severely limited by the adhocratic foreign policy encouraged by the Kremlin—specifically, the lack of an overarching proscriptive foreign policy strategy and a functioning bureaucracy to enforce the pursuit of outlined objectives, definitive organizational purviews, and operational synchronization in the security and intelligence services. The Kremlin’s adhocracy generates so much internal friction as to render a holistic, whole of force approach to political warfare both unworkable in the short term and unlikely in the long term.

Keywords: Russian warfare, Putin, Ukraine, hacking, gas politics

Regulating the Animal Testing Industry

Preston Gerst — 2024-02-15

Animal testing has been a customary practice in numerous civilizations throughout human history. Humanity tends to want to understand the true nature of our physiology as a whole, and animals have been beneficial to help satisfy this curiosity. Yet ethically speaking, scientists argue for the protection of the rights of humans, while many fail to do so for our natural counterparts, animals. Current standards of the industry bring up concern for the ethical treatment of animals; additionally, many of the standards that exist are outdated and not systematized throughout the scientific world. Furthermore, new scientific developments can possibly allow for the phasing out entirely of animal testing, with new computer modeling software. It can render many of the existing tests obsolete as this new software allows scientists to bypass some of the animal testing in drug trials. Due to many of the shortcomings in the industry, this has caused an inefficiency. This inefficiency can be described as an overall loss of time and money, which could instead be put towards developing new drugs or other studies. Although it is unlikely that animal testing will be removed entirely, it is necessary that new standards be put in place for the ethical treatment of animals.

Keywords: animal testing, ethics, regulation, drug trials, computer modeling

Book Review

Da-Shiva Francois — 2024-02-15

Book Review of Teaching Performance Practices in Remote and Hybrid Spaces, edited by Jeanmarie Higgins and Elisha Clark Halpin. Routledge, 2022. 230 pages. $42.95. ISBN 978-1-0032-2905-6.

Comics and the American West: An Interview with Dr. Christopher Conway

Sean Woodard — 2024-02-15

Dr. Christopher Conway, Professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages, was interviewed by Global Insight Assistant Editor, Sean Woodard. Sean asked Dr. Conway about his research on Westerns and his recent donation of Mexican and Spanish comics to Special Collections at UT Arlington’s Libraries.